But $US90 (around $125)? There are a variety of dongles that do basically what the Car Thing does, in that they interface with your car’s speakers through Bluetooth or aux, for less than half the price of the Car Thing. Maybe I could stomach the glorified Spotify remote, as The Verge accurately put it, if it cost $US20 (around $28). Point is, if you can avoid it, it’s always a bad idea to buy electronics - or any product, really - where the entire functionality is contingent upon you paying a subscription fee forever.
#Spotify car thing theverge trial#
I don’t know if I’ll stay with it after the trial is up. All these services are functionally the same and equally shitty to artists at the end of the day. I ditched Spotify myself recently, not because of Rogan but rather because Apple randomly offered me six free months of Apple Music. Regardless of where you fall on the Joe Rogan thing, lots of people who had one time been happy paying Spotify customers would’ve essentially burned $US90 (around $125) by buying a Car Thing, then leaving the platform. Metaphorically, anyway - this brick is too slender, light and plasticky to use to build a home or bludgeon someone, so it’s technically even less useful than an ordinary brick would be. But if you envision even the slightest outside chance that there might come a day where you stop paying for Spotify, the Car Thing becomes a brick. If you had an iPhone for a decade, you’re probably not going to switch to Android, and the same may be true of the place you go to get your music. Sure, most people are likely married to their platforms and ecosystems of choice by now.
![spotify car thing theverge spotify car thing theverge](https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/b.png)
The trouble is that Car Thing is a Spotify product and, as such, only works with Spotify. I’ve never used one, but it’s a slick-looking piece of hardware.
#Spotify car thing theverge android#
Crucially, it’s from that annoying period between, say, 20, when vehicles came with aux jacks or Bluetooth audio capabilities, but intuitive touchscreen interfaces weren’t a thing yet, let alone CarPlay and Android Auto. The idea behind the Car Thing is reasonable and one I figure many of us on this pokey car site can relate to: You want to listen to music from your streaming service of choice inside your car, but your car happens to be old. However, with this wide-scale release, the Car Thing will cost money: $US90 (around $125). “Free” happened to be the right price for the Car Thing, because it requires an active Premium subscription to work. Initially, Spotify Premium subscribers could get them for free.
![spotify car thing theverge spotify car thing theverge](https://www.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/spotify-car-thing-1.jpeg)
Spotify’s Car Thing - a music-playing gizmo that mounts to a climate vent or CD slot and connects to older cars via Bluetooth or an aux jack - is now available to the pubic after a lengthy limited-release, invite-only phase.