Spotify car thing discontinued

[Bradey]

Plan

Premium family 

Country

US

Device

(iPhone xs

Operating System

Idk whatever iOS they on now

My Question or Issue

I have had Spotify since it came out; I upgraded to a premium plan with my family in 2018. The decision to stop supporting Car Thing breaks my heart. My truck doesn't have bluetooth or a display so when Spotify Car Thing came out I was ecstatic. I love Spotify I have always thought it was way better than apple music because they would try to make**bleep** like the car thing and they weren't some huge heartless corporation like apple. But this and the fact that our premium plan gets raised a dollar all the time has made me rethink my position. 

My whole family uses I phones and have been discussing switching to apple music for YEARS. I WAS ALWAYS THE ONE TO KEEP THEM WITH SPOTIFY. Now I am over it if you don't make this right and my car thing stops working in December we will be switching to apple music.

[Bradey]

Hi everyone,

Spotify made the difficult decision to discontinue Car Thing. We wanted to share this news months in advance to ensure that our users had plenty of time to prepare for this change, which is effective December 9. This was not a step we have taken lightly, but we want to ensure that any users who have purchased Car Thing have the opportunity to be refunded for the amount they paid for the device. Users are able to contact our Customer Support teams in this link .

In an effort to streamline the discussion and ensure all relevant feedback is centralized, we have merged all threads related to this topic into this one comprehensive discussion. Any new threads created on this topic in the future will also be merged into this thread. 

• FAQs on the Discontinuation of Car Thing

We encourage you to continue to share your thoughts and participate in the conversation below.

[kurtpara]

85 dollars for 3 years of usage is kind of BS. I expected more out of this. Don't discontinue the car thing.

[anon1117]

The recent annoucement on the decision to make existing Car Thing users' devices completely inoperable in Decembe is unconscionable. I've been using my Car Thing ever since I was an early bird adopter and got the device for free maybe 3-4 years ago. It's been an absolutely incredible device and breathed new life into my older car that doesn't have Apple Car Play. I know that they discontinued production of the device quite a long time ago, but I was happy because the device still functioned normally. So why all of a sudden would they make the device not function altogether? It's EXTREMELY disappointing to have it just remotely rendered completely useless. I hope Spotify can shed light on why it's seemingly impossible to just let the devices keep functioning

[disappointedbadger]

I find it disheartening and insulting that the car thing is not going to be working as of December 2024. I paid good money for this product to be told to pay someone else to dispose of this electronic waste. Complete and utter bs. Do better Spotify.

[NicBrum99]

I’ve had the Car Thing since 2021 when I first came out — I paid $50 for it. Now three years later, they’re discontinuing it?? 

I have used this thing RELIGIOUSLY every day since I’ve got it — it helps when my car has Bluetooth but is old enough that it doesn’t have a great user interface and so the CarThing made it more streamlined. Especially as an Apple user, when Siri would always glitch and not change my music correctly — and now I’ll have no presets for playlists.

Even driving Uber, my passengers would be able to seamlessly request music and it would make their ride more enjoyable — many also asked what the device was because they’d never seen it.  

Needless to say I am extremely disappointed — I would go so far to say I would pay an extra fee to keep my CarThing active, the software can’t be that complicated . . .

What are your thoughts?

[cgrady1]

Received this email from Spotify today (May 23rd 2024) 

We’re switching gears. As of December 9th, 2024, Car Thing will be discontinued, and will stop operating.

Reading their FAQ, they're just going to completely brick the devices automatically on that December date. Please reconsider this decision, and perhaps offer a reduced functionality instead of completely disabling the devices we spent money on just a few short years ago. 

[PunishedSnake]

There is literally no reason to BRICK this device. Some software engineer is probably too lazy to keep the code in, allowing to pair to your phone. It's literally just a screen share device with a fancy UI

[plean2]

I agree. Car Thing shouldn’t be bricked. It should become open source software or at least unlocked so 3rd party developers can create new software. We saw how inventive the hacking community got with these and there is still value to be had with them. Telling the community the only option is to throw them away is a waste of technological resources. 

[Strawberryshortcake1]

I agree, and for those of use who don't have a touchscreen or virtual screen in our cars, this renders using Spotify on the go much more unsafe. It's completely ridiculous 

[eriktherod]

I agree, I have two of them and they are absolutely perfect for late-model vehicles. There is no percievable reason why it is necessary to make it "no longer work". Sure, you can make it discontinued and tell people that it will not receive further updates but I do not see why it should "stop" working entirely.

At a minimum release the firmware as open source so people can continue using it. In fact, I have half a mind to start dumping it and reverse engineering them because they are so useful it would be a shame for them to become e-waste.

[HAW02]

I think the same thing. They should be crediting peoples accounts who purchased this item.

[plean2]

Why not make the software open source or at least unlock the device for developers to create their own software? Why brick it?

[izzynobev]

I also have a car thing and am extremely frustrated with them discontinuing it. I also paid about $50 for it and really liked it. I hope they are doing refunds because this is really frustrating to only have it accessible for like 2 years.

[pinkybabey]

Why in the world would you stop operating a product that you put out? And then not offer a trade in, compensation, or SOMETHING? I have two car things that will now essentially be useless, just a block of plastic. This was a move filled by greed, they just want to sell us something new and get the most money they can out of it. I’ve also been saying spotify premium for years, most people who use spotify also have been using premium for years. We are probably the most loyal customers and now you are trying to scam us out of our money in THIS economy? 

[Sadpigeon]

I'm also super disappointed in this change! Why can't it still run off of the outdated software that it has right now in the future? 

This was a total fail of a product and I don't think they did a good job trying to fix their mistake.

[PunishedSnake]

Looks like switching to Apple Music is the way to go.

[HAW02]

Turning this thing off and telling us to just trash it after we bought it is pretty pathetic

[DutchCowboy]

Super disappointed in Spotify (or any manufacturer) to just go ahead and disable a device remotely that they sold to customers less than 2 years ago without making their customers whole again or offering and e-waste trade in program. Not very sustainable, shame on you Spotify.

[Lillyjermain]

I would like to say that I have had the car thing since it was first released and have loved it. I am very disappointed that they are discontinuing it. I would really appreciate that not happening. 

[bjohnsonmn]

May this hit their ESG scores by creating a ton of worthless e-waste.