There’s more to Spotify than its massive streaming service.
They produce hardware products, too, but they aren’t known for them yet.
The streaming service conglomerate is known for its huge library of music, podcasts, and now video.
Spotify launched its first official hardware product Car Thing in 2021 and was testing it since 2019.
The product was called Car Thing, and the Sweden-based company started testing it back in 2019. Spotify stated in a blog post that Car Thing was developed to “help us learn more about how people listen to music and podcasts.”
The world of interacting and listening with media is changing rapidly. Prior to the pandemic, many people listened to podcasts and music on their commutes to work. Now that habits and workplaces are converting to a more remote workplace people’s listening habits are changing, too.
According to The Verge, “In-car listening is still less than it was prior to the pandemic, for example, although it’s reportedly increasing.”
They announced a limited release of Car Thing early in 2021.
Spotify made Car Thing available to eligible users in the US in the spring of 2021 for a limited launch. According to a blog post released by Spotify, Car Thing is compatible with all makes and models of cars.
“No matter the year or model of your vehicle, we feel everyone should have a superior listening experience,” reads the blog post. “With Car Thing, we’ll now be bringing our entire catalogue of music and podcasts to a wider range of users across an even wider range of vehicles.”
What’s the purpose of Car Thing if most vehicles now have infotainment systems and people connecting to Bluetooth to listen to podcasts and music?
Spotify saw a need from consumers for the product. They want to continue building a seamless and effortless audio listening experience for users.
“Our focus remains on becoming the world’s number one audio platform—not on creating hardware—but we developed Car Thing because we saw a need from our users, many of whom were missing out on a seamless and personalized in-car listening experience,” reads the blog. “The limited release of Car Thing is not meant to compete with in-car infotainment systems. Instead, it’s another step in our larger ubiquity strategy—creating a truly frictionless audio experience for our users, wherever they are and however they choose to listen.”
Ultimately, they want users do less when discovering and finding the content they enjoy–and doing it quicker.
Spotify Tap isn’t necessarily hardware, but it’s a unique feature for listeners using big name headphones.
Included in headphones from companies like Samsung, Microsoft, Jabra, Skullcandy, and Bose, Spotify Tap allows listeners to simply insert their headphones and tap them to begin playing music or podcasts on Spotify.
As mentioned above, the company’s mission isn’t to necessarily create hardware products. Their focus remains on integrating with great products that already exist.
