Spotify Killed the Car Thing
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 มิ.ย. 2024
- In this clip, Marques, Andrew, and David discuss the death of the Spotify Car Thing.
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Stadia not only got full refunds, the devs gave us a firmware update to use the controller as a Bluetooth controller.
People got refunds on the games and equipment they bought. People who paid for their subscriptions did not get refunded but that's understandable since it was a service. But good on the team to not make those controllers e-waste with that update as the only other way to use them was to connect them directly to a PC by USB.
and the Stadia Controller is actually really nice, super comfy. Love mine :D
Yeah I still use my stadia controllers for my main PC controller
I still use my Stadia controller on my Mac with Nvidia.
i bought 2 stadia controllers for myself and my gf to use on my PC and steam deck. the best thing to come out of the debacle is that you can easily find inexpensive quality bluetooth controllers! got mine for $15 and hers for $10, absolute steal. just be aware the service to convert it to bluetooth only lasts til the end of 2024
I got it when I used to drive Uber. I'd let the passenger control music with it so I wouldn't have to give them my phone or them having to connect their Bluetooth
That's a neat use for it. Sad that they are killing it and not open sourcing the software, something that would take an intern like an hour to do
Smart!
My use exactly
I use it exactly the same way, but in my living room. If I have guests over, they can control the music without accessing any of my personal devices.
I just chatted with Spotify. They agreed to give me a refund when I supplied my account email address and the serial number from the back of my Car Thing device.
I highly recommend everyone to contact Spotify for a refund on your car thing!
Bricking a device I bought two of, upping their monthly prices. Screw Spotify... I am switching to Apple Music or going back to downloading my music 🎵
How about you switch back to mp3s
@@EbenieAmazon I have and it’s awesome 😁
Watch apply music will have to jack up their prices
apple music has better sound quality and a nicer looking app, but the UX of spotify and its algorithms for discovering music are unmatched. i had a free trial of apple music simultaneously with my spotify subscription and i would never switch, spotify is so much better. Spotify Connect (control playback from any device live, NOT switching the source of the playing device) is highly underrated and you dont realize how useful it is until you dont have it. For example if i play apple music on my iphone but i want to control the song on my mac, ipad, or apple tv… NONE of them talk to each other like that. I can only starting playing on a different device
@@EbenieAmazon That's what I've done. I use iPods as my music players. Those don't track me, those cannot get bricked by updates, I can repair them. Streaming sucks these days anyway
And on top of that, they just started charging even more for the subscription smh
This was a game changer for my wireless car play setup. I absolutely loved my CarThing.
Refund means chit; because it’s such a damn good idea. A permanent music setup was incredible.
Disappointed.
same here, i absolutely love this thing and theres literally no other replacement for it. im fucking livid that spotify thought it was a good idea to brick it for absolutely no reason
They are also jacking up the prices with still no higher quality audio.
Gonna switch to Apple music at this point.
I ain't giving a cent to Apol
I switch to tidal last week. It’s been very good so far, and good prices now…
@@danilarosDo you know if tidal got rid of mqa completely? I have no interest in mqa since it's proprietary lossy compression that requires certain devices to be compatible while charging for more money while making the same devices more expensive by implementing mqa. I'm mainly interested tidal for cd quality being the minimum quality to hi res 24 bit 96khz flac and higher resolution dsd audio files. At least with lossless audio like wav and flac are also open source and don't have drm protection like mqa. I'm not a fan of any drm protection and things that are proprietary like products and services since I buy and support products from a variety of brands and manufacturers since I don't care about being loyal to any particular brand since I mix and match from different manufacturers all the time. I don't want to be locked down by any manufacturers ecosystem.
I’ve been on Apple Music a year and half and haven’t looked back 👀
@@kuroxellApple Music isn’t for u then 🤷♂️
I was able to get a refund. Though Spotify did try to offer me free service for 5 months instead. But if you insist they will refund the money.
how?
Free service is actually not a bad option
I wanted it so badly, but it was never released in the uk, it was such a good idea - another thing that no one is talking about, the car screen for playing music in Spotify disappeared for me one day a couple of months ago and hasn’t come back - I WANT IT BACK.
I got mine off eBay around the end of 2022 for $100… 😭
i use it as a desk accessory and really like the look of it, hopefully Spotify can at least open it up or sum
yeaah they wont :/
I still have one factory sealed. I guess there is no need to open it.
There’s no way they will
Maybe someone will release a hack to let people still use it.
They should be sued!
your telling me the company that regularly fucks over artists, the lifeblood of their platform, also fucked over their own customers? shocker
I hope the mod scene can make these useable for a variety of options so the ones already sold and those unsold can still work in some way.
