Earlier this week amidst an ethical and public relations catastrophe, Uber announced new Spotify integration that lets you play music of your choice on the ride-sharing service. Uber just let me take it for a spin, and it’s admittedly a nice touch for the Uber riders of the world.
Here’s how it works. After linking your Uber account and your Spotify account (you need to be a premium subscriber.), simply request a ride as you normally would. When you and your driver link up, you’ll see a little play button pop up below your driver’s avatar. Press it and you’ll be delivered to a Spotify landing page tailored for the city you’re in. I was offered a top 100 indie tracks playlist, as well as a playlist of songs entirely about smoking marijuana. One of those makes sense for me, the other not so much.
If you don’t like the suggested playlists, you can also pull up a listing of your saved music, or navigate over to the Spotify app and search for music of your own.
Of course, it’s not like you can just queue up Satanic Butt Slayer and annoy your driver to the end of the world. They get to choose whether or not your get to listen to music at all, and if so, they get to choose the volume. Do not abuse your radio privileges or you will lose them!
I don’t ever really think you need to take an Uber over the many alternatives, considering the company’s atrocious business practices. But if you do use the embattled car service app, I submit that being able to control the music you’re listening to is a pretty neat feature, especially if you’re the type of irritating passenger that’s always hectoring drivers about their jams.