One of Spotify’s oddest ventures to date has been The Car Thing. Apart from the generic and unusual name, it’s almost indistinguishable from any of the streaming giant’s hardware partnerships, especially since it didn’t partner with anyone, to begin with. Spotify, however, clearly believes there is a market for it, albeit a small one, and is cautiously opening up its Car Thing for purchase by any Spotify user willing to wait and pay for one.
The Spotify Car Thing is a dedicated Spotify app player with a touch screen and a dial designed for that purpose. It doesn’t have its speakers, instead of relying on the car’s, and it doesn’t have an independent data connection, instead of relying on your smartphone to stream music. It is, however, a less expensive alternative to purchasing a new car or installing a new head unit to have something that can play your Spotify playlists.
Spotify appears to intend to sell it to at least a few of its subscribers, regardless of how reasonable or ridiculous that premise sounds. The Car Thing has just received a limited release, making it available to all Spotify subscribers. Unlike the even more limited freebie offered to Premium subscribers, this one will require interested buyers to join a waiting list and pay $79.99 when their turn comes.
The list is only open to Spotify premium and free subscribers in the United States, but there is one important caveat. You must be a Premium subscriber to be able to use the Car Thing for streaming. So, while you can buy one for free, you’ll eventually have to upgrade to a paid tier to use it.
Spotify doesn’t say how long the sign-up period will be open, and there’s no way of knowing how long the list is already. The streaming behemoth also teases that it has pushed out some software updates but doesn’t specify which ones.
Source: spotify
