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A new job listing on Spotify’s website has given the biggest clue into the music streaming service’s hardware ambitions to date.
Making a bold statement, the listing (initially spotted by Zats Not Funny), says that the company wants to build “a category defining product akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles” which will also “affect the way the world experiences music and talk content”. There aren’t many other details, but it specifies that any new device would come "directly from Spotify" and not be any sort of third party integration.
Another listing was also highlighted, showing Spotify’s interest in voice control (akin to Google Home or Amazon Echo). This has been rumoured to come to the app for a while, but it would likely see use in the company’s ‘category defining’ product.
This is unlikely to just be another smart speaker however. Calling Amazon Echo ‘category defining’, Spotify pretty much rules out any chance of it making a comparable product.
So what will Spotify’s hardware look like?
There has been some speculation that it could be like like the Mighty – a Kickstarted iPod Shuffle-like music player that streams from Spotify. However, as the company is only just hiring someone for this project now indicates that Spotify is very early on in development and there is likely no concrete plan or design just yet.
It will be fascinating to see where the company that already shook up the music industry goes next.
