The Spotify Car Thing cost $100, but I can't use it anymore.

EDIT: The only reason why I still had it at this point was because I could use it with other apps. However, now that my Spotify Subscription is cancelled, it doesn’t work with anything. It’s mildly infuriating because today, I can’t still use it with other apps like I was able to yesterday.

Please don’t make the same mistake I made. No one should buy this.

RanchOnPancakes,
@RanchOnPancakes@lemmy.world avatar

The system working as intended. Now you’re “locked in”.

AllonzeeLV, (edited )

“Just find another job place to live head unit”

-deliberately obtuse bootlickers

airportline,
@airportline@lemmy.ml avatar
uis,
@uis@lemmy.world avatar

Sadly he is always right. I wish he was wrong all the time.

Ensign_Crab,

I’d check his wikipedia page before throwing around “always” like that.

uis,
@uis@lemmy.world avatar

Thank Faust there are times he is wrong! At least I know we live in not the worst world imaginable.

babeuh,

The Controversies section of his Wikipedia page is euh interesting to say the least. He said some things that are not remotely acceptable

uis,
@uis@lemmy.world avatar

Funny you mentioned RedHat’s cancelation of Stallman.

babeuh, (edited )

I didn’t mention that? I don’t write on Wikipedia.

But don’t you think his views on pedophilia are unacceptable? He says he has changed his mind and that’s great but doesn’t excuse what he said.

I usually agree with his views on software but the rest is often questionable

jarfil,

deleted_by_author

  • Loading...
  • rambaroo,

    You think pedophilia is acceptable?

    glimse,

    Yes he does. I got in an argument with him the other day and he called me the thought police for saying that people who get off to kids are mentally unwell lol

    nightwatch_admin,

    Oh even without the controversies, the eating of miscellaneous foot attachments is wrong enough on its own.

    Edit: I do btw fully agree with rms being a crude piece of failed excrement

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    Something tells me they just didn’t realize someone would buy a Spotify car play without already having a subscription.

    I mean really, you’re too cheap for 9.99/m but you’ll drop 100 bucks for something your phone already does?

    Seems like OP is just in a very unique situation that Spotify didn’t expect anyone to be in.

    fushuan,

    9.99/m is 119.88/y and it doesn’t stop. Maybe OP thought that the purchase was a one time purchase, and I don’t really blame him, since why would the thing exist if phones with a subscription can already do that it does?

    SCB,

    I don’t really blame him

    He bought a piece of convenience tech designed for a specific piece of software, when said convenience tech is totally unnecessary to the function of that software, then got mad that he needed the software

    I am shocked that everyone in this thread isn’t roasting this dude nonstop. He’s an idiot.

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    They just don’t consider personal responsibility to even exist. It’s the corporation’s fault they spent a hundred bucks on a thing your old phone and a 15 dollar magnetic mount could have done for you, because said device needs a subscription service.

    I had a guy tell me in this thread that I had “privilege” for saying Spotify didnt expect people without a paid subscription to be spending money on such an overpriced device. OP is throwing hundo’s away on stupid shit but it HAS to be the corpos fault somehow, people will toss logic right out the window to keep the cognitive dissonance at bay.

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    Doesn’t stop? You sign on the dotted line for a lifetime of payments? You can’t cancel your subscription?

    since why would the thing exist if phones with a subscription can already do that it does?

    That’s the exact logic that would lead someone with an ounce of intelligence to go “oh yeah, this product is a completely stupid piece of shit that’s marketed toward people with more money than brain cells.”

    Did it say anywhere on the package that it gets you a lifetime subscription to Spotify? No. Does OP understand that Spotify works on a subscription model? Probably, Saas isnt fucking new.

    This is the kind of boy-who-cried-wolf bullshit that keeps corporations from actually being held accountable, because people who want better worker’s rights and taxes on corporations look like idiots when lumped in with children like you who consider personal responsibility and thinking for yourself to be too scawy.

    RanchOnPancakes,
    @RanchOnPancakes@lemmy.world avatar

    They say never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by neglect, ignorance or incompetence. But with a corporations I’m pretty sure its the other way around.

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    I’d usually agree but this product seems exclusively intended for someone who’s heavily into Spotify, and the marketing clearly states you need a subscription.

    RanchOnPancakes,
    @RanchOnPancakes@lemmy.world avatar

    and the marketing clearly states you need a subscription.

    So they knew. It was by design.

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    Knew what? That people buying the device already have one?

    You still have it backwards. They didn’t sell you the device to get you on the subscription, they assumed only people with money to spend on a subscription would WASTE A HUNDRED BUCKS ON SOME DUMB SHIT LIKE THIS.

    monkeytennis,
    @monkeytennis@lemmy.world avatar

    Am I missing something, or would basically any old smartphone work in place of this? I have a Pixel which sits in a cradle and takes care of anything I’d use this for. I guess a physical button or dial might be nice, but I have a volume dial on the car dash.

    Seems plainly obvious that it’ll require a sub. It’s a Spotify box.

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    You’re correct, I have a five or six year old kindle fire i got for like 60 bucks that I rooted and installed stock android on, it’s just a really cheap tablet now. Works perfectly for stuff like this.

    My last smartphone would also have worked.

    This whole thread is just a bunch of moron-consumer apologists. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to hate corporations and their practices, but this is just a bad purchase and buyers remorse packaged as big corpos fault.

    linearchaos,
    @linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

    I mean, on all the purchase advertisements they said you must have Spotify premium to use this.

    They subsidized the price the device based on the expected return from convincing people to keep their subscriptions. Since it supports other clients they probably also have to manage software updates.

    Spotify is a bag of dicks for a lot of other reasons but this really doesn’t seem to be one of them.

