Sonos in Car

I’ve never had that problem in my life with the Sonos controller. Everything has worked flawlessly.

I clearly don’t understand this at your level, but probably 90% of my stuff is pulling from normal places like Napster and Spotify. Couldn’t those services be used since that’s the underlying source doing the streaming anyway? I don’t get what the dif would be. 

Just curious, let’s say 100% of my songs are just on Spotify and Napster. Is it against some sort of licensing requirement to play those same Spotify and Napster songs I can play at home through bluetooth in my car using the same Sonos app? If it’s not, you might ask me why don’t I simply use Spotify and Napster apps in the car. And again yes that would work, but now I’m maintaining multiple playlists and I’m further never able to have everything I want on a single playlist in a single app.

Maybe there’s a valid licensing reason why this cannot be done as you’ve suggested. If there is that’s a real shame. At some point I swear I’m likely just to go purchase an mp3 of every single song, stick them all on the One Drive, and call it a day. If I do that I can now use a single playlist at home and a single playlist on the road.

The down side? That will cost me roughly $1,000 to purchase all of those songs, plus I’ll no longer be able to play anything I haven’t purchased. If I have to purchase and own all songs just to be able to make a playlist that works both at home and mobile, there’s no reason to keep subscribing to a monthly streaming service. 

A playlist is just a text file pointing to the actual music files. The Sonos controller is just that, a remote control. When you load a Sonos playlist into the queue a particular speaker goes out fetching the requested tracks directly from the source(s), meaning the music is being streamed over internet from your Napster, Amazon Music and Google Music account(s).

Ok. Is there a reason the app could not do this same thing using Bluetooth in a car? Or is Sonos concerned enabling that will hurt hardware sales? Either answer is fine with me. I’m just wondering if it’s an actual technical issue, a licensing issue, or a company strategy issue. Thank you.

The Sonos app is incapable of playing music because it is just a remote control. It doesn't have the playlist stored on it. Sonos is designed as an integrated home networked music system. The app has its role and the speakers have their role.  The app without the speakers is like a TV remote without a TV.  Your request makes absolutely no sense.

Do you expect to take your TV remote in the car and get it to play movies for you?

My suggestion would be to build playlists in Spotify. You can play those on Sonos or in the car using the Spotify music player app.

No, of course I do not expect to take my tv remote in the car and play movies. Of course that’s a false equivalence. Your Spotify suggestion, while certainly valid, does not address the problem I’m having whatsoever. Trust me eventually somebody will address it. It can or can not be Sonos. In the future we’ll all have to pick whatever the best solution is for our own needs. If Sonos thinks there’s no mobile opportunity here I think they’re crazy. Just MHO. I have am amazing Sonos system in both my home and office. At each place I use the same playlist. I cannot use that playlist in the car. A shame.

I would urge you to continue to look into the method by which Sonos works.

Any car that could have a Sonos system in it would need an internet connection. Very few do, which is probably why Sonos hasn’t chosen to put their speakers in an automobile.

Unfortunately, just putting the controller into a head unit wouldn’t be enough, since the “player” is the computer in each Sonos speaker. The controller just acts as a remote control for the computer and application running on each speaker. 

Most people subscribe to a single music service, so for them it makes most sense to create playlists for that music service. They can then play them anywhere they like, including their car, their home, and the beach.

The OP appears to subscribe to multiple services, and wants the service-spanning-playlist feature that is unique to Sonos to work in other devices. Having a playlist for each service is not acceptable to the OP apparently (works fine for me and means I don’t have to have special hardware in every vehicle, just my phone).

You’ve made the assumption most people subscribe to 1 service and don’t pull songs from multiple places onto 1 Sonos playlist. You’re probably quite right. I likely use the app in a much more advanced way than most. I have things such as my own recordings uploaded to Amazon Music or Google music that don’t exist on any streaming service. Certainly can’t play those in the car.

Anyway, it’s clear you’re not going to create a Sonos mobile system. You could have sold a box that plugs into car USB. Many would buy it. I think you’re short sighted having no mobile solution at all. Again though, I suspect my needs are unique most. I’ll find a solution eventually that pulls songs from any host into one mobile playlist. Thanks for your answers.