My original post was removed due to requesting a feature to be *added back*. While I'm also ashamed to have to ask for Spotify to add useful features *back*, it needs to be done so I am posting it here.

Recently Spotify has dropped support for Pioneer, JVC and Kenwood head units as discussed here. This means that you can no longer display song metadata (album art, song name etc) on your head unit nor can you browse playlists and like songs via your car stereo.

We want this added back. In New Zealand Pioneer is one of our top selling aftermarket car stereo brands. We have a ginormous used car market and stereo/sound market and the brands above are commonplace.

I downgraded my Spotify just to have this feature back and I disabled updates - most updates feel like they remove useful things more than they add useful things so I'm happy to stay on an old version. Car listening probably makes up about 70% of my Spotify usage. My girlfriend and I have fun "liking" songs on roadtrips, discovering music we have in common and then adding it to a playlist without needing to use my phone while we drive.

It truly makes no sense and I wish there was an app/mod to "bridge" the connection between Spotify and car stereos/devices to fix this. Better yet, I just wish Spotify added this back.

I would like to know why this useful feature was removed too. It's all well and good having Android Auto/Apple CarPlay but fact is: Most people do not have new cars with this equipped, and plenty of head units do not have this capability. My headunit is from 2017; it isn't exactly old or in need of replacing yet suddenly this feature is removed and practically requires a new head unit (or car) to fix which makes no sense. Or better yet, please add this back.

At this point downgrading makes perfect sense. I get more practicality and functionality out of the downgraded app than with the new one. What exciting or new features am I missing when I can enjoy the basic functionality of playing music in my car?

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Additional notes: I've noticed Spotify is trying to promote their "car thing" so I'm not surprised if this is a hostile, anti-user move to push people to using it. Well if that was the case, why would you drop support GLOBALLY for these head units when the thing's only sold in the U.S.? And why would I want something that functions almost just like my phone, minus all the useful options that you get from a phone or head unit? "Car thing" just sounds like another word for "phone remote"....