    RanchOnPancakes,
    @RanchOnPancakes@lemmy.world avatar

    They could have fixed that when they discontinued them quite easily.

    ScrollinMyDayAway, (edited )

    I cancelled my paid Spotify account because I can’t get them to stop fucking recommending Joe Rogan to me.

    JudahBenHur,

    I’m moments away from canceling. Splash screens of some bullshit podcast or something I don’t want to see. Getting fed up.

    uis,
    @uis@lemmy.world avatar

    Get on board, sail the seas

    sol87,

    Search for Github SpotDL And Navidrome

    No need to sail them seas, but maybe still use a vpn, just on case. Fun fact i heard from a friend of a friend: Youtube starts rate limiting after 50,000 audio-only video downloads, until you have a new IP.

    yaaaaayPancakes,

    I am skeptical of the quality of audio on YouTube. And of full album tracks running together properly.

    Am I wrong?

    SexualPolytope,
    @SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    I’ve also noticed that sometimes it downloads the wrong versions of songs. While my Spotify playlist has the album version of a song, it might sometimes download a live performance audio or a reprise version.

    SCB,

    It’s free. You’re getting “free” quality. Actual quality anything costs money or requires theft.

    Aopen,

    Im not audiophile so I scrape audio with newpipe. Downloaded and stream quality are indistinguishably satisfactory.

    JudahBenHur,

    ive donated to slsk. I like the song radio and album radio features of spotify, found one of my favorite bands that way

    dingus,

    I have hundreds upon hundreds of songs in my Spotify music library. Downloading them one by one sounds like hell. And then I wouldn’t be discovering new music either.

    _pete_,

    If you want to move them elsewhere(or even just get a csv export of them) there are apps for that.

    freeyourmusic.com will let you pay a one time fee to do it to as many services as you want, it’s a bit slow but it’ll get there eventually.

    seitanic,
    @seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    Renting music sounds like hell to me. If the songs can’t exist as files on my computer (Opus, Ogg, MP3, etc.) then I’m out.

    histic,

    leave em sail the seas or tidal for the same price you get better audio so win win in my book either way

    JudahBenHur,

    plus you’re supporting jigga

    PorkTaco,

    Really? Where out of curiosity? I’ve never experienced that.

    ScrollinMyDayAway,

    On PC. Keep (kept) it in a separate window while working.

    PurplePropagule,

    Never had issues with that either tbh. I guess the algo just picked up on something for you. That’s annoying.

    ScrollinMyDayAway,

    White guy late 50’s? What algo would ever target me?

    isVeryLoud,

    Allegedly, YouTube Music is about to shove podcasts in our faces with a soon to come update.

    I’m leaving YTM if they do that. I’ll go back to ☠️⚓⛵ and using locally available music.

    PRUSSIA_x86,

    If you have an android, just download blackplayer and use a YT link to mp3 site to get whatever music you want.

    bluemite,

    Time to give Napster a shot!

    massacre,

    Is Limewire still a thing?

    ChickenLadyLovesLife,

    I’m gonna go pull my fucking LPs out of the attic.

    kautau,

    Not as the software it was, but frostwire is still kicking

    EDIT: correction, frostwire is now a BitTorrent client

    Looks like there are still Gnutella clients out there though

    gtk-gnutella.sourceforge.io

    Psythik,

    No but direct downloads are all the rage. Here are my two favorite sites for free music. Every track is available in either 320k MP3, or FLAC lossless. So they’re even better than Limewire ever was:

    slavart.gamesdrive.net/tracks

    free-mp3-download.net (FYI don’t use punctuation in your queries or it breaks the search on this one)

    PickTheStick,

    If you want a virus and to not be able to download anything, sure. fmhy.net/unsafesites#software--apps

    Maslo,

    You want SoulSeek. I swear it’s not a dating app

    greavous,

    Don’t think so. Soulseek on the other hand…

    ScrollinMyDayAway,

    lol

    bluemite,

    It’s kind of a joke, but Napster is actually trying to get back into it. They hired the guy in charge of music from Roblox to be CEO

    I_Has_A_Hat,

    I’ve been pretty happy with YouTube music. I got legacied in due to Google Music shutting down and thought I would hate it, but I’ve had zero complaints. Plus, it comes with free YouTube Premium, so I haven’t seen an ad in years.

    Wogi,

    I have so many complaints, Google Play music was fine. It did exactly what I wanted it to.

    YouTube music is like an alien looked at that app, and tried to recreate it exclusively by smashing it’s forehead against a keyboard until an app that started most of the time came out.

    BeMoreCareful,

    It’s definitely not Google play music, but I treat it a bit like Pandora twenty years ago and it’s ok for that.

    zourn,

    I would actually argue that Google Play Music was the best music streaming app that I’ve used. It was great being able to upload music from CDs of small local bands and have it right in there with the other streaming music.

    Just today I had a hankering to listen to a specific song through my android auto, and instead of just being able to verbally ask the unit for that song, or even being able to search through the atrocity that is the YouTube Music interface on my head unit, I had to pull over, pull out my phone, search for the band, then click the uploads tab (because uploaded music does not show with the regular search results) and then click the song to get it to play.

    Lethtor,

    It’s not optimal, and I would like for uploaded music to just show up in the regular search, but there is a top navigation bar where you can just switch between where to search (uploads being one of the options). Also YTM has the upside of showing YouTube uploads as well, I could always find obscure bonus EPs that only came with the physical CD because someone uploaded it, which is really handy

    RBWells,

    Yes and the glorious “playing near you” feature of Play Music. That made the best recommendations for local shows, and I mean local, within a few miles, not just bands I’d listened to but always relevant and often small shows! That feature, I found several new bands I liked that way and good live music. YouTube has nothing like that. Also interface not as intuitive, more cluttered. My kids like it better because they do like having the videos available, but as I do not give a fuck about that but do like live music this is still not as good as the Play Music.

    waterbogan,

    YouTube music is like an alien looked at that app, and tried to recreate it exclusively by smashing it’s forehead against a keyboard until an app that started most of the time came out.

