Spotify's Failed Hardware | Spotify Car Thing - Lost In Obscurity
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2023
- Drive into something good. Today, I check out the Spotify Car Thing. My favorite way to distract myself from driving while taking ten minutes to pick a song while I drive to work for six minutes.
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Today, May 23rd, 2024, Spotify announced that support for the Spotify Car Thing will end December 9th, 2024. If you have a Car Thing, it's value is gonna DROP at the end of this year, along with becoming a paperweight. Rest in piss ✌Long Live Car Thing
welp
This video probably reminded the Spotify team that this product still existed
Well that's annoying I use the fuck out of it
Spotify should be sued
Get this, you paid $90 + a subscription for however long and it just gets axed. So ends my subscription today. Rossmann says to charge back. Do as you all please.
i remember i wanted one of these but it was 80 dollars at the time but by the time the price dropped i didn't want one anymore
Same! $80 is absolutely ridiculous considering you could just buy a $10 phone stand and open the app in car mode... even with coupons, not worth it.
same! I always wanted it bc it looked elegant and i also rly like the idea of a dial for volume and for ui control generally, but $80 was crazy! bummed I missed it when it was 30 :(
@@RM-um9xx fr💀
Genuinely same. Rip. L Spotify Rip money
Deadass didn't even know about the price drop, I saw "free for premium users" then "80 dollars" then I thought, aight fuck you, and never looked again
Like the legend Dankpods would say, "Can you believe no one bought this thing?"
tbh i thought this was a refrance to dankpods lol
I bought one!
@@ChuyArambulaThePenguinGamer same I love the final release model it's great for my old ass cars
“What were they thinking?”
“Arming the nugget”
The best thing about the Car Thing is that I've been using it on my desk setup at home. Being able to switch through songs while working without having to pull out my phone or use the computer app is really nice.
You might actually be a genius wtf that's so smart
Same here! As a med student with ADHD, it's really helpful during long study sessions to be able to switch music without having to pull out my phone and inevitably get distracted.
@@MeroFuruyaSankareaDid you watch the video? It was literally brought up. It's not some groundbreaking idea.
I don't know why you would pay for a separate device when you could just use your computer which does a better job anyway. It seems kind of dumb. It's like buying a separate device to use AI instead of using your phone that does a better job.
EDIT: I just saw on Reddit today that they discontinued the Car Thing. It's bricked. I always thought it was a dumb idea to buy a special device just to do something that your phone or computer could already do a better job of but I didn't expect it to go this way w/ Car Thing. Spotify has always been doing stupid things, I could list many problems: refusing to add 2FA, their software being the most buggy pieces of crap even when FOSS like VLC does the same thing better, making unnecessary changes instead of fixing issues like any other company but I never expected them to go this low.
To reiterate: People bought a device that promised them to make playing music in their car easier (even though you can buy a phone stand and an adapter to do the same job) and then not even 3 years later or so, it doesn't work, it just doesn't. It's the same thing as buying a car and then all of the sudden the company disables it permanently.
@@alfosisepic bro you literally described rabbit r1
lovely song choices on your spotify car thing
and questionable ones
oh god, that first model has that screen design because back then, circular smartwatch displays were not curcular, they had to cover up the ribbon cable at the bottom of the screen, so they had to make the screen not currcular, just sunset-ish. nowadays you wont find mishapen bezels on smartwatches anymore
Moto 360 vibes
@@ayyndrew yes exactly
my friend uses thar
i still want it
@@maximiIiaan yeah seems cool
@@maximiIiaanwhy in the flying fuck would you want one of these?
Why was this pinned an hour ago?? 😭
@@QuantumPurple Yeah, I think RUclips has finally decided to recommend this video. Crazy because I was looking for a video exactly like this around 7 months ago and didn't find it.
I think it's really funny that I watched this video last week and now just today I got an email from Spotify saying they're completely discontinuing it. LOL
Yeah, it’s bullshit. I use mine daily. Fuck Spotify.
I still use my car thing every single day and have for years now.
Sometimes I get graphical glitches and I just have to turn it off and back on again.
Sometimes it acts like I'm using it for the first time and tells me how to use the device (this sucks but it's rare).
