My solution may be neither original, smart, nor economical. It did, however, work for me.

I was always a little frustrated playing music from my iPhone in my 2014 2LT C7. I tried two different ways, both with issues.

First, I tried keeping my iPhone in my shirt pocket and playing music thru bluetooth, which worked, except the infotainment screen showed neither album art, nor playlists, nor songlists. Worse, if I used the arrows to skip forward or backward, the sound would mute.

Second, I tried putting the iPhone behind the infotainment screen and connecting via USB. This solved all the problems above, but created a new problem, which was the minor hassle of always having to connect and disconnect my iPhone each time I got in and out of the car. Worse, since the iPhone was out of sight, I kept forgetting to disconnect and take it with me when I left the car, so I often found myself without a phone when I needed one.

Solution: I bought an iPod Nano to keep behind the infotainment screen, connected via USB. Yes, it set me back $160 with tax, but it solved every problem. My iPhone stays in my pocket, the iPod stays in the car, the infotainment screen has full functionality, and Apple gets richer. I'm sure there are cheaper and better solutions, but this worked for me.

 

Smells like a plan.

With the new lightning connector, does the Nano charge while the C7 is running? I ask because I added an iPod interface kit in my 2007 Jeep when I had it. The kit allowed me to interface with the information screen BUT, the iPod would not charge.

Hoping technology has advanced a little since then.

 

I keep my Ipad Nano behind the screen and plugged in via the USB. It charges the device constantly, shows album artwork, song titles artists etc. It will stay on the same song if you switch to another media or channel. So when you want to listen to the music again on the Nano, it picks up where your left it.

 

Excuse me if this has been told before but I feel it might be helpful here. My old Ipod Classic bit the dust for good and I was thinking about buying a Nano but my ancient brain kicked in. I have an unused 8 Gig SD card lying around. I put all my music on that card and used Windows Media Player to create my playlists and saved them to the card also. The card goes in the armrest console and now I've got all the benefits of the Ipod and no recharging without buying anything. If I had to buy the card it would have been about $20.

 

Thank you. Question, when you say you get all the benefits as the iPod, do you mean the album data, etc registers on the screen?

 

I know you get the song title and album name but I'll have to check today & report back to you this evening with exactly what is displayed. Honestly once I select my playlist, I never look at it.

 

I just bought a 16GB "Mini" thumb drive, transferred all my tunes to it and keep it in the center console. I have all the information including the album cover photo.

 

Ditto for the SD card. I have a 32gb one plugged in all the time. It take up zero space which we all know is very limited in any Corvette.

 

^This.^

 

I have a classic/120 I drop in one of the cupholders and connect with the appropriate cable. It charges, I get the artwork, etc.
Drawback is it takes a loong time for the infortainment cpu to read and index the tracklists ( >8000 tracks ).

 

Does it preserve playlists?

 

I currently have a 60gb iPhone 5S and plan to upgrade to the new iPhone 6. When I do, I plan to keep my 5S and use it as an iPod and just keep it plugged in the car. I have over 6000 songs in my iTunes library so for me, I think this will be my best solution.

 

Awesome. Thanks for the replies.

 

Has anyone attempted hooking up a hard drive filled with some music to the USB? I know that works with some aftermarket receivers. Just curious as I don't have a C7 yet.

 

SanDisk 16 or 32GB drive holds thousands of songs. I have one in my "cubby" behind the Nav screen.

I love "Spotify" and use my Tablet to connect to the C7 wi-fi and bluetooth my Spotify playlist to the radio.

Thinking of trying my IPod Touch 32BG connected via wif-fi rather than my Samsung tablet, I have all my music plus access to Spotify and Amazon Prime, Pandora in one package. I understand if using Apple you have to be hardwired.

May try a cheapo cell phone (non Apple) utilizing the same connectivity and keep it permanently in the "cubby" for full access to music and even Tunein radio..

 

There is one advantage to the SD card or thumb drive (rather small though) and that there is no hard drive access time. I opted for the SD card because my wife would probably go fishing around in the compartment and snap the thumb drive in two.

 

Yeah, I find the indexing time to be a little frustrating as well.

Why is it in your cupholder and not behind the screen or in the armrest?

 

Same here.

 

Yes, I can browse by album, songs, playlist, or artist. Works great!!!

 

I bought my new NANO before my 2015 C7 even arrived. And yes I also keep it in the power door cubby hole all the time. Great music solution.