    You think they that much care and attention into the app?

    But seriously, yeah, I had pretty much the same experience -Google Play Music just worked beautifully, whereas YouTube Music was a steaming turd on Android. I gave up after six months and two phones and went to Deezer, never looked back

    goferking0,

    I’m still pissed ytm no longer allowed me to view playlist songs like it would in gpm

    Sharkwellington,

    I would say the same myself. They don’t do the worst job for music discovery either which is important to me. Amazon Music drove me nuts constantly recommending Cage the Elephant and other well-known (profitable) artists instead of obscure music similar to my tastes.

    Mr_Blott,

    The algorithm on YT music is vastly superior to Spotify for new discoveries

    Oh, you used to listen to Metallica back in the day?

    YT music - Here, you’d probably like Shaka Ponk, Gin Wigmore and Royal Blood

    Spotify - hAvE YoU hEarD of A bANd cAllEd KiSs?

    CoderKat,

    Same. Honestly, I expected YTM to make things worse. That’s usually how those kinda things go. But it actually did get better for me. I jumped to Google Play Music because it had better selection than Spotify (at least back then). YTM kept that, but fixed the issues I was having with the desktop browser player sometimes getting stuck. And the more recent support for lyrics that are synced to the music is great.

    rambaroo, (edited )

    Their queueing system sucks. All I want to do is queue up some songs but instead YTM fills my queue with tons of crap I’ve never listened to before because that’s how they make money. They put my manually queued songs at the END of the queue so I have to move them up 20+ spaces. There’s literally no way to do it other than creating a custom playlist every time I listen to music, and they intentionally made that take more clicks/taps than queuing. I don’t get how people are ok with the YTM app, it’s terrible.

    I hate YTM and I hate that I can’t cancel it because they bundle it with YouTube premium, which my partner uses every day. Screw Google and they anti-consumer manipulative bs.

    uranos,

    Yeah, you can use the play next button but it’s not ideal

    nudnyekscentryk,
    @nudnyekscentryk@szmer.info avatar

    Their queueing system sucks. All I want to do is queue up some songs but instead YTM fills my queue with tons of crap I’ve never listened to before because that’s how they make money. They put my manually queued songs at the END of the queue so I have to move them up 20+ spaces. There’s literally no way to do it other than creating a custom playlist every time I listen to music, and they intentionally made that take more clicks/taps than queuing. I don’t get how people are ok with the YTM app, it’s terrible.

    wrong.

    1. you can disable automatic queuing by hitting the ‘auto-play’ switch in UP NEXT
    2. you can queue songs by long-pressing and hitting ‘play next’ (which will put it in front of the queue) or ‘add to queue’ (which will put it in my the end
    rambaroo, (edited )

    No, I’m not wrong. Option 1 does not exist on my phone. There is no switch.

    And the “play next” feature also sucks. I don’t want to “play next”. I want to build a queue like literally any other music app and that isn’t what “play next” does.

    Edit: I don’t see that “auto-play” switch on the web app in Safari either.

    nudnyekscentryk,
    @nudnyekscentryk@szmer.info avatar

    yes you are, it must be there unless you’re using an obsolete release of the app. Below is a screenshot how it looks like

    yes, you can build a queue by “adding to queue”.

    https://szmer.info/pictrs/image/d1e10be9-e6af-4cb9-a789-6bdcd2bee3d2.png

    rambaroo,

    No. I’m not wrong, and I don’t appreciate you repeatedly telling me I am when you obviously have no clue what I’m looking at.

    It isn’t there. I’m on Android 13 with the latest version of the app. There is no “auto-play” toggle anywhere. I’d upload screenshots to prove it but lemmy is throwing exceptions. I’ve checked every tab and settings page as well.

    rambaroo,

    So I finally figured it out. this is how that toggle works:

    • it only appears when you manually search for a song or select a song from certain groups on the home page.
    • it does not appear to appear if you select a song from “listen again” or “quick picks” in which case the app forces you to listen to whatever is in their queue unless you manually clear the queue.

    So no matter what it’s still a bad experience.

    nudnyekscentryk,
    @nudnyekscentryk@szmer.info avatar

    oh yeah, you are right-ish. it doesn’t show up if you launch a “radio”, which innately is a automatic, end-less playlist of similar music. I do agree though that this should be more visible in the UI

    red,

    There’s literally a feature on Spotify where you can hide an artist and never see it, fyi

    lemann,

    That’s really dissapointing, did Spotify seriously release a hardware device that expensive, and mandates a subscription to operate?

    It’s a shame because it looks quite nice too, and is sadly guaranteed to be e-waste at some point

    Hyperi0n,

    Are you kidding me? It’s been par for the course as far as car assessors go. Sirus radio was like 100 and still required a subscription. A lot of GPS were that price and most had subscriptions.

    4am,

    Don’t know why you’re being downvoted - enshittification as a viable consumer business model was pretty much proven in the auto space.

    Just like they want to charge you to use the heated seats you’re paying the gas to lug around anyway

    grue,

    Just like they want to charge you to use the heated seats you’re paying the gas to lug around anyway

    That’s not the same thing at all. As bad as e.g. Sirius or GPS subscription might be, at least with those the subscription is for ongoing access to new data being transmitted to you. In contrast, a subscription purely for the use of hardware already included in the car is literally theft.

    Hyperi0n,

    The hardware is free for subscribers to the service…

    lemann,

    Just because it’s percieved as normal doesn’t mean it’s something we should put up with though.

