Philips and its parent company TP Vision have announced that the Philips range of Android-powered TVs have become the first smart TVs on the market to ship with Spotify Connect out of the box, with all models set to launch in September letting Spotify Premium subscribers play music through their TV and control it wirelessly from a smartphone or tablet.
Spotify Connect is the streaming music services' attempt to integrate with a greater range of hardware partners, adding playback support to speakers, home cinema systems and now, TVs. Because each compatible device has its own Spotify client, it doesn't need to stream directly from a paired smartphone or tablet; that means it won't stop the music if your phone goes out of wireless range, you get a call or open another app.
Anyone that buys a Philips Android TV will be able to access their Spotify playlists, browse the library of 20 million+ songs, play artist and genre radio mixes, or stream from the Your Music section, using either a Philips TV remote, smartphone or tablet.
"Having worked with TP Vision as a launch partner for Spotify Connect on their Smart TVs I am delighted that we’re working together as partners on the next chapter, integrating Spotify Connect into Philips Smart TVs Powered by Android," Pascal de Mul, Spotify's global head of hardware partnerships, said of the announcement.
When we first saw a Philips TV powered by Android at CES in January this year, the company was using its own version of Google's Android operating system tweaked specifically for big screens. In the eight months since it's unclear if the company will be making the switch to Android TV, which was announced in June at Google I/O, or sticking with its own version for the forseeable future.
We'll find out next week at IFA in Berlin, where TP Vision is expected to reveal its 2014 line-up of Android-powered TVs.
