Spotify make “disappointing” decision to abandon ‘Car Thing’ devices

Spotify have announced their decision to abandon making its ‘Car Thing’ devices just three years after release.

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The Car Thing is an accessory released by Spotify back in 2021 that “allows users to control Spotify through car speakers when connected to a phone by using both voice recognition and preset buttons.”

Originally, the company revealed in a 2022 earnings report that it had stopped manufacturing the product. Now, Spotify will axe the Car Thing in its entirety, announcing it will “no longer be operational” after December 9, 2024.

“We’re discontinuing Car Thing as part of our ongoing efforts to streamline our product offerings,” they wrote on their website. “We understand it may be disappointing, but this decision allows us to focus on developing new features and enhancements that will ultimately provide a better experience to all Spotify users.”

The company will not reportedly offer trade-in options, advising users to reset the Car Thing to factory settings and dispose of the device via “local electronic waste guidelines”.

Spotify recently reported record profits of over €1billion in April this year, with 615million users across the globe since its initial launch in 2006.

However, the profit reports follow the news of the brand cutting costs and laying off staff. Late last year, Spotify announced that it was cutting down 17 per cent of its workforce in order to save costs. That was after an earlier decision to lay off another 6 per cent of its staff at the start of 2023, which at the time it said was to promote “speed”.

The platform also announced it was officially demonetising all songs on the platform with less than 1000 streams in April this year. It came after the streaming giant released a report last year, Modernising Our Royalty System, in which news of the decision first appeared. The move has been planned by the platform for some time.

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