    With GPS subscriptions (the ones I’m aware of anyway) they will still navigate you from A to B when you stop paying the subscription, you usually just miss out on traffic updates, map updates and other localized enhancements. If there are any that deny you navigation outside the subscription that’s plain scummy IMO.

    I’m not familiar with Sirius Radio but from what I can see online, it’s a satellite radio subscription service that seems to bring new things to the table (like starting a radio station at the beginning of a last song etc). The hardware appears to actually serve a purpose, i.e. it’s the satellite receiver for the radio service subscription. I believe we could compare this to buying a Starlink dish for internet access, and paying the monthly subscription. The spotify device shown here is not a standalone device and is only fitted with bluetooth IIRC, requiring a phone for operation.

    In comparison to Spotify, Sirius does not appear to have ever had a free plan - whereas Spotify does… I see is no reason why Spotify could not make their free plan usable on this device.

    Edit: fix typo

    Hyperi0n,

    The device is free to premium users. It’s a marketing device for the premium subscription.

    The box clearly states that a premium subscription is required.

    lemann,

    Assuming you’re referring to the Sirius radio, it makes the Spotify device an even worse proposition IMO

    Edit: Clarify assumption

    BabaYaga,

    Glad to see someone mention that the subscription being required for use is clearly conveyed. It’s not like this was some hidden information

    airportline,
    @airportline@lemmy.ml avatar

    I could still use it for playing music in other apps. Now I can’t.

    SkyezOpen,

    digitalmusicnews.com/…/spotify-car-thing-root-ach…

    You can root it. Didn’t look too much into it but you might be able to do something with that.

    Also failing that, get a short range radio transmitter. They’re cheap and the audio ain’t great but you can plug your phone in and get audio on your car.

    Bitrot,
    @Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    Car thing doesn’t handle the audio, they have to pair their phone to their stereo with Bluetooth or an aux cable anyway.

    SkyezOpen,

    So people are paying 100 bucks for an interface? Neat.

    Hyperi0n,

    It’s free for Spotify subscribers.

    halcyoncmdr,

    How is that any different than just using the app on a phone in a mount then?

    Bitrot,
    @Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    It adds a tactile scroll wheel.

    GlitzyArmrest,
    @GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world avatar

    Is that it? I’m sure you can find a replacement that doesn’t require a subscription if that’s all you cared about.

    Bitrot,
    @Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    Yeah it’s a dumb gadget even at the $45 they eventually cut the price down to. It’s basically got an always shrinking market of people who don’t have CarPlay or Android Auto, and the niche who don’t want to use a phone holder, Siri/Google, and car mode in the app.

    Hyperi0n,

    It was free for premium subscribers and was marketed to those who had older cars.

    JenIsBringingTheDrugs,
    atocci,
    @atocci@kbin.social avatar

    I think I got an Echo Auto for $25 (during the public tests). It doesn't need any kind of a subscription to use as far as I'm aware. It only does streaming still, but there are Alexa skills that let you stream from your Plex or Jellyfin server.

    Hyperi0n,

    Yes, but the Echo platform is a tool to gather user data.

    SCB,

    Man you are seriously going to hate the future lol

    bdonvr,

    Those I don’t fault. Sirius has satellites to maintain and they don’t get ad revenue.

    GPS makers, well making maps on that scale is very expensive. Not everyone can be google and give it away to end consumers by harvesting user data and selling ads to businessplaces.

    Spotify though, fair enough to charge for the hardware but once bought should work with the ad-supported version of their product…

    Hyperi0n,

    The hardware is free for subscribers…

    If you buy it outright it tells you that you need a subscription.

    FaeDrifter,

    I mean, it’s basically a cheap smartphone or computer tablet, with a lower resolution, but nice quality screen, and a giant volume spinner. $100 does not get you much at all in the phone and tablet space. I don’t think there’s much of any profit margin, if at all for it.

    uis,
    @uis@lemmy.world avatar

    Poor-poor multibillion company has to nickle and dime you earn sometging to eat

    Hazdaz,

    No way to hack the hardware and allow it to be used for something else?

    lemann,

    I just saw another comment mentioning it can be rooted: lemmy.world/comment/2904183

    CmdrShepard,

    I considered getting one of these a couple years ago and saw Spotify was discounting them heavily and even giving them away for free in some cases. I didn’t wind up getting one but do wish they would release a simple player + speaker like this for home use.

    oryx,
    @oryx@lemmy.world avatar

    Why would you even buy this? Literally just buy a phone mount and use your phone. This thing was a textbook example of a useless product.

    dingus,

    Seriously, what does this do that a phone doesn’t? Am I missing something? Even early Android/iOS devices could run Spotify in their time (although not always anymore). What does this do?

    Persen,

    It has volume button. Idk

    Morpheus,

    Whenever I’m driving, my phone is almost permanently mounted as a GPS. I also own the car thingy, it has very intuitive hardware buttons and a dial on top of being touch screen. This way I can leave my phone on the GPS screen and adjust Spotify controls on the car thingy without taking attention of the road.

