You connect Car Thing to your phone over Bluetooth, and for a truly wireless experience, you can connect Car Thing via Bluetooth to your car’s audio system. Unfortunately, you can’t completely ditch your phone - Car Thing requires its internet connection for streaming - so it’s not a true stand-alone device. Using a combination of a four-inch touchscreen, a large jog wheel, preset favorite buttons, and voice commands, Car Thing gives you a lot of ways to get to the content you want to listen to without having to rely on your phone. Car Thing doesn’t offer any functions that you can’t get through your phone or your in-car infotainment system (if it has Apple CarPlay or Android Auto), but if you’re one of the many folks who don’t want to use (or can’t use) one of those options, Car Thing is a $90 convenience. and have a Spotify Premium account and $90 burning a hole in your pocket, you can grab one of these devices for yourself.Īs a quick refresher, Car Thing is a device that’s meant to make it a lot easier to navigate and play audio from Spotify in your car. If you took note of Spotify’s very limited release of its Car Thing music player and thought that it might make a good addition to your vehicle, we have good news: It’s no longer an invite-only exclusive. Paired with an iOS or Android device for data and connection to the Spotify app, the Car Thing was aimed at Spotify Premium subscribers with these needs and offered a touchscreen, a knob for navigation, voice control features, and four user-configurable buttons for fast access to areas such as favorite music, podcasts, or playlists. It was designed to be an in-car dash-mounted music and podcast player to provide a more seamless and personalized listening experience, especially in the large number of cars that do not support modern in-car infotainment systems or Apple CarPlay. This initiative has unlocked helpful learnings, and we remain focused on the car as an important place for audio.Īnnounced in April last year, the short-lived device first went on sale in the United States in February for $89.99.
Existing devices will perform as intended. The change was announced as part of Spotify's latest earnings release for shareholders, which said that developing the Car Thing cost €31 million (approximately $32 million USD) and that its overall gross margin was "negatively impacted by our decision to stop manufacturing Car Thing." Spotify told TechCrunch:īased on several factors, including product demand and supply chain issues, we have decided to stop further production of Car Thing units. Spotify has unceremoniously stopped making the dash-mounted "Car Thing," its first hardware device, the company announced this week.
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