Spotify enters the hardware market with Car Thing, a smart music player designed to be installed on the dashboard.
The company released Car Thing to a limited number of subscribers in October, and on Tuesday announced that anyone can buy the device for $90, but you’ll need a Spotify Premium subscription to use it. Spotify Premium is currently $10/month for individuals, with plans going up to $16/month for six accounts. Car Thing also requires a connection to your phone for mobile data or Wi-Fi.
The device is designed to listen to Spotify in the car without having to look at your phone or deal with clunky built-in car interfaces that can be dangerous to use on the road. The 12V power adapter plugs into the Car Thing and the car’s auxiliary socket, and then the device connects to the phone via Bluetooth. Finally, you connect the device to your car stereo via AUX, Bluetooth, or USB. The player also supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Voice control is the device’s most prominent feature; you can control Car Thing by saying “Hey Spotify”followed by a command like “shuffle my favorite songs”. The system does not yet support some actions, such as adding songs or podcasts to the queue, but Spotify is working on adding more commands.
However, Car Thing can provide hands-free media control in vehicles that do not have this feature. Of course, smartphones can also include voice control, but people who don’t want their phone to listen all the time may consider using this feature through a dedicated device in their car.
Car Thing has near and mid-field microphones with adaptive noise cancellation to help block out the sounds of moving and honking vehicles. The device has a 4-inch touchscreen, a push-down rotary knob for scrolling, and a small “back”button to the south of it.
The four physical buttons on the top of the device are reminiscent of traditional radio controls, with presets for selecting a playlist, podcast, news program, artist, or album. The fifth button calls up the settings menu or turns off the sound. The device has a one-piece design with “matte rubber details”to “make it easier to navigate,”says Spotify.
Spotify says it’s planning updates for the device based on feedback from its initial limited release. These include night mode, which dims the screen during evening commutes.
Spotify’s Car Thing represents the music streaming service’s first foray into hardware. The company is currently grappling with the challenges of incorporating podcast distribution into its business model, so we’ll see if Car Thing proves to be less controversial.