    The only real shitty thing I would argue is that you NEED Spotify premium not just to control your Spotify, but also to control youtube/mp3 player/ any other media that you would want to play through your phone.

    barsoap,

    very intuitive hardware buttons

    Now there is an actually sensible product: A phone holder with nice hardware buttons, exposed to the phone as a USB keyboard.

    krakenx,

    I’ve got a bluetooth steering wheel control (add on for ~$15) that adds play, pause, volume control, and next/previous track.

    vox,
    @vox@sopuli.xyz avatar

    you can try this

    github.com/…/carthing-non-premium-spotify

    the whole ui/dashboard is just a web app, so it’s pretty easy to “jailbreak” or modify

    JackFrostNCola,

    I also may or may not use a ‘freemium’ spotify apk. Its been about 3yrs and not issues, so far…

    Tygr,

    They named their device “Car Thing?” Just looked it up. Why not just buy a phone mount and play through your phone?

    falsem,

    You can get a magnetic phone mount for like $10-15 that fits in the CD slot like in the picture. Not sure why this is a thing.

    mihnt,
    @mihnt@kbin.social avatar

    I have one on my seat bolt that is strong enough to hold a tablet for like $20.

    affiliate,

    i’m also strong enough to hold a tablet for $20

    full_on_rapist,

    I’ll do it for $10.

    intensely_human,

    $9.50

    Klear,

    $3.50

    Extrasvhx9he,

    $3 take it or leave it

    mihnt,
    @mihnt@kbin.social avatar

    Yeah but can you hold my seat bolt on now?

    dingus,

    My phone mount attaches to my car’s air vent and I’ve been using it for years. Cost maybe 15 bucks.

    whofearsthenight,

    I think this is the real takeaway from this post. Someone bought this thing.

    AshTheGoblin,

    Because they know idiots will buy it

    const_void,

    Fits with the stupid, low effort, cave-man speak error message “Need Premium Account”

    Double_A,
    @Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

    Why not just buy a phone mount and play through your phone?

    It has the nice big knob so you can change the music while looking at the road…

    GlitzyArmrest,
    @GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world avatar

    Can’t you get Bluetooth steering wheel controls for like $30?

    drcabbage,

    I have a car thing, I use it at my desk for media controls. It is pretty great.

    But the product description was pretty clear that you needed premium to use it. The same goes for using any third party Spotify client. Shouldn’t have expected otherwise.

    MyUnclesSecret,

    Buying any physical hardware that doesn’t function without a subscription should be a illegal, not something you should expect.

    _Mantissa, (edited )

    Option 1: The hardware is free for as long as you use pay for the service. Then you must return it. You never own anything and your ecosystem is tied to a single company and subscription. No one is allowed to sell competitive goods that work across multiple services unless they themselves offer a service. This product, who many find valuable, no longer exists.

    Option 2: You purchase a life-long subscription to the service when you purchase the physical goods. Startups offer competitive pricing for early adopters but cannot sustain the ongoing costs of growing/maintaining the service. New services are spun up frequently offering lifetime access, then going bankrupt after the investors make their profit. Eventually we settle into an industry landscape where each individual music label has their own subscription service the way that tv/movie studios do now.

    Option 3: Everything is free. Nothing gets produced anymore because artists are busy hunting for meat.

    Option 4: You pay for goods AND services and you read the product descriptions to decide if you really need a device that requires a subscription. like an adult. If you want a competitive alternative that doesn’t require a subscription… go get or make one.

    edit: congrats hivemind, you just made internet modems and cell phones illegal. What you should actually be supporting is hardware that is user serviceable, root accessible, and capable of speaking standardized communications protocols. (ie, not hardware locked to proprietary only comms)

    krotti,

    Just responding to the edit;

    Modems work with other providers. You don’t own the infrastructure that connects the internet -> subscriptions.

    Phones make it impossible to root or change batteries? I don’t own the device, byt at least it’s not e-waste yet.

    The car thing you don’t own since the software makes the hardware e-waste.

    _Mantissa,

    So what use is a consumer modem without an internet service? How would the law banning “all physical devices that require a subscription to be functional” differentiate between products that work with one or multiple services? It’s still a subscription to a service either way.

    Phones, arguably, don’t perform their primary function without cell services. Where in this proposed law are we going to draw the line between ‘functional enough’ and ‘useless brick’? Come up with any line in the sand and it is trivially easy for a company to comply with the law while changing nothing about the actual functionality of the device. In many cases this would look like additional chips on the board that ‘work’ but don’t add any value to the device. Think 7/11 selling single roses in glass tubes… that just so happen to be the perfect dimensions of a meth pipe. It’s just a rose so it doesn’t need to comply with any drug paraphernalia laws, right? Well now it’s “Car Thing the Radio Mixer” (with optional spotify). Now there’s even more e-waste and nothing has changed. At best the law does nothing, at worst it actually makes the problem worse.

    I totally agree with you about Car Thing being e-waste because of its software, that’s why I think it should be root-able, serviceable, and speak in standard open protocols so that you can point it to your own servers/service of choice. But poorly thought out legislation will only hurt consumers, the industry, and the planet. Blanket bans on buzzwords with no consideration for practical nuance is foolish.

    krotti,

    Public companies obviously intentionally want to make everything as shitty as possible, just to extract money, but lets accept the hypothetical that subscriptions will actually be banned. Wouldn’t that be great?

    You would basically be treated the same as Tier 1-3 ISP’s, pay for the cost of the routing to the company. That phone plan that costs ?? €/$ a month becomes “Pay as you use it”. Flat fee per gigabyte / message etc. These plans were at least here in Finland, and I think my phone bills were around 4-5 EUR a month and a cap that you cannot exceed that month, though smartphones and data plans weren’t a thing. Now everything is a subscription.

    Now back to hardware vs software. You obviously pay for the software also when buying the hardware, but for whatever reason the user doesn’t own any kind of rights around it. This has obviously become much worse the past few years (TV’s have ads etc). I really don’t think that the issue is anything you listed, the issue is that greedy companies want to use the subscription model rather than play fair. Phones and modems are EOL at best in a year. I have a PFSense router that cost me less than a router from my ISP used and it’s EOL and security is something I don’t have to worry about.

    Modems and routers have most of their features dedicated to home networking and are not usually made by the ISP. Them connecting to the internet is one of the smallest features they have. The other features are related to offline networking and tight security, you can actually just plug an ethernet cable to the wall and get connection from your ISP. Same as using a modem and putting it in “bridge mode”, which will completely bypass the features of the modem/router.