But it's held up being parked outside in the Florida heat for years now and I have no plans to stop using it ever. The failure of this product is truly a loss for people who drive cars that were made in the time that Bluetooth was common but Infotainment screens were not.
Being able to have maps open on my phone while I handle my music with the car thing is actually a game changer for road trips. Pair that with the new Jams feature now and you can actually have everyone in the car contribute to the music for the drive.
10/10 goated with the sauce.
same here! i don't know why but even if i know what song im listening to i like to be able to see it on the car thing. it's also really useful for listening to new artists/songs while i'm driving bc if i want to save the song i can just tell it to save it instead of having to get on my phone and add it to my liked songs playlist. also, not really anything important but i like that it still has a heart instead of the plus sign :)
@@sparklingmariokart Them taking the heart from us was sacrilege
My exact experiences, but Texas heat. Great product. Not perfect, voice commands are kinda ass sometimes but it does its job 90% of the time. 9/10
This aged well
you got some real bangers in those playlists
It’s funny how the thing needs a phone to even work. At that point, get a phone mount.
I can see it being useful at like a social gathering and having it out so people can queue up songs.
Spotify has a "jam" feature where people can collaborate on a music queue using their phones over WiFi or bluetooth
@@cwookdev definitely a great feature but not everyone has Spotify
@@cwookdevYeah i have used it and its quite cool (+) you don't need any kind of pairing for that both phone need spotify app Bluetooth and internet and then you can just host and join jam i think its cool. and thumbps up for spotify for not putting it behind a paywall
It helpful if you want your phone to use a different app without having to constantly switch to spotify...
I agree. My sister does listen to Spotify in her old 2007 car, but uses a windshield mount to hold up her phone. She doesn't even use the car's radio (it was a base trim Toyota Camry so it just had a basic radio with CD player), hence the lack of an FM transmitter or aftermarket infotainment system, but she seemed fine with that.
This bearman3600 post distracted me enough for the Denny’s cook I was holding at gunpoint to escape under the stove Thanks beer male
No problem 🙌 God bless Denny's and God bless america
The biggest thing that was missing when they advertised for "older cars" was lacking an FM transmitter. Sure, you had to connect your phone to the thing via Bluetooth. Not that it would matter much, but it would have made a difference if you wanted to install the thing and just go. That's my onion about it.
I kinda feel like the ac adapter that came with it should have doubled as an fm transmitter given the other things packaged with it that catered to older cars like the CD mount and the aux cord. It's a shame they didn't go one step further
@@Bearman3600it would’ve also somewhat justified the 80 dollar price tag
random thing but i think your car does have an aux port, there is an aux button next to the clock part of the display, the port for it is probably just buried in your center console or glove box
yes & no
ford / lincoln / mercury radios of that time had the button for auxiliary but unless you had a 2007 or later with sync audio, 99% chance there’s no port.
source: own a 2006 fusion with a aux button with no port 😔
@@jaxfarias973 it prob is under a cover if it lets u choose it and it actually switches to it
@@HenryB6568 i thought the same, but my aux button seems to do nothing.
@@jaxfarias973 wow fast reply, question tho, does it move down or is just a fake button
@@HenryB6568 Haha was at work and saw the notification on my lunch. The button bottoms out just like the mute button above it. Just doesn’t do anything when i press it. Music doesn’t cut, or station doesn’t change. Just does nothing.
I have one and the only thing I hate about it is that there's no clock because it covers the one in my car lol
lmfao same
I have two Car Things. I have it in my 2015 Honda Fit, because Honda decided in their infinite wisdom to NOT HAVE A VOLUME KNOB ON THE DAMN RADIO. Car Thing fills that need perfectly.
This made me laugh a lot by looking at the songs he used throughout the video.
