Developers keep Spotify Car Thing alive with custom firmware

In context: When Spotify announced in May that its beloved Car Thing would be discontinued on December 9, many users were understandably upset. To make matters worse, Spotify essentially stated that the device would be rendered useless, asking customers to "safely dispose" of their units. Following significant backlash, the company did begin offering refunds, though it never wavered from its original stance.

However, a couple of developers have made it clear that they aren't ready to let the Car Thing go just yet, with new custom software called Nocturne. This software is designed to breathe new life into the device, even after Spotify pulls the plug.

it even works in a car, owning up to the hardware's unorthodox name: pic.twitter.com/5bkMq2fIMe

Car Thing has always been open to flashing new software thanks to its Amlogic chip, allowing users to run custom code and load their own programs. In June of this year, YouTuber Josh Hendrickson discovered that Spotify had made the device's software open-source on GitHub – specifically its U-Boot and Linux kernel. The company never officially announced this, which is why it took a while for people to find out.

Hendrickson speculated that the reason behind Spotify's silence was the Car Thing's hardware limitations. With its weak Amlogic processor, just 4GB of eMMC storage, and a mere 512MB of RAM, the device is too underpowered to run anything more demanding than the web-based media player it was intended to support.

That did not stop Brandon Saldan and another developer going by the name "shadow" from working tirelessly on the Nocturne project. With this software, users can search, browse, and interact with Spotify's massive music library, playlists, and radio stations – all directly from the Car Thing. In fact, Nocturne is the only firmware that fully restores the device's original capabilities.

As Saldan explained in an X thread, "E-waste is bad, which is why we decided to give your old Car Thing a new life with full Spotify functionality."

However, there's a significant catch if you want to use Nocturne in your car: The software requires a host device to provide network capabilities. The developers stated in a Reddit post that they aim to eliminate this need in the future. For now, a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, which can fulfill this role, is relatively affordable at around $20.

A recent hands-on video review of Nocturne by Dammit Jeff gives us a taste of the software's impressive features. Despite being an early build, he praises the UI for its gorgeous gradient aesthetic and thoughtful details, such as lyrics integration and color-shifting album art visualization.

There is one issue, however – a significant lag in the UI. This lag occurs because the developers have not yet figured out how to enable GPU acceleration, but they are actively working to address it.

If you're eager to try out Nocturne, the team has set up a Google Form to send out invites once the software is released.

In the event you are feeling adventurous and want to flash Nocturne right away – or if you wish to contribute to the project – you can check out the project's GitHub, where the developers have detailed the flashing process. If you're worried about bricking your Car Thing ahead of its foretold demise with these hacks, Dammit Jeff assures us that it's nearly impossible, as you can always reflash the original firmware.