Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has launched a new in-car collaborative app with music streaming service Spotify.
The app, with readily available ‘music for every moment’ radio and personalised playlists, will be based on users’ tastes and in-car listening habits and can be found in JLR’s ‘InControl Apps’ library.
Musicians Ricky Wilson from Kaiser Chiefs and Elliot Gleave, aka rapper Example, were first to try the app in the car before its official release, going head to head in a battle of music tastes. Each created a Spotify playlist featuring their top driving songs and took to the road in the new Range Rover Evoque Convertible and the Jaguar XE to pitch their playlists against one another.
The artists’ playlists feature recent and classic tracks and include their latest singles, Kaiser Chiefs’ ‘Hole in My Soul’ and Example’s ‘Later’. Both driving playlists are available now via the official Kaiser Chiefs and Example Spotify profiles.
Example said: “It’s great to be the first to try the new Spotify app in a Jaguar. It worked really well and I had fun setting up my winning playlist and chatting with Ricky, even if I did have to listen to his jokes.” Wilson said: “I listen to music every day so it’s important I’m now able to use the app while I’m on the move. I respect Elliot’s music tastes, we’d even both included Jamie T, but my playlist was the best by miles.”
Launching this month, Spotify mirrors the interface users will be familiar with from their smartphone, with touch and swipe gestures to navigate content. Featuring a ‘deep learning’ function - which recognises listening habits - users can access personalised ‘Just for You’ playlists containing recommended tracks in the car, saving time scrolling through music on the move. Spotify’s ‘Offline Mode’ will display downloaded content despite poor internet connection for those stranded in areas with low-signal.
Spotify for Jaguar Land Rover is the result of a year’s worth of collaborative development between the two companies. The design teams set out to create a familiar experience designed for use in-car. The horizontal scrolling and album artwork tiles aim to minimise distraction while driving.
Peter Virk, Director of Connected Technologies and Apps at Jaguar Land Rover, said: “Spotify has more than 100 million subscribers, a proportion of whom drive Jaguars or Land Rovers, so we recognised that Spotify was at the top of our customers’ apps wish list. From the beginning we wanted to create a Spotify experience that users would really love. The Spotify design team worked closely with us to create the best in-vehicle experience, and have spent many hours with us at our Gaydon HQ running user studies with our employees. The app is now available in our InControl Apps library, and we will continue to work with Spotify to add new features such as predictive search over the coming months.”
Jonathan Tarlton, Business Development at Spotify, said: “Partnering with Jaguar Land Rover brings Spotify to a family of amazing premium vehicles with a user interface designed to look and feel like the Spotify our users already know and love. As we continue to innovate and shape the future of how music is consumed in the car, it's great to have a partner in Jaguar Land Rover to come along for the ride.”
InControl Apps subscribers can download Spotify from the Apple App Store if it’s not already on their device. From 27th September, once downloaded, the app will automatically show up on the vehicle touch screen when the smartphone is connected. Users do not need a premium subscription to access Spotify via InControl Apps.