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Get Spotify's $80 Car Thing for free, if you're lucky. Here's how

Spotify is giving away its Car Thing smart music player for free. But it may be tough to get one right now.

Alison DeNisco Rayome Managing Editor
Managing Editor Alison DeNisco Rayome joined CNET in 2019, and is a member of the Home team. She is a co-lead of the CNET Tips and We Do the Math series, and manages the Home Tips series, testing out new hacks for cooking, cleaning and tinkering with all of the gadgets and appliances in your house. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic.
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Alison DeNisco Rayome
2 min read
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You can sign up to try to get a Spotify Car Thing free.

Spotify

Spotify last month unveiled its cheekily named Car Thing, a smart music player you can clip to your dashboard for voice-activated access to playlists and podcasts. While the Car Thing is currently a limited product launch, Spotify said it would be giving away the normally-$80 device for free to select Spotify listeners, who will only pay for shipping. 

Unfortunately, it's probably going to be tough to actually get your hands on a free Car Thing. As a limited launch, you'll have to join a waiting list and hope you get chosen. It's also available only in the US. Upon launch, Spotify wouldn't confirm how many Car Things it would give away, or if more would become available later, CNET's Joan Solsman reported

But if you want to throw your hat into the ring, you can. Here's how to get on the list for a free Spotify Car Thing. (These instructions are roughly the same on desktop and mobile.) 

How to get on the list for a free Spotify Car Thing

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Add your name to the list for a Spotify Car Thing display.

Spotify

1. Make sure you have a paid Spotify Premium subscription and a smartphone with Wi-Fi or mobile data. 

2. Go to carthing.spotify.com

3. In the top right corner, click Put me on the list

4. Log in with your Spotify Premium account information. 

5. The next screen will ask you which user you want to put on the list (if you have multiple users in your account). Click That's the user and email I want to use and Get on the list.

That's it! Good luck. 

How to set up Spotify Car Thing 

If you do manage to get your hands on a free Car Thing, here's how to set it up on the Spotify mobile app:

1. Open the Spotify app, and tap the Settings gear icon in the top right corner.

2. Tap Car. Under Car Thing, tap Set up Car Thing

3. Tap Begin setup

4. If you have a Car Thing, it should appear on the next screen (just make sure it's turned on). Follow the instructions after that point. 

For more, check out which Spotify Premium subscription is best for you, and how to connect your Spotify account to your Google Home device

Joan Solsman contributed to this report. 

Watch this: Spotify CEO talks expansion, reaching 1 billion users