Will Spotify come to US Tesla owners now?

[smac]

Oh I am not asking them to pay for a subscription. I'm just asking for integration into their music player. Hey, they've already written the code for Europe / Australia / Asia. They already have Slacker and TuneIn available. Just add Spotify. I'll pay for my own subscription. Just as I pay for my Slacker premium subscription and use that instead of my tesla account (that way I at least get single artist stations and play lists - but the library... Slacker's library is so limited...)

Certainly an option

I guess if people are expecting a Spotify app that works with their own account that's fine. If people are expecting to get it FOC as we have here in EU, then I would suggest it's highly unlikely.

Saying that what I never understood was why US cars couldn't have Rdio even if on the same basis. It smells like an exclusivity deal ...

At the end of the day if Tesla were to offer Spotify I wonder how many Tesla owners would cancel their Slacker premium accounts. Non US is slightly different as Slacker isn't available here at all, hence the Rdio choice.

 

[dirkhh]

I guess if people are expecting a Spotify app that works with their own account that's fine. If people are expecting to get it FOC as we have here in EU, then I would suggest it's highly unlikely.

Saying that what I never understood was why US cars couldn't have Rdio even if on the same basis. It smells like an exclusivity deal ...

At the end of the day if Tesla were to offer Spotify I wonder how many Tesla owners would cancel their Slacker premium accounts. Non US is slightly different as Slacker isn't available here at all, hence the Rdio choice.

I was surprised by the choice of Slacker in the first place, since they were not in Europe. And then when they brought Rdio to Europe but didn't add it as an option for the US, I was worried about some sort of long term exclusive deal. If now we don't get the Spotify app, either (again, not asking for free of charge, just for having it available to enter my own account information) that that likely confirms that there is some kind of exclusive deal going on. I guess TuneIn isn't really competition for Slacker...

 

[smac]

Dirk there was some press flying around years ago about how negotiations between Spotify and Tesla broke down (I'm convinced it was cost related, because this was back in the days before the first S was even delivered). Tesla desperately needed a streaming provider, funds were tight, the Model S was still massively unproven, Tesla were not in a strong bargaining position. At the time Europe was a way off, and they had to launch with something. Hence Slacker, and I suspect with some big caveats, like exclusivity. (It's what I would have done!)

I'd love to have been a fly on the wall at the last Tesla vs. Spotify negotiations to fix the EU "problem". Certainly if I was CEO for Spotify I'd be making bank, so I suspect it was tense.


One thing we should all be grateful for is Tesla didn't decide to in house develop a competitive streaming provider!!!

 

[jvonbokel]

How long is the slacker subscription included with the car? Manual says one year, but maybe this changed?

I don't have a source link handy, but IIRC, Tesla announced mid/late 2013 that all cars would get 4yrs of internet and slacker from date of purchase (or 1/1/14, whichever was later).

There seem to be a handful of people who would prefer Spotify over Slacker. Can anybody explain why? I've never used Spotify, but have been thrilled with Slacker, which I never would have heard of were it not for Tesla.

 

[jeffro01]

I don't really care one way or the other, I find slacker to be perfectly adequate so Spotify better have the same catalog at a minimum...

Jeff

 

[DDarrow]

There seem to be a handful of people who would prefer Spotify over Slacker. Can anybody explain why?

I grow tired of the Pandora-like playback of Slacker. With Spotify you can listen to entire albums rather than just choosing one specific song to play, and then have it take over and select 'similar' music.

 

[mikeash]

My big reason for wanting Spotify is simply that I already have an account, use it extensively on my phone and computers, and I've built up lots of playlists. I'd rather be able to use my account in the car rather than recreate all of that in a Slacker premium account.

 

[jvonbokel]

I grow tired of the Pandora-like playback of Slacker. With Spotify you can listen to entire albums rather than just choosing one specific song to play, and then have it take over and select 'similar' music.

I believe you can do this with a Slacker Premium account. Granted, if you already pay for Spotify, surely you don't want to pay for Slacker just because Spotify is not supported (natively) by the car.

 

[Joules Verne]

- We use Rhapsody instead of Spotify (wife's decision, not mine!) and there's no app for this so we have the use the 'Now Playing' app. Again, no better than what Tesla currently offers.

Hey, don't hate on Rhapsody.
Rhapsody is awesome!

I've been using it forever.

