And he’d like to sell you a car thing
Spotify’s Car Thing has been around for the better part of a year, although it only became widely available to the public a few weeks ago. Our review found it to be a solution to a problem that didn’t exist to begin with, especially given its limited use cases. Still, Spotify has slowly evolved to nudge consumers towards a dedicated gadget. Recently, it removed its Car View feature without offering a suitable replacement. Now a handful of car stereos are losing Spotify support, although some of them are still on sale.
In a community post Created after several reports of people complaining of connection issues with their stereos, the company has confirmed that Spotify Connect support for JVC-Kenwood and Pioneer headunits is “deprecated” and will no longer be possible to launch the integrated application from these devices (via Golem.de). He didn’t provide any apparent reason why this is the case, and the company’s alternative is to simply play audio from your device using your preferred connection type.
We can confirm that support for Pioneer and JVC-Kenwood car stereos is deprecated. This means that it will no longer be possible to launch the built-in Spotify app from the interface, but you should still be able to play audio from your mobile devices via Bluetooth or via USB cable.
Spotify did not provide users with a reason behind the decision. That said, it’s hard to see this as anything more than an attempt to get people to buy his Car Thing at the expense of removing support for perfectly working car stereos that remain on the market.
If you own one of these stereos and want to avoid shelling out over $90 for an additional head unit, you still have the option of streaming music to your car via Bluetooth. Remember to let your co-driver in the passenger seat take care of selecting the right playlist for you, so you don’t use your phone while driving.
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