I signed up for it, being a premium user for years and then they never sent me one, and sent me an offer to buy one half off. I was quite tickled 😂
It was never guaranteed. Just the chance they'd send one for free for early testers
Honestly i kinda want one now but ive used Spotify for a few years and have only seen this as an option in the settings. I was so surprised knowing they existed literally just over a year ago
awesome video, always wondered what the hell a "car thing" was in spotify settings
Like and Subscribe if you when you are and when
no
Well the coffin was just sealed on it, and all of the units will no longer work.
it absolutely did not flop for me, I use it in my car every single day
still use mine every single day in my car, it glitches every now and then and the voice feature works worse than when it came out, but being able to control my music while having directions on my phone is awesome, and it saves my passengers from having to ask me what a song is so they can add it to their playlists, i just get the joy of seeing them do it discreetly out of the corner of my eye
Great video! I was always curious about the car thing but I’ve never seen anyone talk about it and I don’t use Spotify so I only heard about it in passing
I have one for my older car with no Carplay. I love it, didn't really know people disliked it so much that it classify as "Failed"
i had no idea what Car Thing even was until they announced that they would discontinue support this year. it would’ve been so sick to have had one because these seem actually quite useful
i love the AVGN vibes you're giving
I got one of these for free from the initial launch. I sold it a year ago on ebay for $100. I could not tell you anything else about this thing and I used it daily for 2 years.
Your song choices kept me laughing and I really couldn't pay attention to the review LOL insane
I had never heard of the Car Thing before this vid
great content as always keep up the great work
I really enjoy your style. I just watched this video and liked it, and I hope you keep making stuff. Thanks
Thank you for your knowledge and insight into this device. I saw an ad on Spotify and was intrigued in getting it for my 2005 Ford Ranger but time passed by and found this device wasn't available for purchase. Currently looking for a similar device for my office, a stand alone player without the extra stuff. Looking forward to more great videos like this!
This device is the perfect example of great engineering and poor marketing. I think the hardware was very underrated for the price. This thing baked in the sun, froze in the cold, yet shows no signs of wear. I never got a heat warning, even when my car was 100 degrees. The display was still bright with sunglasses on in the daytime, but still got dark enough in the night time. Unfourtuneatly I had to stop using it due to lack of software updates. No "Smart Shuffle" support really sucks, id never know what mode I was really in, among other minor bugs.
If they could sell the carplay hardware for ~50 dollars with custom firmware, Id re-buy it just to play around. Like you mentioned aswell "Car Thing" was a bit too niche for everything it could have been used for.
Hey man just wanted to say good video! I’m always looking to learn about niche topics or just have a RUclips video in the background while I do some work. Your video taught me more about something I had completely forgotten about which I think is cool! Anyways have a good one I’m going to check out more of your videos now! :)
I have one of these and I think it was a good buy for me personally. I have a 1991 Volvo and it added a new way to enjoy my music personally. I like the hands free control and being able to see the album art with a big sell for me
i didn't even know the Car Thing existed before this video
I actually use one on the daily and it's actually super important and useful for me to use since a new law has banned touching your phone at all or having it in your lap while driving.
For anyone wanting to get this please don’t, Spotify is discontinuing support for it Dec 9th so it will be useless unfortunately
I love this guy, your so underrated af!
Thanks for making this video bearman, very few know about the car thing. I own a car thing (pink box, bought for 70-80$) and here's why:
I own a 2010 car, and I use aux for music. At the time of purchase, I had an iphone X, and I thought the car thing was a good way to have a constant display of music that's easier to use while driving, especially with voice controls. I had a phone charger in my car but not a dongle adaptor so I it was useful when I had a few percent, to save battery by changing music without using the phone, but many times I had to swap between music and charging.
And most of all, I was planning a cross country road trip and wanted to see music and maps at the same time. Eventually I got a magsafe charger to fix the battery problem, I got an iPhone 14 with always on display to see the music i'm playing, and now it's just slightly easier to control music compared to my phone. The device is very laggy, the screen update sucks, the voice recognition is awful (queue = chew) especially cause I use vent mount.
In between 80$ car thing, 20$ first phone mount, 35$ magsafe phone mount, 20$ phone charger cigarette lighter adapter totally 155$, it would have been worth it to spring for a 300$ car play head unit in retrospect. All of that aside, it's pretty neat. A conversation starter for those in the know. A failed product for sure.