Spotify is far superior with marketing though. Not sure what happened to Rhapsody there.

 

[JeffS]

I was deeply in to Google Play music. I'd want that over Spotify or Pandora every day all day. Not only deeper catalog, but you can also upload your own personal al library of owned MP3s and build those into subscribed playlists. But with Slacker, I ended up getting the premium subscription, and spent a Saturday rebuilding all.of playlists. Now that's done, and I am totally eased with Slacker.

 

[Caligula]

I feel that Slacker Radio is aptly named.

 

[Joetnr1]

Yes, we need Spotify. Slacker doesn't cut it. Pretty please.

 

[Zac C]

I'm a Spotify premium user (love it) but I set up a Slacker Premium account a few months ago to get ready for my Model X (37xx). Slacker just doesn't cut it. Like others have said, with Slacker you can't listen to the songs and albums you want, you just get a random radio like generated playlist based on the songs/artists you "like". With Spotify you can easily "discover" new music just by choosing one of their genre related playlists or a friend's shared playlist (there's even a "discover" new music playlist made just for you every Monday based off your listening habits.) Sharing playlists with friends on Spotify is a great feature - like Facebook but with music

+1 for hoping Tesla works out a deal with Spotify. The best car in the world should have the best music IMHO.

 

[dirkhh]

I'm a Spotify premium user (love it) but I set up a Slacker Premium account a few months ago to get ready for my Model X (37xx). Slacker just doesn't cut it. Like others have said, with Slacker you can't listen to the songs and albums you want, you just get a random radio like generated playlist based on the songs/artists you "like". With Spotify you can easily "discover" new music just by choosing one of their genre related playlists or a friend's shared playlist (there's even a "discover" new music playlist made just for you every Monday based off your listening habits.) Sharing playlists with friends on Spotify is a great feature - like Facebook but with music

+1 for hoping Tesla works out a deal with Spotify. The best car in the world should have the best music IMHO.

While I completely agree regarding the preference for Spotify, one small clarification. With Slacker Premium you can create both "single artist stations" (I have one that plays nothing but Supertramp, for example) and playlists that play exactly the songs you want to hear. You just can't do that from the car - you have to do this on their web site (and then have to log out and log back in on the car for the car to notice the new stations / playlists). What bugs me is the small catalog that Slacker has. So many albums that I love are missing.

 

[Denarius]

Agreed. I just want access to the Spotify app. I will pay for the subscription.

 

[Steve S]

Spotify; pretty please with sugar on top.

 

[jvonbokel]

I've seen several people express a preference for Spotify over Slacker, but very few have explained why. The only reason I've seen specified is catalog, but in my 3yrs of ownership, I've yet to see anybody "stump the band" when requesting a song from Slacker. Can somebody give some examples of songs that are available via Spotify, but not via Slacker? I'm not a Slacker fanboy or anything (I'd never heard of it before Tesla), but I'm curious for the sake of my own subscription choice in the future once the free Slacker account comes to an end.

 

[fiksegts]

I would rather have Spotify as well.... we haven't seen a new "app" for the car in 3 years.... so many possibilities if Tesla would allow access to a SDK...

 

[dirkhh]

I've seen several people express a preference for Spotify over Slacker, but very few have explained why. The only reason I've seen specified is catalog, but in my 3yrs of ownership, I've yet to see anybody "stump the band" when requesting a song from Slacker. Can somebody give some examples of songs that are available via Spotify, but not via Slacker? I'm not a Slacker fanboy or anything (I'd never heard of it before Tesla), but I'm curious for the sake of my own subscription choice in the future once the free Slacker account comes to an end.

Try "Gershwin". "Eurythmics". Pretty much anything classical. The "tween" oriented stations are horrid - so bad actually, that we created playlists to have at least some age appropriate music for my kids... what goes as kids music on Slacker is in large swaths R rated.
For pretty much any group that I like (yes, I'm not 23, like, I believe, the majority of Tesla owners), many of the key albums are missing.
So yes, it's catalog, catalog, catalog. Plus the curation of many of the stations.

 

[JeffS]

I think it's just familiarity driving the opinions. I never used Spotify. Pandora and Google Play. Folks that have the Tesla account for free.. Comparing to a Spotify account for not-free...the Spotify account is better. If folks would go with a full premium Slacker, I think many would be pleased with how good it is.

The best feature? Slacker is in your car. Spotify is not