It’s always the same story every time: you get behind the wheel, turn on the radio to listen to some music and you’re forced to listen to the same songs over and over again, the ones that are broadcast over and over again by the main national stations. Fed up with this situation, you’ve created a playlist on Spotify with your favorite songs to listen to on your car rides. Unfortunately, however, all your attempts to listen to the aforementioned playlist through your car’s audio system have not given the desired result.
Don’t worry: if this is actually the case, I will be happy to give you a hand and explain how to connect Spotify to the car . In the following paragraphs, intact, you will find all the information you need to achieve your goal: in addition to listing the connection solutions available to you, I will show you the detailed procedure for accessing Spotify via the car’s on-board system or, in if your car is older, using your smartphone directly.
If you can’t wait to find out more, don’t delay any longer and dive into the topic right away. Courage: make yourself comfortable, take all the time you deem appropriate and identify the connection solution that you think best suits your needs. By carefully reading the instructions I’m about to give you and trying to put them into practice, I’m sure you’ll be able to connect Spotify to your machine in no time. Happy reading and, above all, happy listening!
How to connect Spotify to car
Can it connect Spotify to the car?
Before going into the details of this guide and showing you in detail how to connect Spotify to your car , let me explain when it is possible to do this and what connection solutions are available to you.
If you have a rather recent car, which has an on-board multimedia system with Spotify installed “as standard”, you can start playback of your favorite songs either by acting on your car’s display or using voice commands. If, on the other hand, your car does not have the Spotify app but is compatible with Android Auto or CarPlay , you can easily connect Spotify and choose the songs of your interest using the car display, the phone screen (CarPlay only) or using voice commands.
And if your car is older, you will need to connect your smartphone to the car via Bluetooth or cable and listen to Spotify in the car’s audio system using the phone as a “bridge”. All clear? Well, then let’s proceed.
Connect Spotify to the machine via built-in app
As mentioned above, if your car is equipped with a multimedia system with the Spotify app integrated , all you have to do to listen to your favorite songs via the famous music streaming service is launch the app in question directly from the car on-board display.
At the time of writing this guide, cars that integrate this feature are the BMW 7 Series , GM Cadillac ATS , Volvo XC90 , Tesla Model S , Jaguar Land Rover , Ford Mustang and Mini Cooper . Furthermore, it will be useful for you to know that the procedure for listening to Spotify via the app integrated into the car’s on-board system varies from model to model.
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For example, to listen to Spotify on a Ford Mustang you must first download the Spotify app on your smartphone and then connect it to the car via Bluetooth (iPhones must be connected via USB cable).
Subsequently, you must activate the voice commands using the appropriate button on the steering wheel and pronounce the command “Spotify” to start the application. Alternatively, you can launch the app by choosing the Applications option from the car’s on-board display menu. Furthermore, it is possible to use voice commands to play your favorite music: to know all the available commands, simply pronounce the command “Spotify Help” .
It will be useful for you to know that some cars require a Spotify Premium account to connect Spotify . In this regard, my guide on how to have Spotify Premium may be useful.
Connect Spotify to the car via Android Auto
If your car is among the over 400 car models compatible with Android Auto (here the complete list), an application that allows you to duplicate your smartphone screen on the car’s on-board display, you can consider this solution for listen to your favorite songs when you’re driving.
After downloading Spotify to your device, turn on your car and connect your smartphone to it via the USB cable (or via Bluetooth if your car is compatible with Android Auto Wireless ). Then unlock your phone screen and press the Start and Download buttons , then tap the Continue and Allow buttons (five consecutive times) to complete the first configuration.
Now, select the Android Auto item on the car display to access the main screen of the app in question (called Home ), press the headphones icon to access the Music section and choose the Spotify item to view your music library.
It will be useful for you to know that you can use Android Auto even if you don’t have a compatible car model. In that case, you can connect your phone to the car via USB cable , manually download the Android Auto application from the Play Store and use Android Auto and Spotify directly from your smartphone. To learn more about the subject, I leave you with my guide on how Android Auto works.