I like the idea of a device like this for desktop usage that can control music/video apps on the computer. A nice little peripheral controller.
Google of all companies still support the Chromecast Audio fully, it still can be used inside speaker groups and stuff. The car thing is just a nice Interface for Spotify Connect, I dont understand hoe this cant be supported as long as Spotify Connect exist
Someone in a black suit will show up to your door with $180 and say "I'll give you $180 to give it to me right now, or I'll break into your house tonight and take it for free"
I feel a Class action lawsuit coming up soon.
It’s cool, for them to be refunded, and the concept was cool. And I don’t know why it’s discontinued.
It's not cool, now it's gonna become e-waste, they should've just open sourced the code and just stop updates instead of bricking it. As a bonus they lose way less money on the whole process.
nothing is cool about a company not giving a fuck about you as a consumer and just refunding out of public backlash
This is the opposite of cool. It is baffling that we are in 2024 and still are creating such waste. So much for the future, we are fucked...
It would probably take an intern like an hour to download the source code and just throw it on GitHub. I feel like this is the only way to reverse the backlash they got from this move.
I still drive a car (2004) that has a CD and cassette player, I use an FM transmitter (yeah the sound quality is iffy sometimes) and the car thing is so useful since I use my phone for maps. I found a video that lets you open source it from Linux so I'll probably use that when the dec 9 rolls around
If I had known about this, I definitely would have bought and used it. A shame it is abruptly being trashed. :(
before I got a better car I used to use this in the old one and it was actually pretty nice, it was spotify only obviously but it was kinda like having a carplay screen in your car. obviously there's no real need for that anymore because decent add on carplay screens with full functionality are like a dime a dozen on amazon but it was really nice for the time. I hope they change their mind and make them usable
They should have advertised it on their app. I only heard about it through a TH-cam video talking about it when it came out to premium members
Ship it back to Spotify and include an invoice.
I would’ve loved this, sad to see it go. Is there anything else available like this that I could use as an interface for music at home?
I have mounted Car Things on my road bicycle, it's awesome gadget. I have joined prime member in order to use it.
someone already jailbroke it there's a github repo
Link?
Just google it my dude. You cant post links in the comments
I bought 5 of them but i didnt use my spotify account when i bought them so it dont link to an email address withvthe receipt and i didnt think i need to keep the paper receipt after 3 years so im out of luck of the returns even though i have picture of all 5 of the car thing 😢$500 down the drain
I use mine as a "headunit" to control music in my racing simulator the same way you would interact with your cars radio on the dash. For this use it's invaluable.
I used it on my older 2011 car and I missed it so much that I'm using it on my 2023 car now that has android auto. I just like having a screen just dedicated to Spotify. The presents buttons are super nice. Voice control as well. Sad to see this go as I use one at my desk too. We need to have a universal one from Google or so.
right before this came out. i was looking at getting one to control music easy with a screen for my pc setup... now that this is gone, what can do that? i really like the wheel it has, and the screen. would love to see something similar outside of the 200+ stream decks with touch screen
At first I thought of this as a joke, but the more I think about it the more I actually love it, but… an iPod Classic with Cover Flow and the Scroll Wheel. Perfection.
They need to make it open source and just use it as a controller for media I would like one at my office next to my phone or in the wall of my garage to control my Bluetooth for the shop
Sonos in my opinion did something similar with their older products. I have a perfectly working play5 and cant use it with the actual software. You can use the old software, but it doesnt work with the newer soundbar i bought. That was the most expensive hardware I bought in that regard.
Should be illegal that it stops working completely. It should still function .
I have been using the Car Thing for years in my 2014 Hyundai Elantra. It has been pretty great! There are definitely some glitches every once in a while but overall it's been pretty reliable and I like the design of it, and it was super cheap. I'm disappointed that they are ending it. Also, the ET Games were buried in New Mexico! lol
Did not even know this thing existed until now, and actually would love something like it for in my 2015 car that does not have android auto. Sad to see.
I use it on my bike
There is no alternative for it
I do have a foldable so I do not really want or can put it on my bike this thing was so light and easy to use it was awesome...
You know that Spotify released the source code on GitHub about two years ago, roughly the real problem is the fact that it has worse specs than the pie W
Spotify really stacking up the L’s lately.
I drive a 80s toyota and the car thing would look so good with the black interior, staying minimalistic and modern without feeling forced. sadly they never sold it in latin america and its like 200 dollars now on ebay 😢
its crazy to me that this has a big community because i remember seeing some reviews say that it was pretty mid when it was released but i never used it myself so ig i cant say too mujch
You forgot to mention the part at the beginning were when they were selling it they refused to sell it internationally not even continentally so being in Canada wanting one I could never get one
Got my refund this morning!
