I have 700 songs on my Sonos playlist. It’s a shame I can’t use my own playlist in my car! Why does Sonos have no product like this one?
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_158XAV7000/Sony-XAV-AX7000.html?mfr=XAV-AX7000&fromlanding=1
Either Sonos finds a way to allow people to use their playlist everywhere they go, or people will just switch to something else. It’s a great system and I truly love Sonos, but a lot of my time is spent in the car and I’m not going to maintain two different playlists.
Ok. So can we get a physical Sonos car box to plug into our car via USB? I’ll happily purchase one. I’ll pay $350 for it.
From what I’ve seen USB ports in automobiles are used so that the audio system can read and play music files. It’s not a streaming source. However, a lot of vehicles do have aux inputs which could be used.
Or, can you update the app to absorb the playlist from the physical box, enable Bluetooth on the app, and allow that to play the playlist in the car? If so I’ll pay the same price for the Bluetooth-enabled app.
Obviously, people can stream through blue tooth already, and it’s rather common. If Sonos did do this, I doubt that it would be a one time $350 fee. There’s a reason no other app costs anywhere near this. I imainge that it would be a free service, with Sonos radio only since that’s their revenue source, or you’d have to pay a subscription fee. And as has said before doubtful, hard to believe people are going to want to pay a subscription fee on top of their existing subscription fee for streaming just to mix the services together.
I’ll happily settle for either of the solutions above if either is possible. Curious, have your users expressed playing Sonos in the car previously? It’s hard to imagine I’m the first one to ever suggest that. For every person who’s ever suggested it, that means many dozens more per suggester wish to do the same.
There probably has been, but nothing compared to other requests. Just FYI, Sonos does have data related to this. They know which households have more than one streaming services said, and use Sonos playlists to mix them together. So they have a baseline of how big of a market could potentially be. They also would know (or find out through research) that a lot of users are going to want more than just a bluetooth connection, they’ll want the app to work through Carplay or Android Auto or something similar, they’ll want voice control, etc.
With enough effort and hardware I may be able to find a way to make everything work in the car now. I’m assuming Sonos could come up with a much better solution if there’s ample interest to warrant it. Have you ever surveyed users on this topic? Just curious. Thank you.
For reference, I have WiFi in my vehicle and have a android tablet installed as a headunit to control the audio system. I have tried (not very hard) to connect my Move to the vehicle’s WiFi, and then I would be able to use the android tablet or my phone to control the Move. Didn’t work, certainly not easily anyway. It’s not that I wanted the Move to be the vehicle’s audio system, but so that I could use the Move while the vehicle’s parked for outside audio at the beach or park or something. Not that useful since I could just switch over to bluetooth, but I tried.
Anyway, although I like the idea of Sonos in my vehicle, I wouldn’t use it. I use the Amazon app on the tablet 90% of the time, other streaming apps other times. I primarily use Amazon at home, and I have Alexa voice control. The Amazon app will also play tracks I have on a attached USB drive. I can use Alexa cast to transfer what I’m listening to my Sonos at home if I wish.
I would like to get in my car, open my Sonos app, and play my playlist. It’s that simple. They could easily just open up a bluetooth connection through the app. That alone would solve it.
The idea that playlists are stored on Sonos devices and therefore this can’t work is of course ridiculous. The app can easily capture the playlist and it would be simple to use the playlist in the car. If they do that, now the multiple Internet-based sources I store music on can now pull into the car. Obviously any local sources would not work while mobile. But, nobody has to store a song on their own home computer. Very easy to just move it to One Drive, Amazon Music, Google Music, or a whole variety of Internet-based cloud storage.
The reality is, my Sonos playlist only works at home. Can’t take it on vacation. Can’t play it in the car. Can’t take it to the cabin. Can’t plug it in at Hot Tub Gardens. Etc. I want to use the same playlist everywhere.
Sonos actually has the best app I’ve ever seen, allowing music to be pulled from multiple sources. It’s brilliant. It’s just not mobile. And that’s a problem. A competitor absolutely will make a system that’s more universal if Sonos doesn’t. Mark my words. Sonos can lead the way and extend their great technology to mobile if they want to. Doing so will attract new customers and keep current customers like me. I'd prefer to stay with Sonos. But, I will seek the first system that gives me a playlist pulling from multiple sources that works everywhere. It only makes sense.
