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.
It looks to me like he is willing to buy a new class of Sonos hardware. Perhaps it would be called the Car-Port?
+17
Just to explore this thought.…
With a lot of IT-talent (that I do not have) and without Sonos support maybe this can be done by:
This way the Port in your car keeps being part of the Sonos network in your home - it won’t know that your gone. It could controlled via the app like any Sonos, including being able to use the playlists the like OP wants to. You would have to be on a scheme with lots of GB’s.
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….
That’s a good suggestion. I’ll see if I can get something like that going. I love Sonos and would love to just be able to use my Sonos playlist and app in the car.
Some people in this thread clearly just don’t get it. That’s ok. My needs being unique hardly makes me the only person who would like to use Sonos in the car. That I can assure you.
One of the greatest things about Sonos is the ability to pull music from multiple sources into a single playlist. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s just a beautiful thing that doesn’t work in the car.
You can be progressive and make something cool to allow Sonos to work in the car, or you can not do that. I’d bet anything you can come up with a solution you can sell for profit. But hey, it’s your company. I’ll still love Sonos whether you do it or not. :)
Heh, it’s funny you think that the OP (that would be me) doesn’t really understand how Sonos works. I bet I understand how it works and use it in a more sophisticated way than most of your customers.
Is it really that much of a stretch to think people might like to use their Sonos app in the car? Really? This is kinda like pulling teeth. To be frank, your idea that nobody else does something and that makes it not a good idea to do it is a logical fallacy. Yes, it’s possible it’s not a good idea for your own business reasons. But that fact alone doesn’t make it so. The iPhone never existed before Steve Jobs made it. ‘Nuff said.
Why don’t you put out a survey to Sonos users and ask them if they’d like a way to use their Sonos app in the car? How hard would that be? That would certainly settle whether there really is a need or not, wouldn’t it? Or, you can not do that. It’s your company. I’ll bet you anything there’s more people like me than you even realize. You may be looking right past a great opportunity.
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.
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.
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.
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.
So your suggesting a wifi based, hardware based speaker system should be portable? I'm not sure that's what many people bought their Sonis system for.
You have plenty of alternatives. Set up a NAS, use Plex and your music is available wherever you go, as long as your NAS is on.
Use Spotify.
Use iTunes for your playlists.
But don't expect Sonos to become am external streaming service.
All right. Thanks for your responses. It’s a terrific solution for in the home that Sonos had the vision to see. I hope some company in the future develops an equally good solution for the car. Thanks again for the discussion.
Curious, have your users expressed playing Sonos in the car previously?
Have you ever surveyed users on this topic? Just curious. Thank you.
None of us has any users, and so we cannot have surveyed them. I am thinking now that this whole thread is a joke, because nobody could be so dim as to think he was still addressing Sonos after it had been pointed out several times that that is not the case. I’ll move on now, I think.
+23
Why not just split up your Sonos playlist into a playlist for each music service? Those playlists will work in the car just fine via their respective apps, and they will work just fine on your Sonos at home as well. Plus they will keep in sync without any effort in your part.
Bonus feature: they also work in your pocket when you are at the beach, away from car and home.
Somebody had referred to me as the OP or the OG or whatever it was, and I thought it was a comment from somebody at Sonos. I didn’t scrutinize it. Shoot me. :)
No, the solution has not been invented, and it’s not some singular app with Bluetooth. I’m wanting to use a playlist in the car that pulls from multiple music sources. In my case those sources are Amazon Music, Google Music, Napster, and the Microsoft One Drive. As you can see, all of those sources are Internet-based and not local, thus they should all work in the car.
I’m assuming none of you can name a single app that meets with the above request. Sonos clearly realized people would want to pull music from a variety of sources into a single playlist, and they made a terrific solution for doing so. It’s completely logical to want for this same ability to work when in the car. Maybe it’s not a need many if not most people have. But it’s definitely a desire I have, and I bet plenty of people would enjoy the ability to use their same Sonos app w/ their same playlist in the car. Some here have acted like this is some type of far-reaching request. Seriously? I’ve run Internet businesses for 25 years. 2 million people are using systems I invented. I guess I’m just used to working with innovators...
I’ve given this some thought, and just as a challenge to myself, I’m going to see if I can get it working in the car using current technology. Will be interesting!
I’m assuming none of you can name a single app that meets with the above request.
Not exactly an app like you were thinking, but Carplay and Android Auto can, but they can’t merge playlists or operate in the way you are hoping for. Honestly, the fact that you can’t find an app that does this already should give you some pause, that perhaps there are barriers to this you are not aware of.