This will be Rabbit R1 in a year
Only paid 20$ for it but this thing seriously was amazing used it every single day wish the voice was more ai so you could ask it basic things but damn I’m gonna miss it
Im actually waiting for them to get a bit cheaper on the used market and then updating the backend to run android. The mod community for it is already starting and theres a bunch of vids of unbricking it
I thought the title was just a click baity title to get you to click and find out what it killed, I never heard of "Car Thing" lol
Didn’t know it existed! Now I want one
I gave them the serial number of my device and they wanted the receipt. I don’t have that, I bought this stupid thing when we got an invite to buy it. I switched back to Apple One family for $25 a month I get more than what Spotify is going to be charging at $20 a month for a family plan. Spotify is scummy.
is there a similar device on the market kind of want one
Love having this car thing on my desk for work
I have an old car and loved using Spotify car thing, sad to see it being shut down all together.
Whats the R1's thing you mentioned exact product name?
I just saw a news article about how they open sourced it now and there is a handful of software builds people have made sonit can repurposed
having both a newer and older car, spotify car thing is sick to have in my cd player so i can see what song is playing, it looks nice and actually serves a purpose as little of one it may be, even if it’s not plugged into one of my cars, having it on my desk is sick because i don’t have to tab out of games to change the song or switch playlists or adjust volume etc.. actually fuck spotify for bricking my car thing, as soon as my thing stops working i’m switching to apple music
Seeing this discussion about making devices open-source after they would be "bricked" by the original seller makes me hope for another EU law about owning hardware and access to it... if they had provided it as part of a subscription I'd understand the need to stop servicing it and the software behind it, but if ppl spent a good amount of money on a device the should be able to do anything with it if the original service was discontinued.
I'm a Spotify premium user for the past 10+ years and I'm hearing about this "thing" for the first time now :D
4:30 Obviously the won’t they’re perfectly aware that someone would do something amazing with it to the point people would actually want one and I’m willing to bet someone will figured out and do it anyway
I just use my last smart phone as a dedicated spotify streamer. No sim etc, just android with spotify installed and always connected via the home network. Boom! sorted. No music interruptions etc whenever you get messages or call etc... I can control it via my other devices like you would any normal dedicated streaming DAC.
The fact they are bricking it makes me think there might a security vulnerability they couldn’t patch out.
Or copyrighted code they yoinked and now they’re worried they can be sued.
It sucks becauseI originally was going to buy this for my desk setup to make it easier to change songs and whatnot. Not to mention the hardware and how compact it is makes it minimalistic and I’m just confused why spotify is trying so hard to wipe these things off the map. While its great your getting refunds to have credit for spotify premium, why not just leave it be for people who love just the carthing itself, if not open source it.
Matt Black MKBHD 🖤
dont forget they made the device US only wouldn't even bother to ship to canada even though i was a premium user willing to pay
There are so many third party touchscreens that have android, android auto, carplay and even a reverse camera. They do need installation but a short trip to the mechanic will do. They're cheaper too. Car thing was destined to fail.
We can honestly make a huge fuss over E waste and how bricking it and tossing it would mean more fishes and turtles die
I’ve had my Car Thing for 2 years, now and I love it. Disappointed they’re bricking it.
I learned about this today
Such a sad things in my opinion.. I'm a very simple person & this is such a cool little device for my 2012 honda fit. At this point I should do what they did to us and brick them as my music provider. Any suggestions? I use an Android device..
Apple Music, it’s on Android’s too.
Swapped to Apple Music, been with Spotify for almost a decade now.
I’ve found that Apple has better sound
Please don't forget that Google pulled the plug on their Nest Secure alarm system. It blows my mind they can "brick" perfectly-good hardware just like that, disregarding customers.
There’s a nice little jailbreak scene for it now, but the majority of users aren’t going to know or care about that and will likely trash it 🙂↕️
i would disconnect mine from the internet, put it in a time capsule, bury it deep in my backyard and mark with a small, handmade wooden cross
They never gave me the free one that they promised. Twice
MKBHD, let’s talk the very center of our currencies that has lead to the technology of today.
The coins. The materials that make the coins are what makes technology and agriculture as we know it.
Devaluing the coins will devalue the world of everything that we have known so far.
We must not lose value of the very materials that makes the very core of society of today and the history that has lead to us to still keep pushing visions forward into the future.
I got my refund
I haven't used Spotify in years. Popularity is not always directly proportional to quality.
What is the R1 device he is talking about please? I can't find it.
I am so sick of products that cease to exist or function after a while because they were designed to be reliant on a constant internet connection. If you are going to create anything that has to be constantly connected to the internet, it had better be something with a fundamental need for internet access (i.e. a social network or MMO), and you had better be committed to keeping those servers running until the end of time. When humans create something, we should be committed to preserving it and access to it, because if you cannot get something that you could get in the past, you have moved backwards.