I’m not going to stop using Sonos boxes and/or speakers in my home just because I can now play my playlist in the car. The ability to play my playlist in the car would not have caused me to purchase one less physical component. At the end of the day I prefer the high-quality wifi sound and convience at home. But I’d happily settle for a bluetooth connection in the car vs. having the entire app not work. Sell me a box I can plug in through USB in the car if you have to. I’ll buy it. I just want something that works.
Well, because that’s an awful idea. Just being frank. I appreciate the suggestion though.
Yes, I could go into my Playlist and split all of the different sources into different lists with considerable effort. Then I would have to maintain my main Sonos playlists plus all of these sub lists at each music source separately forever. What a disaster.
Furthermore, now I can’t just have a single playlist of what I want. If I have 4 music sources, there’s no way to make a playlist that pulls from all of them. I’m stuck running up one app at a time. Just try doing that while driving 500 miles across the country. It’s ridiculously inconvenient.
Do you know of any mobile playlist app where you can build a single playlist that pulls from Google Music, Amazon Music, Microsoft One Drive, Napster, Spotify, etc.? It would be great if all of my 700+ songs existed all in one place, but they do not. If no such app exists, then IMHO Sonos should be that app. I absolutely love the Sonos app. But it’s completely worthless the moment I step foot out of the house. Sonos needs to have a mobile option, or again somebody else will. Some third party app may already exist and I just don’t know about it. Who knows.
By the way, if I did your suggestion above it’s even worse than I thought. Now even at home I can’t have a single playlist that has everything on it that I want. Now even at home I’d have to go through multiple playlists to play everything, not to mention have to remember what playlist each and every song is on because they can no longer be on one. What a nightmare.
Right now I can just pull up the playlist I want and I know what’s on there regardless of where the song is hosted. I just can’t take it with me. It’s a huge problem. Maybe I’m unique and all other Sonos users just use the Sonos app at home and don't care that it doesn’t work anywhere else they go.
As you probably know, it’s a ton of work just to keep one Sonos playlist current let alone many. Places like Napster move songs around and the song on the Sonos playlist just breaks, giving the round CD icon which means the song is no longer connected. Happens all the time, and takes considerable effort each time to figure out where the song moved and get it reconnected. With this constant pain in the rear always being present, it’s hard to imagine adding even more playlists to the mix now. One playlist needs to work everywhere. That should be obvious. Again just MHO. Multiple playlists for multiple devices just isn’t practical. Thanks for your response.
Fulfilling your request would require storing the actual music files on an usb stick or a portable HDD. No way the rightholders behind the various music services are going to grant this approach. Even today the Sonos controller isn’t able to read and play the encrypted music files you may have downloaded from Napster, Amazon Music, Google Music onto your phone for copyright reasons.
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.
Time to stop posting folks. Once it gets into resume measuring, the thread is lost.
I’ve never had that problem in my life with the Sonos controller. Everything has worked flawlessly.
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.
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?
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It’s not a terrible idea, and I kind of like my mixed source playlists at home, and it would be a “nice to have” on the go. However, I doubt the people that want this are a large enough market share to develop for.
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 purchase the Sonos “Car Connect” in a heartbeat. I guess that’s probably pretty obvious at this point isn’t it. :)
How nice it would be to walk out the door with my same Sonos app, jump in the car, and have all my same Sonos stuff pulling in from around the Internet just like I do in the house? Sonos is so brilliant for putting together everything in the way they did it, and it’s such a downer in the car to not have all of that great stuff in one central place.
We often get caught up on what something does currently and come up with limitations due to the way it works already. Those limitations are frequently limitations in thinking more than anything else (not saying that’s the case here necessarily), as something that hasn’t historically done something or other doesn’t mean it can’t be altered to do that thing now. Clearly this could be done in the car just like it’s already being done in the house. The app would have to change to be something more than a controller, yes. Licensing issues and/or profitability issues may preclude from doing this anyway even if it can be done, yes I get that too.
What if it turns out 5% of Sonos’ current customers would purchase the Sonos Car Connect? I don’t know if it would be worth making the product for that, but it may well be. Sonos could of course find out with a survey. Should it turn out licensing is not an issue and the product could be profitable, I’d love to see it made. It’s been on my wish list for a long time now, and I’m not taking it off. :)
Danny, thanks for your response.
