Spotify is busting free of CarPlay with the launch of its first native car app

Spotify announced Wednesday the launch of its next-generation, fully native in-car app, built directly on Google’s Android Automotive operating system. The standalone app, which is launching today in select Audi models, runs directly on the vehicle’s infotainment hardware — eliminating the need for phone tethering, Bluetooth connections, or aux cables.

It’s the clearest sign yet that Spotify is ready to move beyond Apple CarPlay and Android, popular phone projection systems that currently dominate the way most people consume media in their cars. And with 34 percent of Spotify’s monthly active users and 77 percent of Premium subscribers streaming music in their cars, the platform they use to listen has never been more important.

Spotify’s new native app will launch with several Audi models, including the electric A6 e-tron and Q6 e-tron, as well as the gas-powered A5, Q5, and A6. Jonathan Tarlton, Spotify’s automotive business development lead, said the app, which has been in development for a little more than a year, is about delivering a more inviting experience to users — and specifically one that’s completely controlled by Spotify.

Spotify’s standard Android Automotive app operated as a “headless” integration, meaning that Spotify supplied the underlying backend data, playlists, and music catalog, but Google’s templates dictated how the interface was drawn and structured onscreen. The new Audi application is “headful,” allowing Spotify to draw and render its own native UI directly on the vehicle’s screens from scratch.

“We’re drawing all the pixels,” Tarlton said in an interview. “We own the user experience. So we’re not in a template or a framework. It’s 100 percent Spotify.”

To be sure, Spotify isn’t turning its back on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto; the company is still “heavily invested” in phone projection, Tarlton assured us. That said, the native Spotify app is being set up to compete directly with phone mirroring. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto remain the default way many people listen to music or podcasts in their vehicles: Drivers get in, connect their phones automatically, and tap into their familiar mobile interface. A native Spotify app could encourage people to listen through the car’s own operating system instead of projecting their phones — a scenario that Tarlton says he welcomes.

“We’re drawing all the pixels. We own the user experience. So we’re not in a template or a framework. It’s 100 percent Spotify.”

— Jonathan Tarlton, head of automotive business development at Spotify

“We want to give users choice,” he said. “We want to be wherever they are and we want to make sure that they’re accessing Spotify in the way they want to access it, whether they’re locked into the iOS ecosystem … or Android on the phone as well.”

People may love their CarPlay, but the experience is not without its tradeoffs. Wireless connection, in particular, can be spotty depending on your vehicle. Tarlton said the new app is aimed at reducing some of those headaches, like “a cold start in the morning,” he said. “You’re not having to wait to boot. You’re not having to wait for a screen to load. You’re not having to plug your phone in.”

There are other benefits to using the native Spotify app over a projected one from your phone. Passengers can scan a QR code displayed on the screen to join a wireless “Spotify Jam” session and add songs directly to the queue from their smartphones. On vehicles with a dedicated secondary passenger display, front passengers can browse, view lyrics, and watch video content without disturbing the driver. And while the vehicle is parked or charging, those motion graphics, like video podcasts and lyrics, move to the central display so everyone can enjoy.

With these features in particular, Spotify feels like it’s doing its part in helping to bring car passengers together again, Tarlton said. Often today you’ll find parents rocking out to their favorite hits in the front while kids are wearing their headphones in the back. The new app aims to correct that dynamic. “I’m excited that we can bring joy to the cabin again,” he said. “It’s not just technology.”

The rollout of the new Spotify app will focus in particular on cars with Android-based operating systems, he said. In that way, Spotifty can avoid having to build separate, bespoke applications for every individual automaker. Rather, the company can use a standard Android Automotive APK that it can then distribute through multiple app stores, whether it’s the Google Play Store or proprietary automaker stores like the Audi Application Store.

“Our number one goal was to prevent fragmentation, not just for our sake, but for the sake of the whole industry,” Tarlton said, “because we believe in having an open and fair place for apps to play — and the car is such a great place for that.”