    The issue here is that the companies don’t want to provide value, they just want to extract as much money as possible, which is wrong. Laws and regulations are desperately needed and even something as radical as banning subscription services for user devices would be a net positive. Renting Tier 1-3 operator infrastructure for your router/modem to work is completely different than “You have the device and the software, but we block you from using it, since you don’t pay”, which in my opinion is ransomware, not subscriptions.

    For right to repair and owning these devices, I completely agree with you.

    _Mantissa,

    I actually totally agree with all of that. I think it even supports my sentiment. The issue I have is that to make the system work well like it does in Finland you need a ton of well thought legislation that all works towards those goals. What I am specifically opposing is half-measures that are easily subverted and poorly thought out. I’m actually totally fine with banning subscriptions, but that alone doesn’t guarantee neutral access to equal rates, or reasonable $/gig or even network mobility. You need a large suite of laws all designed to be pro consumer from the ground up. I like the sentiment of “ban devices that require subscriptions to function” but that just isn’t a well thought out or realistic idea. If that was all Finland did then solving our issues in America would be much much easier. We need to do a lot more.

    barsoap,

    So what use is a consumer modem without an internet service?

    You can still use it to network with other computers over the telephone network. Heck you don’t even need to do that via the actual telephone service you can just run some wire.

    But I think what was actually meant by OP is “tied to a specific subscription service” as well as “disables features that don’t need a subscription service when you aren’t subscribed”.

    Phones, arguably, don’t perform their primary function without cell services.

    You can use them as e.g. smart home remote. The cellular modem is going to go unused (at least apart from emergency services) but that’s only a small portion of the hardware, and modems were only ever locked to subscriptions (at least over here) if the phone is subsidised by that subscription. I don’t think they even do that any more, they replaced it with minimum contract durations. In any case even back in the days you could unlock it after some time or coughing up some money.

    that’s why I think it should be root-able, serviceable, and speak in standard open protocols

    Yep I wish rootability was included in the new EU regulations, it would solve so many issues at once. OTOH: It would solve the issue for people who are tech savvy enough to do such things, gotta be careful with our own elitism there. Enjoying consumer rights should not hinge on being a grease monkey.

    BeardedGingerWonder,

    Every single modem and cell phone I’ve ever owned have worked without a subscription to anything. My internet and ability to make cell calls were limited after my subscription ended, but the devices themselves were easily repurposed to other uses.

    _Mantissa,

    I too support the idea that devices should not be bound to a specific parent service. I do not support banning any device that requires one. Where we draw the line on functional/non-functional is arbitrary as long as the device has some function without a service. If they added a chip and antenna that let the Car Thing receive/play radio would that qualify it as functional? If not then how is a Modem still functional when the signals it is designed to receive are locked behind a service? It makes no sense to go down that legal and technical rabbit hole when you could simply legislate that devices be user configurable instead. There numerous industry standards that could function as the backbone of that law versus the useless feel-good sentiment of ‘ban everything I don’t like, even though I can’t rigorously define what that is’

    zorlan,
    @zorlan@aussie.zone avatar

    How about a law that if the service is no longer provided then the company needs to provide a means to unlock the device?

    That way companies can still have their subscription stuff, but once they inevitably stop supporting the product it doesn’t become useless.

    _Mantissa,

    I’d go a step further and say it should be capable of an industry standard communication protocol from the beginning and every device that has a ‘root’ or equivalent elevated access mode should be user recoverable (not easily necessarily, but there shouldn’t be any specific counter measures to prevent it). EOL unlocking would be a good first step towards that goal.

    AndreTelevise,

    In my country nobody (or at least, most people don’t) buy their own routers, it’s always a subscription on top of the existing internet service

    the_post_of_tom_joad,

    I know this is a hard sell for many, but consider this: You aren’t nearly as smart as you think you are.

    _Mantissa,

    Tell me wise sage, how smart do I think I am? How smart am I? Gee I hope you say “very” so that I can feel good about myself. I hope I can remain one of the intellectual elite so that I can call out stupid ideas on the internet, since normal folk aren’t allowed to.

    the_post_of_tom_joad,

    You misunderstand. I have no knowledge about how smart you are. You could easily be smarter than me. What im saying is you need to reassess your tone and delivery, because it, and your edit only shows me and others that you are arrogant and therefore unable to properly assess other points of view.

    Address the possibility that i have a point on your own time, after your ego-required final comment to me. Whether you will address youself or remain as you are, it’s completely up to you.

    Goodbye

    IdleSheep,

    But the point is that the description of the product clearly stated it needs a subscription to function. You literally buy it with that understanding. If you didn’t read the description then it’s 100% on you.

    Whether it should be legal or not, or whether it’s ethical or not, is a different discussion. But the product wasn’t disingenuous about how it works, so complaining about how it works exactly as advertised is a bit silly.

    yamanii,
    @yamanii@lemmy.world avatar

    deleted_by_author

  • Loading...
  • the_post_of_tom_joad,

    No, the life we’re all living is a neoliberal hellscape. The fediverse was started by people who consider liberals right wing. Read up my man

    pjhenry1216,

    A gas stove requires a subscription.

    fell,
    @fell@ma.fellr.net avatar

    @pjhenry1216 @MyUnclesSecret Not quite. A gas stove requires gas. I can run it from canisters if I want to. In fact, I know someone who does.

    hglman,

    It’s much more like a stove requiring a specific gas brand to work.

    SCB,

    He can clearly turn on his Car Thing all he wants. Spotify is the gas company in this metaphor.

    schroedingershat,

    You can buy gas from anyone. Even make your own in a digester.

    Your gas stove is not cryptographically locked to one gas company.

