Spotify will finally launch its own tethered speaker

Update 06/06/2018: Spotify is ready and truly ready to launch its own connected speaker. Variety reports that the company received certification from the FCC on June 5, 2018. Therefore, we expect the launch of a Spotify speaker with its own voice assistant, which definitely specializes in music, soon. HomePods aren’t exactly the same niche as Google Home and Amazon Echo, but it’s to be seen if Spotify can manage to hold its own in this increasingly competitive market.

The connected speakers market is in turmoil, and Spotify plans to be part of that adventure. The (by far) leader in music streaming seems to be gearing up for the launch of a home speaker. Our colleagues at the Guardian, who have received new job offers in this direction from the company, come to this conclusion.

Indeed, the green giant is looking for the following profiles: “operations manager”, “senior project manager: hardware manufacturing” and “project manager: hardware manufacturing and engineering”. These three posts clearly show that: Spotify is about to launch a physical product. It is stated in the company’s advertisements. “to create its first physical products and to establish an operational organization for production, supply chain, sales and marketing”. These announcements complement another job offer for “product manager” released in April 2017. His job description was pretty clear: his role, “Define product requirements for internet-connected hardware and the software that powers it”.

Spotify: A speaker connected to Google Assistant?

Faced with the success of connected speakers, Spotify is almost forced to launch its own product. If the music streaming giant has always been able to integrate with competing products, there’s nothing to say it will be compatible in the future. Manufacturers increasingly tend to limit services that do not belong to them.

Evidence if needed: Apple’s HomePod. Spotify is compatible with this speaker but cannot take advantage of all its features. Apple has reserved this full compatibility for its music streaming service Apple Music. Therefore, millions of Apple product users may be tempted to switch to the firm’s service if their products are limited to other services. Moreover, according to the Wall Street Journal, Apple Music could surpass Spotify in the US market this year. A hard blow to the leader.

He has not developed his own voice assistant, Spotify can integrate Google Assistant It’s also not impossible for the Speaker to host a second assistant: Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa. Some speakers currently on the market integrate both. If Spotify launches a home-connected speaker, would you be interested?