Cyberpunk inspired physical music?

So, I've been back on my music kick, debating on if I should get a dedicated mp3 player or just use my phone. My intent is to shift away from mainlining streaming services and only using them when I want the algorithm to show me new music it thinks I'll like (then hunt the artists I like down on bandcamp and support the music I like).

Well, I've been hesitant to actually buy a dedicated mp3 player until I can really justify it. Many either have an interface that's not well suited to showcasing album artwork, with annoyingly small controls, low storage space, or they're basically just phones running outdated versions of Android.

So I started thinking about what I really want out of my music. I mostly listen to music in my car or on my desktop. I don't need an mp3 player when I'm at my computer, I have MusicBee for that and plenty of drive storage for all of my music.

My car though...

No android auto (don't want it either)...

I could go back to ripping CDs, but that's a hassle, they scratch easy, and then I've gotta store them...

What would music look like if I was imagining a cyberpunk future 15 years ago...

So I've got this sizable (and often growing) collection of 8Gb USB 2.0 drives that my workplace hoards (long story, but we only have so many uses for them around the office and more often than not they tend to get thrown away). My car has a USB port that takes data. If I use MusicBrainz Picard (software for writing metadata to mp3 files) to embed the album artwork into the tracks and then sort the drives by mood, rather than artist or genre... This could work.

So now I've got all of these labeled USB sticks with names like "RAWK," "EDM," "GAME ON," "THE GAY," etc. and I had a USB storage book to put them all in so it feels a bit like the days of carrying around a book of CDs, but with far more space for music. The whole thing is still a work in progress, but it's fun to swap out music sticks like I once swapped out cassette tapes. It has a certain tactile satisfaction to it that I really appreciate.

Anyhow, that's all, just wanted to share that in case anyone else wants to copy the idea or make improvements on it. I would love to hear how others that don't rely on streaming music handle their car tunes.