Technical Blue and me. Spotify premium

[brownbear250]

Hi, I have have my Samsung phone paired to my Abarth Blue and me. But does anyone know how I can get my Spotify (premium) music to play through the cars speakers? The phone will play in the car through it's own speakers . I have tried with jack plug and usb but still no car sound. Any advice please? Simple terms please as I am not of this century techno wise! Thanks.

 

[U V11NNY]

Hi, Ive posted the same issue with no luck before. After having had a look into it i believe its something to do with the licencing with spotify/android as apple products seem to work with it. Im hoping they bring a bluetooth update soon so i can at least play via blootooth. Aux cables just seem a bit outdated to me.

 

[brownbear250]

Thanks,but even with an aux cable it isn't coming through on the car speakers. Is that what you mean?

 

[Texas149]

You won't be getting any update via fiat let alone making Bluetooth compatable.

 

[JTD_Liam]

Blue&Me doesn't support bluetooth audio streaming unfortunately. The only bluetooth part of it is being able to pair a phone to it for phonecalls.

The only way I was able to play music from Spotify was to plug an aux cable into the phones aux port (on my Samsung this was on the top of the phone) and into the cars aux port. Plugging the cable into the USB slot in the car wouldn't work for me, so make sure it's the round aux port that you use.

Once this is done, select 'Media' on the stereo, press play on Spotify and you should get music. You'll only be able to control the tracks through your phone though, so I'd just select a playlist and leave it to it, as I couldn't change tracks using the stereo or steering wheel buttons. You could use Google Maps as a sat nav and the phone would dip the music volume to announce the sat nav directions though, which I quite liked.

 

[brownbear250]

Thank you for that. What seems a bit odd is that when I went to discuss this with my local Fiat dealership they said they would have to book the car in whilst they looked into it. Maybe needed a patch? Glad I didn't waste any money on that.I have tried as you suggested and at least I now how my music coming through the speakers but it seems not very techno!

 

[JTD_Liam]

Thank you for that. What seems a bit odd is that when I went to discuss this with my local Fiat dealership they said they would have to book the car in whilst they looked into it. Maybe needed a patch? Glad I didn't waste any money on that.I have tried as you suggested and at least I now how my music coming through the speakers but it seems not very techno!

Sometimes I'm not convinced the dealerships really know. There are certain quirks with Blue&Me that can be sorted with an update, but as far as I know it was never designed with being able to stream music from an app like Spotify in mind. It actually pre-dates Spotify by a few years, having launched in the Grande Punto in late 2005 (Spotify launched at the end of 2008). Blue&Me works in a more integrated way with the slightly more old school approach of having music on a USB stick, but we had to wait for the newer UConnect systems in Fiat Group cars which started being put in models around 2012/2013 for Bluetooth Audio Streaming to become available. I still think that whilst UConnect adds things previously unavailable in Blue&Me, Blue&Me was a very good system for its time in terms of voice recognition & for basic connectivity to a mobile phone, but yes, for playing music via an app, Blue&Me is pretty crude unfortunately.

 

[brownbear250]

I eventually found someone at the dealership who confirmed that the Blue&Me that is in my car is not for audio streaming.The new Abarths have a touch screen which will allow it. So for nett about £10,000 I won't have to use an aux cable. Suddenly I love my aux cable! Thanks for your comprehensive responses.

 

[Crazy But True]

Bit annoying if you have a new phone, most of them don't even have an AUX plug anymore!

 

[JTD_Liam]

Bit annoying if you have a new phone, most of them don't even have an AUX plug anymore!

This is true. I suppose you have to decide which is more important - a car that works with your phone, or a phone that works with your car. The trouble is that in the last 10-15 years since Fiat launched Blue&Me, things have moved on quite a lot in this area.

A friend had a 2010 VW Golf GTI and despite costing in the region of £24k new it had no bluetooth connection at all - he had a Parrot bluetooth kit on the sunvisor that he bought himself. Meanwhile Fiat 500's from 2008 and Fiat Grande Punto's from 2006 were driving round with bluetooth connectivity, voice recognition and USB slots to play music from, despite costing well under £10,000. It's hard to knock Fiat for fitting something at the time which is now out of date some 10-15 years later, when other brands like VW didn't bother fitting anything at all

 

[Crazy But True]

This is true. I suppose you have to decide which is more important - a car that works with your phone, or a phone that works with your car. The trouble is that in the last 10-15 years since Fiat launched Blue&Me, things have moved on quite a lot in this area.

A friend had a 2010 VW Golf GTI and despite costing in the region of £24k new it had no bluetooth connection at all - he had a Parrot bluetooth kit on the sunvisor that he bought himself. Meanwhile Fiat 500's from 2008 and Fiat Grande Punto's from 2006 were driving round with bluetooth connectivity, voice recognition and USB slots to play music from, despite costing well under £10,000. It's hard to knock Fiat for fitting something at the time which is now out of date some 10-15 years later, when other brands like VW didn't bother fitting anything at all

You're not wrong! Considering the age and price of these cars it's a small nitpick in all honesty, especially when it has been addressed in new models with that UConnect system.

Most cheap used hatchbacks have CD players and maybe an AUX socket if you're lucky, this does good considering budget and age for sure.

Besides all those phones come with adapters anyway, it's just a bit fiddly.

Me personally as a bit of a nerd I have a few old school iPods lying around simply because the audio output out of them is far superior to even my £1000 iPhone X. That and I like retro stuff, which may also be why I like the Fiat 500.

But point is the old iPods have better DAC's than expensive modern smartphones and that's a fact. Anyone who knows about audio equipment knows what I mean when I say the Wolfson DAC in the iPod 5th gen is still to this day, in 2019, one of the best audio outputs on a portable music player and that's why people still sell refurbed ones for £150-200 on eBay to this day and people will pay that price for them.

Went on a ramble there but point is I have no issue plugging one of those into my car and the audio quality will be better for it anyway.

Only mild annoyance is lack of audio control on the steering wheel if I do that and it's a bit dangerous mucking about with an iPod while you're driving. Have to make sure the playlist is solid so I won't feel the need to skip songs.