Killing a device that is just a remote. Doesn’t even talk to a cloud/server is some really messed up leadership. Another group of software devs that tried to play hardware and ended up hurting their reputation by pulling the plug. Meanwhile they still can’t seem to figure out how to stream lossless audio. So while Spotify still likes sounding like Napster mp3s from the 90s. Many will continue on Amazon, Apple and TIDAL and others for actual sound quality. I really don’t get what is up with Spotify but it doesn’t look good. All that Joe Rogan money must have made it hard to hire an engineer to upload FLAC tracks to save them.
Things flop it happens
Car Thing is already as open source as its possible, if i could send its source code link here i would have sent it
I would rather them just not go out of their way to brick it... I own 2 and love them. I understand that the hardware is hot garbage but it doesn't really need to be any better than it is. I have never had issues with either of mine that are used daily.
Someone should hack it into a streem deck
apparently you can save it with linux smh, dk the details tho xd, id do it if id have it.
why not just turn it into a dumb remote? just to control play, pause, next track, previous track, volume and tell everyone this is the best we can do. I think people wont be that mad.
What happens to people who bought it second hand and dont have the original proof of purchase? Are they just shit out of luck? And for the people who did, do they get to get a refund and have made money on the sale?
“We’ve updated your device from useful product to e waste”. That should be illegal.
Car thing refund not (at any amount) for those who bought it second hand despite 3rd party receipt, pictures of the product with SN and they reached out to me as they saw I was using a car thing with my account.
Is waveform available on spotify
Yes
i think they should have ask apple to sell it for them.
im just gonna hack mine
Spotify should have bought them from the owners for $120 since its not that much of them. That way they will them them back and the owner has an incentive to want to sell it back to them.
I got two of these and already was refunded after contacting the BBB. I'm going to find a way to hack it and try to keep using it.
This is ridiculous. We cannot keep accepting products that need Internet connection to work. I can barely play a mobile game without a connection. It's ridiculous
Crunchmouth? Yeah, it's a thing...
Water is a rock, when its frozen
Waiting for someone to hack it
Sony Dash
aw. man i would have loved this had i know about it 😂
Spotify's downfall has been the writing on the wall for a while now. "serious" audiophile types stopped using spotify (and respecting spotify users) as soon as Apple did the lossless sound thing and Spotify didn't follow. They are constantly in a mainstream scandal over not paying their artists enough (Despite the service being as expensive as Apple Music, which doesn't have that reputation). They disrespect their customers over and over again by constantly removing tracks, adding features no one asked for, and removing features people liked. I've noticed that Google play doesn't even promote Spotify on their app store, to the point that it doesn't even show up under the "similar apps" section of other music streaming services, while Apple Music and the like are promoted in main screen banners.
I reached out for a refund, but they gave me credits on my premium account. I’ll probably drop them after that credit ends tbh
If they only added CarPlay or Android auto!!
The spotify car thing is an overpriced touch screen with a knob that plays spotify thats attached to the car. Even razer has there own overpriced version of the car thing from spotify that was mentioned from random frank p youtube channel. Amazon already has portable external displays that are like the size of a tablet that can do the same thing as the spotify car thing but works with a variety of devices that needs external devices or to display something on a bigger display. The portable external displays are worth the asking price and are very useful like traveling with the display and connecting it to the nintendo switch, smartphone etc. For example, let's say someone is at the airport and there layover is like 12 or 16 hours. Just plug in the nintendo switch to the external display with the versions with the built in battery otherwise just plug the external display to an outlet with no built in battery or even leave the display plugged in the whole time and play some games to kill some time. Maybe switch to a samsung phone and use samsung dex and get some work done or watch some movies or TV shows while being connected to the external display. With portable external displays, the possibilities are endless.
Car Thing was a pretty good deal when they were closing out their inventory. Can’t recall what I paid but it was a lot cheaper than $90. Was a nice desktop accessory for controlling music easily
@@Sispants It's cool that you got to enjoy the spotify car thing, it sucks for the people that already paid for and they can't use it anymore once they become bricked due to planned obsolescence. At least spotify will provide refunds even though it's still a scummy thing to do from spotify themselves. Spotify makes so much money that certain artists feel like they are getting ripped off since they don't get paid much from streaming. It's why I buy and support physical media because I get to support the stuff that we as consumers already paid for when making purchase decisions. While trying to make things that the consumers already paid for to keep them preserved for as long as possible while trying to support right to repair since they are fixable.
it was a perfect product for me, its not the size of an ipad like most other aftermarket screens, and i only really need it to control my music. i also only paid 30 for it so i wouldnt say it was overpriced