Spotify is itself the most used music streaming service in the world. It is true that it no longer holds the supremacy of yesterday, as other services such as Apple Music, Prime Music and those offered by Tencent Music for the Chinese market have gradually taken away market share in recent years. Of course, this has prompted the company to try to strengthen its content proposition, although it is true that in general its movements in this regard have been quite erratic.

The clearest example of this is undoubtedly in the long-awaited plan to offer music in Hi-Fi quality, something that was announced more than three years ago, in early 2021, but has yet to materialize. Undoubtedly, Apple has dealt with the fundamental failure of its plans by incorporating Hi-Fi quality into its standard plan without increasing the price, but it is no less true that Spotify has already had years to formulate a response . However, so far, aside from rumors and anecdotal leaks, all they’ve said about it has been… nothing.

Yes, we have seen some strange movements around this time and Among them, I personally highlight Car Thing, this device for a car that they started offering in early 2022 and which the company discontinued just six months later. It was, as we said at the time, a reported failure, and Spotify played pretty dirty with its own users to try to improve Car Thing’s reach by removing Car View (although it was later forced to restore it) and ending compatibility. with various car equipment from Pioneer and JVC-Kenwood.

Of course, no more Car Thing have been sold since then, but at least the users who bought it could continue to use it normally. However, that will change at the end of the year, as Spotify has announced that Car Thing devices will stop working on December 9, 2024. Granted, it wasn’t a particularly expensive device at $89.99, but I bet its owners wouldn’t find it funny.

And what does Spotify suggest to these users who opt for Car Thing? Well, I’ll copy translate what’s on the company info page: «We recommend resetting the Car Thing to factory settings and safely disposing of it according to local e-waste guidelines. » Yes, that’s right, throw it in the trash.. Of course, respecting local recycling guidelines will not…

I understand that there may be some financial cost to keeping these devices running, but I also understand, even more so in the fact that there were users who spent ninety dollars to get them, money that we have to add to their monthly fee because Car Thing only works with premium accounts. And therefore, It seems to me that Spotify should respect their users a little more and subsequently bear the costs of maintaining this compatibility for a longer period of time. And I don’t care if one, a hundred, or ten thousand people bought it, because that’s the least they deserve. And it makes me sad, very sad, to think that I, who neither comment nor delete this topic, cares more about certain Spotify users than the company itself.