I feel the exact same way. (Especially with the phone mount etc. - lol) I finally upgraded to one of those apple carplay screens that sit on your dashboard and not in your head unit.
u have such a way of saying things i love it
I got one of the free ones when they were offering them to Spotify premium users. I originally used it in my 2007 Nissan Altima but I’ve since upgraded and still use it everyday. My car doesn’t have CarPlay so it’s nice to be able to use voice commands and see the album artwork
This video gave me so many avgn vibes in the best way possible
One of the best reviews I’ve ever seen! Good shit!
My wife has an older car and the Spotify Car Thing has been a huge improvement for her. She loves it!
Honestly, great video! I think Spotify had a great opportunity at that time and STILL does as of today. There are a lot of car owners who don't have infotainment systems such as this one and there's already a market for these add on car screens, but most of them are unknown chinese brands. I think if Spotify made people able to use it for other things, such as Google Maps or dashcams, made the car thing connect to the car directly via Bluetooth or AUX and selling it to non premium users with a price between 30 - 100 dollars, it could have been a great success.
If it can run minecraft then it isn’t ewaste
good point
And also it needs to run doom and bad apple
and crysis*
pretty sure people have gotten doom running on it before! and also i got the chrome dino game working on it but that's maybe a bit less interesting
I have one I love it to pieces. Way less distracting than a phone mount
I’ve had one for over a year and I still use it. But I use it on my desk mostly as a cool looking decoration to visually show the song I’m listening to atm.
I have a second gen one and i love it, my car had no good media controls for bluetooth, so its super helpful, plus it means that i dont have to switch between waze and spotify on my phone while driving and use the tiny little buttons on the spotify mobile app or their horrid car mode. It still gets updates surprisingly, and i hope that it still runs by the time i get a newer car, and i may still use it then bc the UI is actually great
thank u for shedding light on one of my favorite little useless gizmos
Uh oh
I'm glad i saw all the songs you listen to especially Home among the gumtrees as an aussie
ngl i love the car thing ive been using it for 2 years its awesome
I have one of these and used it daily! I love it
the legendary car thing
I as aways fascinated with the Car Thing
They wouldn’t sell it to you in Canada
I love my car thing. For someone who doesn’t have a car with an entertainment system or car play it’s convenient for me.
I had one of these when it went on sale! It was nice to use when I still had a car from 2011, with no real screen.
I actually had the second gen a couple years ago in a 2008 F-150, and i thought it was awesome! Like he said, it was so useful in an older car like that with no Bluetooth audio
Got one of these for my car when I first got it almost 2 years ago (like $60-70 off Mercari) and for me I absolutely love it. I drive a Mini Cooper and while I can control volume, I can’t skip or go back to a song (it only works for CD’s which I can’t use cuz it’s where my phone mount is) I could just use my phone to skip/previous a song but if I have navigation up, it also easier for me to move my hand to the CarPlay than fiddle with the iPhone control center to skip a song. I feel like Im in a niche of ppl who actually use it in their car but I love it
It may have failed but i love it in my 2010 S4. its the exact little thing the car needs
I was one of the early adoptors of the car thing. I got it for 7 bucks with shipping. I still use it to this day as I drive a 2002 sentra. It works great as I have it mounted for music and then my phone is mounted next to it for maps. I probably wouldn't have bought it for 80$ but for what it is I do find it still useful in a car without carplay.
I have the second generation Car Thing and I use it on my desk setup. A really useful and cool addition
I love this little thing and use it almost daily, I might’ve been one of the 10 target customers with a dumb car who uses exclusively Spotify for it.
Lol I love ur honest review 😂😂😂. I'm a subscriber now
I bought one the day they came out and received it in Nov 2021. I still use it to this day. I think it's really nice for the voice control. If I want to play a song, I just have to say it. It's also great if I'm driving with friends and they want to scroll through my playlists and see what I listen to, or queue up their own songs. Every time I have new friends get in, their reaction is, "Oh shit, you have one of those?"
I really do think they advertised it poorly. It's a great product, especially for the later price point. I even convinced some friends to get one for themselves. But I love the thing and am sorry it flopped. I'm definitely going to look into hacking it, however. That's right up my ballpark.
im so glad you documented this thing, i have one and i love it! But in a time where carplay and android auto already exist, the marketing did an absolute bellyflop. Not that im complaining, it was the best $30 i spent for my car.
here after watching louis rossman's rant :P
The car thing is being discontinued permanently in December this year!