Yes I agree Sonos should not do this if there is little chance of it being profitable. I believe in exploring ideas, entertaining discussion, brainstorming, and seeing if possibilities exists rather than shooting down ideas because nobody has done something or other before. That’s not how innovation works.
Perhaps to give some background, many of us have seen variations of this idea for quite some, specifically thinking that the Sonos app is a music player and not a controller. It’s not as if ideas are bad, we’ve seen them before and have already gone through figuring out why the idea may not be that good. We also see what is requested most often so have some sense of what people want, very much informally and inaccurately. As an example, one common one is to be able to use Fives as front speakers in a home theatre setting, and pretty much everyone is for that idea. The product to make it happen has even be coined as ‘Super Connect’.
It’s not realistic for me personally to develop such an app if it’s even possible, although I suppose if it’s possible I could look into hiring it out. Clearly it would be nice if it’s something Sonos can and would do. I’m old school and only develop on the desktop. I still develop in Cold Fusion, hah. That’s how old school I am. :)
Thanks again for your response.
Yes, I was in college when Cold Fusion first came out. Definitely Old School.
I just can’t stay away from this thread… my jaw hits the floor every time I come back to it. So what is the market size of people who have to have exactly the same playlist in the car as they have at home, drawn from multiple streaming services? I think that’s you,
Keep it coming….
I agree: mind-blowing. He’s already said in an earlier post that he believes that his needs are unique, yet still expects Sonos to develop this for him. Don’t mis-understand me, brad_switzer, you’re quite entitled to have and express your wants and desires (within legal limits!!!) but I really think your expectations are a little too high.
I’d certainly be interested if Sonos, like Bose and others, work with a car company to produce an in-car speaker system, but with the changes in background noise from engine/motor, wind and road surface I don’t see it being the same premium, tuned sound system we can get from a home installation.
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.
+23
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).
+15
I think the problem with this is it pretty much has to be a hardware device. An app that drew from several different streaming services to create a queue would probably face opposition and difficulty in achieving licensing from all the streaming partners, but hardware based probably faces less problems in that arena. Although, I can’t tell you why I’m making that assumption, and it could be totally wrong. It just feels like they’d see it differently, although there’s no good reason they should.
I wonder, does Roon have mixed playlists? Perhaps a Roon app on a portable device, maybe a Raspberry Pi based player. Just brainstorming.
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.
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.
Haven’t you just contradicted yourself: you say many would buy it, and yet your needs are unique. Certainly, I agree demand would seem to be very low for such a capability, and this may be a factor in Sonos or anyone else developing such a product. It may also be challenging to get a format that is supported by multiple manufacturers.
Just need to point something out to you. Your last post said ‘it’s clear you’re not going to create a Sonos mobile system’. That is most definitely true, as all those who have contributed to this discussion are Sonos users, and not connected in any way to Sonos.
Your suggestion that the TV remote was an inappropriate analogy shows that you still haven’t grasped why your request is so at odds with the nature and design of the Sonos system.
If Sonos ever go under, it won’t be for lack of the ability to provide music in a car, when there are simple ways, complementary to Sonos, to do so.
While I would love to see Sonos in a car, there’s a couple issues with it that haven’t been mentioned yet. The biggest one is that I imagine most streaming services would not be ok with the Sonos app being an actual music player for their service, as a different option for their own app. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are contracts in place to actually prevent that. Sirius XM, for example doesn’t want you to play through their Sonos app, and not their own with limited services (or their ability to add features) and easily consider other options. Sirius XM added some new stations a while back, which were on their app but not available on Sonos. Not sure if that ever got added.
Perhaps a related example, you can play Spotify through Alexa voice, and you can use those services on your phone while mobile. But you can’t play Spotify through voice on your phone. That could be Amazon’s restrictions, but regardless it doesn’t happen.
The other big point I didn’t see mentioned is that it’s hard to imagine Sonos can monetize a mobile app. Will they be able to charge a fee for it? Can it be ad driven? Are people going to to pay or want ads to accept content they have already paid for? Will such a feature bring in more customers?
If a Sonos mobile app does happen, I suspect it would be just their new radio stations, since it’s not duplicating an existing service, and it’s ad revenue driven already.
Would Sonos ever get into selling hardware for vehicles? It seems like they still have a ton of growth potential in the home market already. Perhaps years from now, or if some automaker made them a deal they can’t refuse, but seems unlikely
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