    SCB,

    Gotta be an easier way to blow up your house.

    schroedingershat,

    Yes, many much easier ways. A propane tank for one. Wet, high CO2 methane is really hard to make explode.

    Do get a CO detector though.

    SCB,

    My furnace broke this summer (thank God it was summer) so we have CO monitors all over just in case something went fucky with the new install

    Gork,

    Your gas stove is not cryptographically locked to one gas company.

    …yet.

    schroedingershat,

    Look out! Communists are coming for your toothbrush. Better vote for harsher penalties for modifying stuff you bought. The DMCA still allows throwing away or disconnecting the computer locking you out of your heated seats.

    AllonzeeLV,

    Deception followed by coersion is an excellent way to increase shareholder returns.

    Why do you hate capitalism?

    intensely_human,

    Deception and coercion are by definition not part of capitalism. If those things are happening, capitalism has broken down.

    Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price systems, private property, property rights recognition, voluntary exchange, and wage labor.

    — Wikipedia

    I’ve highlighted the parts the conflict with deception and coercion.

    AllonzeeLV, (edited )

    You’re quoting capitalism’s sales pitch of capitalism.

    Go to your local tent city in every city if you want to see what “voluntary” looks like, dying of exposure and police capital defense force harassment while serving as capitalism scarecrows to keep the working poor scared shitless into “voluntarily” showing up to be exploited for already wealthy people’s further profit for their unquenchable greed.

    Capitalists aren’t even willing to admit being greedy, only acting on “rational self-interest.” If you want to believe what capitalism claims to be, you do you. If you want to see what capitalism is, use your senses and your critical thinking skills.

    intensely_human,

    It’s a definition. When something doesn’t match the definition, it doesn’t meant the definition is wrong it means it’s wrong to call that thing that term.

    Greed is, by definition, irrational. But greed vs generosity is independent of capitalism.

    If you want to see what “capitalism” is, learn what a definition is and how that relates to reality.

    If there are people who truly have no choice, then you don’t have a free market and you don’t have capitalism. However, I will say that I was homeless and during that time my choices were constrained but didn’t disappear. I stopped being homeless because I made the right choices while homeless. This “having no choice” thing is simply not true.

    uis,
    @uis@lemmy.world avatar

    Capital accumulation

    Izzy,
    @Izzy@lemmy.world avatar

    What is this device? I’m confused as to why it even exists.

    Edit: I discovered it is literally called “Car Thing”.

    Candybar121,

    I’ve never heard of it before, it looks like a smartphone that doesn’t do anything other than have the spotify app? Like is there any mapping or calling built in? And to lock hardware like this behind their premium subscription is wildly, not mildly infuriating.

    Bitrot,
    @Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    All it provides is a simplified ui and voice control, the same voice control as the Spotify app. It doesn’t even play the audio, it is a remote for the app on your phone which is doing the real work.

    schmidtster,

    Man we’ve hit the point where people don’t even know about Sirius or XM radio do they? You paid to listen and you had to pay for the receiver, oh and likely an adapter to get it to work on the vehicle too.

    dan,
    @dan@upvote.au avatar

    I got a SiriusXM antenna thing and they paid me for it lol

    My car radio (a Pioneer one I installed many years ago) supports SiriusXM; I just had to get the right receiver for it. SiriusXM were having a sale where you’d pay $70 for the receiver but they’d give you a $70 rebate, making it free. During the rebate period, Crutchfield had a sale where they reduced the price of the receiver to $30. I bought it for $30, filled in the $70 rebate form, and they gave me the whole $70 rebate.

    I’ve been on a $5/month promotional plan for a few years. Whenever the price goes up, I complain to them and they reduce it back down. It’s a pretty good service for $5/month, since you get both satellite and streaming included. Satellite is good since it works all over the USA - good for road trips.

    schmidtster,

    Oh jeez that’s not a bad deal at all, and that’s almost what I was doing. I would just let the subscription/deal lapse and they would call and ask why I didn’t renew. Told them I’m not paying $15 a month and than they offer the $60 for a year or 2 years.

    At the time they didn’t even have dedicated car units, you had to have one of their portable units, and an am/fm adapter or tape adapter.

    dzervas, (edited )

    I have the hobby of cracking stuff like that (but mainly windows apps to tell you the truth) and there are many-ish people out there with the same hobby. search around a bit and google stuff like “Spotify Car Thing github” or “Spotify Thing bypass” or jailbreak. Heavily rely on github and russian forums. Also random small blogs

    If you’re so determined though and nobody else has done it and you’re fine not using it for 3+ months, there’s a very slim chance that I could find the time to bypass it

    EDIT: Yeap it’s cracked and it’s easy too

    Nevermore9197,

    Thank you for your service, comrade

    dzervas,

    unfortunately I’ve not released any crack and the reason behind it is that I develop them in a way that you can read what they do (which function they hook, what do they expect and more) using frida.re so the crack ends being a javascript file that is run through a power shell script. so no “copy this dll” or “disable your antivirus” - super clean and you can always see what the crack does. my base is ALWAYS that you download and install the app from the manufacturer

    due to that though I “can’t” release the scripts to the public as:

    1. I’ll go to jail
    2. the companies will start to implement anti-cracking measures as I give them exactly the way I crack their app on a silver platter
    bastion,

    Based coder brings the freedom.

    nothendev,

    Russian forums are truly the peak of hacking

    1ird,
    @1ird@notyour.rodeo avatar

    The only thing I like about Russia. The warez

    dzervas,

    same with china

    atomicfox,

    And? Their site clearly states that a premium subscription is required.

