Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued • Hacker News Board

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#181

Post by TheLoafOfBread » Fri, May 24, 2024, 6:36 PM UTC

rkangel wrote: post #127

Aardwolf wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just stop this nonsense of needing updates to keep things working, which then allows updates that break things. Have proper standards how music is transmitted. Have devices support those standards. Have those standards be long-running.

Any connected device NEEDS continual updates in order to continue to be secure. This is particularly true of internet connected devices, but is also true for IOT devices that only connect to the internet indirectly. Security holes get found, if you can't patch and update devices in the field then you are leaving your customers unprotected.

I have never updated my ethernet switches. Ever.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#182

Post by big_dinghy » Fri, May 24, 2024, 7:04 PM UTC

Spotify only offers chat support via its website. Attempts to receive a refund have been met with request for customer location and receipt. Support mentions the backend team will reach out by email, "after a few hours." No followup has been sent after 24 hours and requests for update.

As a decade-long Spotify premium user, I am disappointed by this poor experience and wastefulness. Over the course of using their product, there have been few new, impactful features. I do not believe the company can offer a compelling service at their pricepoint and will seek alternatives.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#183

Post by Wingman4l7 » Fri, May 24, 2024, 7:10 PM UTC

djc6 wrote: post #68

Here is a poll on Spotify's community asking to open source it - already almost 800 "signatures": https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Car-Thing-Develo...

There was a poll with probably more signatures than that for adding "swipe to queue" to Android that they sat on for years until they finally implemented it.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#184

Post by JustResign » Fri, May 24, 2024, 8:59 PM UTC

Anthony-G wrote: post #175

sseagull wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> EU legislation on power chords Regular major and minor chords were unaffected though :) (I actually started reading this comment as a pun, as in "The EU can regulate music streaming - they already regulated power chords", and that made me smile)

I thought the same thing and was going to reply before I saw your comment. I wonder if there’s a term for typos/mis-spellings that form an unintended word or phrase that still makes sense for that particular context. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_chord

Whatever it is, it needs to be a pun on "oak trees", because they're _eggcorns_ that grew up.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#185

Post by squarefoot » Fri, May 24, 2024, 9:01 PM UTC

candiddevmike wrote: post #121

squarefoot wrote: post #115

Incidentally, I just installed Navidrome on my Alpine Linux server for test, and it's currently scanning all my local music library. The heck if I'm going to depend to any proprietary device/format that is going to become a brick, then e-waste, as soon as the company behind it makes it obsolete. Happened a million times and will happen again. https://www.navidrome.org/ Yes, I would totally push for legislation forcin…

Are you going to hook speakers up to your server? I'm planning my Google Home replacement strategy for if/when they add a subscription like Alexa. I want an offline whole home sound system with independent room controls, seems like Navidrome might work...

No need to use the server, Navidrome allows any client to connect remotely (WAN included) and play music that is hosted on the server. It also can be set up to transcode on the fly uncompressed music when it is accessed from a metered connection to minimize bandwidth usage. I barely scratched its surface, but it looks promising. The only requirement is that it needs the correct metadata to identify songs and download the correct lyrics, album images etc. There's a software called Musicbrainz Picard however that can be used to identify songs with incomplete or missing id3 tags data and it works using audio fingerprinting against a remote database so it should be accurate.

https://picard.musicbrainz.org/

Back to your post, if you need to play music from the server, take a look at the mpd daemon and its remote interfaces. It does the opposite as it plays from the server while the clients would be used as remote controls so that you can for example install mpd on a small single board computer (or more scattered around the house), configure them to access local or remote mount point, then grab your phone and tell the server to play the desired song.

https://www.musicpd.org/

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#186

Post by lotsofpulp » Fri, May 24, 2024, 9:21 PM UTC

BizarroLand wrote: post #179

lotsofpulp wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can probably get a really nice wireless CarPlay compatible head unit installed by a local shop for less than $1.5k to $2k. https://www.crutchfield.com/g_300/All-Car-Stereos.html

The people who are unhappy about only getting 2 years of service out of an $80 investment are probably not the people who are giddy about only spending $2,000 on a new radio for their car which will be practically worthless once it is installed.

Why would CarPlay/Android auto compatible head unit be worthless once installed? If anything, it adds to the car’s resale price.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#187

Post by roland35 » Fri, May 24, 2024, 9:54 PM UTC

rickdeckard wrote: post #83

gs17 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had just remembered it existed recently, glad I didn't look into getting one. My assumption was that it had lost support but would work indefinitely, how naive of me.

It's a nice well-built device, running Android and a stripped-down Chromium Engine to render the Spotify webapp. Which makes it even more puzzling that they can't keep it running...

This happened a few times at Meta (remember the Portal?!). I think leadership just wants a clean break and doesn't want any support calls, liability, brand relationship to the device, etc etc

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#188

Post by tmpz22 » Sat, May 25, 2024, 12:02 AM UTC

big_dinghy wrote: post #182

Spotify only offers chat support via its website. Attempts to receive a refund have been met with request for customer location and receipt. Support mentions the backend team will reach out by email, "after a few hours." No followup has been sent after 24 hours and requests for update. As a decade-long Spotify premium user, I am disappointed by this poor experience and wastefulness. Over the course of using their pro…

> Over the course of using their product, there have been few new, impactful features.

What new features do you want for a music player? Better audio quality? More discovery features? Lower memory usage? More responsive UI?

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#189

Post by haiku2077 » Sat, May 25, 2024, 12:22 AM UTC

tmpz22 wrote: post #188

big_dinghy wrote: post #182

Spotify only offers chat support via its website. Attempts to receive a refund have been met with request for customer location and receipt. Support mentions the backend team will reach out by email, "after a few hours." No followup has been sent after 24 hours and requests for update. As a decade-long Spotify premium user, I am disappointed by this poor experience and wastefulness. Over the course of using their pro…

> Over the course of using their product, there have been few new, impactful features. What new features do you want for a music player? Better audio quality? More discovery features? Lower memory usage? More responsive UI?

I switched to Apple Music because of Apple Music Classical (browsing and curation of classical music is very different from popular music.) I'd love a similar feature set for Jazz.

Re: Spotify Car Thing will be discontinued

#190

Post by devilbunny » Sat, May 25, 2024, 12:49 AM UTC

bmelton wrote: post #149

yareal wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parent didn't say "no car" they said "cheap car". Most people can't afford to buy new cars.

I was recently looking at starter cars for my daughter as a college graduation present, and I think you'd be surprised how far down-market those features have moved. A brand new Toyota Corolla is $22k and comes with both. For older cars, you can get a nice stereo for $300. If you aren't an audiophile, probably $100.

I drive a 20+ year old SUV, mostly just for commute. It’s too noisy to bother with a good stereo.

You can get a Bluetooth-capable stereo with hands-free microphone for around $100, and while I haven’t yet installed it, I just bought a 7” screen double-DIN stereo for under $300 that has (wired) CarPlay and Android Auto integration, plus a backup camera. It even has ports for a front camera if you want one, though you’ll have to buy it separately. That’s a huge capability upgrade for very little money, and not at a discount retailer either. I got it from Crutchfield, whose value proposition is extensive installation advice and lifetime tech support from actual experts based in the US.