A handful of CDs in the centre console or glove box is STILL the greatest balance of convenience, safety, cost, reliability and sound quality when it comes to putting on some music in the car.
Incorrect. CD quality is much lower quality than anything that you can get on Spotify
@@harrisonk8561 lol? Spotify is literally lossy compression of CD-quality masters. Are you thick?
@@harrisonk8561 128 (256 for premium) kbit MP3’s are better than CD? You might need to get your ears checked.
As for your comment, you are very right. CD’s are an extremely good and cheap medium. You can buy originals or if you don’t want to get them scratched, you can always burn a few CD-R with flac files. It’s a shame SACD didn’t caught on. A USB loaded with flac’s will also deliver the same experience albeit with a higher cost of entry and requiring a newer car.
Absolutely amazing video. You’re not staying at 20k for long dude
Great video, didn't know they fuckin only gave it to premium members. Also the hacking looks cool as hell
I love mine. It does what it needs to do, and it does it well.
I love how honest this guy is.
I love that you got gradually more angry and aggressive as the video went on 😂
I really like my car thing. Super nice for long trips, especially if you're having to use navigation.
I have one in my 1990 Miata with a cheap Sony radio. And I actually really liked it for what it is, shame they’re killing it completely
I have one and I love it in my 09’ beater :). I wish it was more used. It’s a phenomenal product
I remember when this came out and it looked very novel, looking back on it its pretty interesting
I just got an email stating that the car thing will stop working as of december 2024. I loved the little thing.
Honestly it'd just be beter to get a phone mount in your car
Fr💀💀
I had a lot of friends that wanted this for their old cars. Was only available in the US though
love the b-roll footage
I love my car thing. Picked it up just so I could like songs while driving without getting my phone up. Wish I had bought more than one before they were discontinued.
I have one and use it daily, its genuinely super helpful and I dlove to buy another for at home use on my computer.
Already? Whoa whoa whoa. I feel like I JUST heard about this.
The unreleased Avicii song in local files 🥲❤
I have one, bought it when it was $30 and had it imported to the UK, still use it in my car to this day. Shame I had to go through the process as they never brought it to the UK market, but glad I managed to get one before they stopped making them
"music TV in your whip" sums it up well
This is the perfect desk accesorie
I really wanted car thing 2 then it came out, i was premium even asked to be notified but it never came, so i bought to my 2009 shitbox carplay radio from china and ain't that bad, works fine for the price and fits the car.
You have some very good musical taste
I used this for a while in my car and liked it for what it did but found myself gravitating towards my phone more
new favorite channel, also, 500th like
I got advertisements for one when they first went to $30. First thing I bought myself after starting my first real job actually. It’s been good so far, definitely less distracting to change my music/playlists while driving rather than using my phone. The one issue I have is that it would’ve been SO easy for them to include an FM transmitter and then my phone could’ve been totally wireless in my car. But because they didn’t, I still have to plug it into aux. I think they may have sold a lot more with that one change. It would’ve taken it from a glorified display to a pseudo CarPlay thing. If you try to use voice assistant to call someone it says that that’s coming in the future. I’d guess it’s not anymore, but if you added that and directions, it would literally do everything you really need out of CarPlay. From a hardware perspective, I think it’s great (aside from the FM) what it really needed was a little more software support
"im bearman and ive been wasting your time" Thats an elite sign off lol
I got one of the free car things, I still use it all the time in my car. Its a great little thing.
I have and still use this for my car since i dont have a touchscreen. (2011 car) I bought mine sometime in 2022 because spotify sent me an offer to get it for 20$ and I wanted a nice touchscreen in my vehicle but more importantly my car did not have bluetooth music only for calls. I bought it bc i thought it worked via bluetooth and i wouldnt have to connect to an aux cord but instead the car thing connecting to my phone and I would just play music wirelessly. though that wasnt the case i still have mine and love it bc its a nice looking screen and can sometimes be convenient to change the music with a simple swipe rather than looking down on my phone or trying to change the music while not looking and i have the camera open somehow.