Spotify hiring to launch self-branded hardware, potentially a wearable

You can listen to Spotify pretty much anywhere, but apparently that's not good enough.

Spotify is looking to add new members to its ranks with a goal of launching its own hardware, according to job listings the streaming music company has posted. As pointed out by Zatznotfunny, the two listings are pretty clear: the positions are to "deliver hardware directly from Spotify to existing and new customers" and "execution of Spotify's voice efforts beyond our core apps."

A source of Zatznotfunny corroborates the assumption, saying Spotify is aiming to launch its own hardware and specifically using "wearable" to describe it. Spotify's job listings particularly call out making "category defining product akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles," which is a tall order for a company that has no history beyond making apps for other popular platforms.

A Spotify wearable doesn't quite make sense at this point.

Perhaps making some sort of Spotify-only home speaker solution would make sense, but the wearable aspect is a bit harder to understand. It could instead be standalone headphones that connect to your Spotify account, but beyond that it's hard to wonder why anyone would want to commit to wearing a piece of hardware that only handles Spotify — particularly as Spotify has worked with other companies to simply put an app on their wearables.

The proof will be when (or if) Spotify makes future hardware announcements.