We’ve known that Spotify was working on its dedicated car accessories for a while, but we had no idea on when the company might finally launch it publicly. The Spotify ‘Car Thing’ went on sale last year, but it was available to a limited number of users, until today. The Spotify Car Thing is now officially available to purchase in the US for $89.99, but there’s a catch.

Spotify’s Car Thing no longer requires an invitation to purchase, and it’s available in the US for $89.99. It’s available on Spotify’s Car Thing website, and the only catch is that it requires a Spotify Premium subscription, and a paid plan is required in order to play music.

The Spotify Car Thing has a 4-inch display, and the entire product is 5 inches wide, and 3-inches tall. The ‘Thing’ is 0.2 inch thin, and it has a large dial on the right side, and a Back button on the bottom right corner. There are additional buttons on the top of the device to control the settings, and mute the player.

Source: Pocketnow

The Car Thing also has near-field and mid-field microphones with noise suppression capability to help tune out sounds from the road and pick up voice. The microphones listen to the ‘Hey Spotify’ command to play playlists, songs, and control music all hands-free. The Car Thing works with all cars that have a USB outlet, Bluetooth, and AUX. It also works with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and you can connect it to your smartphone and use mobile data or Wi-Fi to download new music. The device is compatible with iOS 14+ and Android 8+ and above.

Spotify announced Car Thing soon after it removed the Car View feature that let drivers listen to their favourite tracks, and control music on a special large user interface. The Car Thing’s user interface looks similar and modern, with large buttons and intuitive controls.