u/gutsid

I've looked around but can't find anything specific enough..
I've done some research ...

I want a simple home setup so family members can:

1. stream our own music collection on phones/laptops over WiFi
2. ideally using old laptop hard drives - initially to keep the price down.
3. download music to phones for out of house listening, maybe in a playlist way like Spotify or just choosing files. I'm not sure how the interface works
4. avoid any monthly subscriptions
5. avoid leaving a laptop running all day
6. keep setup simple and low maintenance
7. minimise fire risk / safety concerns (I often see NAS devices mentioned as living in cupboards)

Library size is about 300 albums will grow once set-up.

Current thinking:

• NAS rather than running a laptop 24/7
• considering a 2-bay or 4-bay NAS (probs Synology not sure which one)
• possibly using 2 bays for mirrored music drives (redundancy)
• option to use additional bays later for general file storage
• Jellyfin as the media server and device apps.
• used only inside the home network

Questions:

1. Is this a sensible approach for this use case?
2. Any hardware recommendations or things to avoid?
3. Any safety considerations (heat, ventilation, running 24/7)?

Not looking for anything fancy — just reliable multi-device playback of owned files.