However, we may receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

We only include products that have been independently selected by Bustle’'s editorial team. I took Car Thing for a test drive on a recent road trip in an ‘06 Honda, and the experience certainly beat burning your own CDs. 22, Spotify made it available to everyone for $89.99, plus the cost of a Spotify Premium subscription ($9.99/month). That’s why Spotify’s Car Thing, a voice-activated, Bluetooth-based music player, was so hotly anticipated when it became available by waitlist only in April 2021. That, in turn, forces you to look down at your phone to switch playlists or skip songs. is now over 12 years old, meaning most vehicles that people are actually driving require you to use an aux cord or Bluetooth adapter to play your music through the speakers. But according to a 2021 report from IHS Markit, the average age of a car on the road in the U.S.

If you buy a new car in 2022, it will likely come with a console-based music player, which will sync with your phone for a (mostly) hands-free audio experience.

They get to sing along to Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” - arguably the most perfect car song in existence - and they don’t have to spend hours downloading songs on the computer to do it. Back when I was a teenager, there was only one feeling more exquisite than getting your driver’s license: singing along with your meticulously curated car playlist, which you had to burn onto a CD yourself.

Spotify car thing.