Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

What's most disgusting is the tone and wording of the e-mail linked in the Reddit post. It reads like they're outright delighted to be breaking your 90-dollar piece of hardware. Not even a fake apology. Tech bros are getting more and more brazen.

That email would be fine if they were just discontinuing a feature of their ongoing service - it's disappointing, but you got value out of it while you were paying for it and now we're stopping and won't charge you any further.

But this is a stand-alone piece of hardware that they sold without an explicit expiry date, in a product category (car audio) that generally lasts decades (as they are solid-state devices with no moving parts) and now they're outright making it useless 2 years later without any refunds.

I have never had confidence in Spotify's roadmap.

Agreed it’s obnoxious. It also shows the balance of power between consumers and large businesses internet companies.

Best of luck safe travels buh-bye!!

Off topic, but I cannot resist to comment on that line under the headline:

> By Chris Welch, a reviewer specializing in personal audio and home theater. Since 2011, he has published nearly 6,000 articles, from breaking news and reviews to useful how-tos

So 13 years, that’s around 460 publications per year. That sounds pretty high, you would have to be writing non stop for more than a decade. I know nothing about the tech new industry but is that realistic or just a fantasy?

I knew this would happen when they had a fire sale on these - but surprised that it won't work at all anymore. Hope they open source the firmware, unlock the boot loader so nerds like us can do something with it