Users react to Spotify’s decision to deactivate ‘Car Thing’ device: “What the fuck”

29 May, 2024

Spotify smartphone device streaming platform

Spotify has announced that it will deactivate its ‘Car Thing’ smart device by the end of the year, and users aren’t happy.

NME reported on Sunday (May 26) that the streaming platform issued a statement about the device on its official website, saying it will be discontinued and will “no longer be operational”. “This decision wasn’t made lightly, and we want to assure you that our commitment to providing a superior listening experience remains unchanged,” the statement read.

On the page’s Q&A section, Spotify confirms that the device will be unusable from December 9 onwards – its owners are encouraged to reset it to factory settings before disposing of it in accordance with local electronic waste guidelines. There will be no refund or trade-in options offered by Spotify as well.

The announcement has been met with a largely negative public response. On Twitter/X, user @TheBrianMcManus called the decision “disrespectful and wasteful” and “should be illegal”. Content creator Frank Passalacqua, who runs the tech review channel randomfrankp on YouTube, was similarly enraged.

“Discontinue it, sure, but to kill its operation is pointless for us consumers,” he tweets. “This has been one of my favorite gadgets since it released. Having a 24/7 dedicated Spotify player has been dope. Absolutely no reason to now make it a paper weight.”

Lawyer Rob Freund also tweeted that a class action complaint was apparently filed yesterday (May 29) by three individuals in response to Spotify’s decision to abandon ‘Car Thing’. “Plaintiffs and Class Members are left with nothing more than a paperweight that cost between $50 and $100,” the document screenshot reads.

“The goal of our ‘Car Thing’ exploration in the US was to learn more about how people listen in the car,” said a Spotify spokesperson, as reported by Billboard. Having launched the device in February 2022, Spotify stopped production of the ‘Car Thing’ just five months later in July. “Now it’s time to say goodbye to the devices entirely,” the spokesperson said.

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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