Connect Spotify to the car via CarPlay
CarPlay is the Apple home system developed to allow you to use your phone while driving in total safety. It is compatible with over 200 models of cars and stereo systems (here the complete list) and among the applications compatible with CarPlay there is also Spotify.
To listen to Spotify in your car via CarPlay, first take your iPhone, make sure you have Siri activated and connect it to your car via USB cable or via Bluetooth (only if your vehicle supports CarPlay via wireless connection), then access iOS Settings by tapping the gear wheel icon and choose the General and CarPlay options .
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Now, press and hold the voice control button on your car steering wheel and wait for your vehicle to be recognized by CarPlay. Then press on the name of your car visible under the Available cars option and follow the guided procedure to complete the configuration. If CarPlay does not start automatically, you must access the main menu of your car’s on-board system, select the on-board services option and press on CarPlay . To learn more, you can check out my guide on how to install CarPlay.
Once the connection between your iPhone and your car is completed and the first CarPlay setup is complete, locate the Spotify app on the CarPlay Home screen and tap on it to access your music library and start playing your iPhone’s songs. interest. To do this, you can interact directly via the car’s touch display or invoke Siri with the command “Hey, Siri” and saying the commands “Play music on Spotify” or “Start on Spotify” .
Connect Spotify to the car via Bluetooth
On cars equipped with integrated Bluetooth , you can connect your smartphone, access Spotify and listen to the music of your interest via the car’s audio system.
If you think this is the solution that best suits your needs and you have an Android device , first tap the gear wheel icon to access your smartphone’s Settings , press the Device connection and Bluetooth items and move the lever next to Bluetooth item from OFF to ON .
If, on the other hand, you have an iPhone , access the iOS Settings by tapping the gear wheel icon on your device’s home screen, access the Bluetooth section and move the lever next to the Bluetooth item from OFF to ON . For the detailed procedure, you can read my guide on how to activate Bluetooth.
Now, turn on your car’s display, access the section dedicated to the telephone and choose the option to add a new device . Then take your smartphone and, in the Bluetooth section , wait for the car to be recognised, then tap on it, enter the access code that appears on the car display, tap the Connect button and play it’s done.
If, on the other hand, your car doesn’t have built-in Bluetooth, you may want to consider one of several Bluetooth receivers, such as a Bluetooth AUX adapter , FM transmitter , or Bluetooth hands-free kit .
Regardless of the type of Bluetooth connection you have used, to listen to music in your car via Spotify, all you have to do is take your smartphone, open the Spotify app and start playing the track, album or playlists of your interest.
It will be useful to know that, after connecting the phone to the car via Bluetooth, Spotify will automatically switch to car mode with graphics specially designed for using the app in the car. If not, you can activate this mode by pressing the gear wheel icon to access Spotify Settings , locate the Auto option and move the relative lever from OFF to ON .
Connect Spotify to the car via cable
If you have an older car model that does not support Bluetooth, in addition to the devices I have indicated in the previous paragraphs, you can connect the phone to your car via cable and then start the Spotify app on your smartphone.
If your car is equipped with one or more USB inputs, you can connect the phone to the car using a USB cable which, in addition to recharging the battery of the mobile device, allows you to make calls and listen to music (if the car software allows it ).
Alternatively, you can use an AUX cable that allows you to play audio from your smartphone through your car’s audio system. All you have to do is take one end of the cable in your possession and insert it into the telephone input and the other end into the car input (usually present near the car radio). Finally, activate the AUX function from the car radio settings and that’s it.
How do you say? Does your car have neither a USB input nor an AUX cable input? In this case, you can use a cassette adapter to be inserted into the car’s cassette player (if the latter is equipped with one) and which allows connection with your smartphone via the relative AUX cable with 3.5 mm jack to be inserted into the appropriate input on the telephone. To find out about other solutions of this kind, you can read my guide on how to connect the phone to the car.
Now, regardless of the solution you have chosen to connect your phone to the car via cable, take your smartphone, open the Spotify app and start playing the songs of your interest. In this regard, my guide on how Spotify works may be useful for you.