    Bonskreeskreeskree,

    And was that the case since it first went on sale?

    mcscrunter,

    Do I just want to ask a question too?

    ilovededyoupiggy,
    @ilovededyoupiggy@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Where do babies come from?

    poopiddy,

    how is babby formed

    elscallr,
    @elscallr@lemmy.world avatar

    am i pergnert?

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    A. Luigi. Borad?

    demlet,

    Yes?

    mcscrunter,

    Correct… ?

    atomicfox,

    Yes. They said so in their announcement of the device’s general availability.

    …spotify.com/…/car-thing-from-spotify-is-now-offi…

    Lucidlethargy,

    Honestly this is such a stupid product… Just buy an Android Auto and/or Carplay device instead. They are cheaper, offer more features, and don’t force you to pay a subscription fee to utilize it.

    Fuck products like this one. If you own it, it should be yours to use.

    goaskalice3,

    Do you have a recommendation for a good one of the Android auto things? They vary so much in price and I don’t know if paying more means it’s actually better

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    Wait, so let me get this straight.

    You purchased a device that presumably has no local storage and are upset that it needs you to login to a server that can then stream you the music?

    Or is this an issue of not having a paid account?

    I guess Spotify didn’t realize someone who didn’t pay for Spotify would be likely to pay 100 bucks for a device to stream Spotify, and in most cases I’d say they’re probably right.

    sparr,

    upset that it needs you to login to a specific server before it will let you stream music from other unrelated servers

    FTFY

    A7thStone,

    Must be nice to be privileged

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    If you can drop 100 bucks on a random bullshit device instead of just using your phone or something then you’re the privileged one.

    Reduce and reuse was just a way of life for some of us.

    Plus it was on the marketing, not much to be done there unless you just can’t read.

    chuckd,

    I pay for a family account, but apparently that’s not the same as a premium account. I’d have the same problem using this device without having to upgrade my Spotify account.

    dyerat,

    family accounts work with it

    Centaur,

    Cars in 2030: to use brakes you need premium account. Sorry!

    lud,

    This thing that OP bought is a separate add-on to the car. As far as the car is concerned it doesn’t exist and it’s just plugged into a normal 3.5 mm aux device.

    MyUnclesSecret,

    How does that boot taste?

    Summzashi,

    deleted_by_author

  • Loading...
  • hglman,

    Ok bootlicker

    Carighan,
    @Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

    I mean to be fair, Spotify as a company clearly would rather give millions to right-wing shitheads than ~anything else.

    droans,

    How else will Joe Rogan be able to afford his basic necessities like subverting democracy 🥺

    ytrav,

    wait they DO THAT??

    I’ll need to rethink my choice in streaming platforms, because that’s messed up

    lagomorphlecture,

    I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not but they gave Joe Rogan a platform and pay him a lot of money for it. Probably other stuff too if they support that.

    IdealShrew,

    what’s wrong with Joe Rogan?

    MDKAOD,

    Alex Jones Jr. Wing nut conspiracy theorist.

    Arthur_Leywin,

    Horse dewormer man.

    lagomorphlecture,

    He’s a lunatic

    Rambi,

    It would be quicker to list what’s right with him

    visak, (edited )

    He’s the male Gwyneth Paltrow selling brain pills instead of Goop. He promotes alt-right and far-right conspiracies. He told people not to get the COVID vaccine. If he just interviewed people – even people from all sides – I’d be fine with it. Problem is he promotes dangerous conspiracies and usually ignores fact checking. He’s using his influence and authority to do harm. And worst of all, I think he just does it for the ratings.

    johnthebeboptist,

    Out of all the things that Spotify is shitty for that’s the least of my worries about them, and I fucking hate right-wing shitheads. People would rather see the artists they love starve if it gave them convenience to enjoy their art without actually paying for what they do.

    It’s honestly kind of baffling to see people go up in arms enough to side with fucking Disney “in support of artists” because AI is supposedly stealing from them and the same people go on with their lives and put on Spotify and feel self-righteous. People fucking suck.

    /rant

    Carighan,
    @Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

    and the same people go on with their lives and put on Spotify and feel self-righteous

    Yeah but consider that for me for example, I was previously giving exactly 0 to artists. Now I give whatever tiny amount my odd song played here or there pays out. Which is more than previously.

    Is it a lot? No. Do I listen to a lot of music? Hell no. Did I buy any music before as a result? Fuck no. And now I sometimes listen to some. Plus the music I listen to I couldn’t buy in physical anyways (low-fi or synth background noise while coding), and wouldn’t know where to buy digital even if I wanted to. Previously I just used a noise generator, btw.

    It’s probably not a good idea to assume that 100% of listeners on spotify would have invested that same amount of money into physical sales.

    krakenx,

    Imagine if they had spent that $50 million on programmers instead. They could have had the best music playing app in existence.

    infyrin,
    @infyrin@lemmy.world avatar

    I’m just as annoyed at the name. Car Thing? They fucking call it ‘Car Thing’? Stupid fucks.

    Asudox,
    @Asudox@lemmy.world avatar

    can’t blame the devs, it’s a thing for a car. better than spoticar

    Viking_Hippie,

    better than spoticar

    Barely, if at all.

    tammie,
    @tammie@lemmy.world avatar

    Unironically Spoticar would suck less

    VulKendov,
    @VulKendov@reddthat.com avatar

    Sp-auto-fy

    bingbong,

    better than spoticar

    Nope

    cubedsteaks,

    I guarantee you that some idiot working there thought it was “quirky”

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • random
  • uselessserver093
  • Food
  • aaaaaaacccccccce
  • [email protected]
  • test
  • CafeMeta
  • testmag
  • MUD
  • RhythmGameZone
  • RSS
  • dabs
  • Socialism
  • KbinCafe
  • TheResearchGuardian
  • oklahoma
  • feritale
  • SuperSentai
  • KamenRider
  • All magazines