Sonos clearly realized people would want to pull music from a variety of sources into a single playlist, and they made a terrific solution for doing so.
Sonos created playlists back before streaming services existed (I think) to use with your music library. I imagine it was more an easy add on that it was a fulfillment of a need.
It’s completely logical to want for this same ability to work when in the car. Maybe it’s not a need many if not most people have.
No one is questioning that it wouldn’t be a nice feature. The issue is whether people would pay for the feature, whether streaming services would even allow it, etc. I think you can agree that Sonos shouldn’t do this if there is little chance of it being profitable to do so, right?
But it’s definitely a desire I have, and I bet plenty of people would enjoy the ability to use their same Sonos app w/ their same playlist in the car. Some here have acted like this is some type of far-reaching request. Seriously?
It is very much outside of Sonos wheelhouse.
I’ve run Internet businesses for 25 years. 2 million people are using systems I invented. I guess I’m just used to working with innovators...
Perhaps you should be looking to build this app yourself?
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.
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.
You guys are bashing him for no reason. All he has is a wish that he can have one place to go for his music experience (at home and outside home). His baseline is the Sonos app. Be happy for him, say yup, that would be nice for you and move on. Why shoot down an idea.
I am actually the opposite even though I also want the same experience at home and outside the home. The difference is that I simply never use the Sonos app. I use either Spotify Connect or Airplay 2. My experience is the same at home and outside the home. Couldn’t care less about multi-room whole home audio, yet I do still like my Sonos speakers. I like having choice. And Sonos didn’t lose a sale because of it. It is not an all-or-nothing deal. Perhaps if I could use the Sonos app outside the home, they would lure me in even further.
Thank you Sonosg. :)
Yes John...I said my needs are unique, and I never said I was the only person in the entire world who has this desire. That’s how you’re framing it. 5% of a community could desire something unique from the needs of the rest of a larger community. It could also be that 5% of a market is quite profitable. I’d be quite happy to sell 5% of my own customers something new if it makes me money. That all seems obvious to me but from your response apparently doesn’t seem obvious to you. I never realized wanting to use my Sonos app in the car would be viewed as some wild crazy desire way outside the box. To me that sounds like something absolutely normal and obvious one might want to do. My needs may be unique but I highly doubt that makes me completely alone in this desire.
My world inside the home is absolutely amazing due to the Sonos app. I’ve got 5 zones so I can tap into this world anywhere I am in the house. I’d just love to add a zone 6 in the car. Now that I know that’s an absolutely crazy and unacceptable thing to desire though and I must just not get it, I’ll discontinue. By discontinue I mean I’ll discontinue the thread now. I won’t discontinue my desire for the app, and I’ll still be hoping Sonos or somebody else brings this together in the future because for me and anybody else like me, this makes perfect sense.
For anyone who at least entertained the discussion above with an open mind, I thank you. I learned a few things here in this thread and I also want to thank you for that as well.
+15
Does anyone make a device or app that does this? OP is complaining that Sonos doesn’t do something revolutionary that other competitors also don’t do. It’s your idea - make your app, create a service that does this, then make a connector for Sonos, and an app for phones.
This is not an awful idea, but it kind of points to OP no really understanding how Sonos works.
It’s also funny that you still seem to think this is Sonos staff you’re talking to. This is a user forum, as has been pointed out to you already, though Sonos staff do monitor it. Most, if not all of the replies I’ve read on here (I can’t be bothered to check through), are from users. Yet still you’re using phrases like “it’s your company”.
For the record, if you want to run a quick survey here, I do not want to use the Sonos app in my car.
+23
Is it really that much of a stretch to think people might like to use their Sonos app in the car? Really?
The Sonos app doesn’t play music though. Its a remote control that tells Players to play music. It provides the UX to choose the music, but all playback is done by the devices themselves. So you would need an app, and a Player (ie actual hardware).
The Sonos app is a remote control, and doesn’t play music at all. Playlists are stored on the Sonos speakers, not the app.
Never going to happen. The suggestion that this will have any impact on sales of Sonos' networked home audio system is unconvincing, to put it politely. .
+17
Because of the things you want changed in the way Sonos works (make the app much more important, keeping playlists that in the Sonos system are stored on the devices themselves, making it into a bluetooth music player) I do not see Sonos doing this - making the app into a bluetooth player would not require you to invest in Sonos hardware anymore.
And to me it seems a rather big change for a rather particular problem: playing multi-source Sonos playlists in your car.
+23
You can export your Sonos playlists (eg using my app) then convert them into whichever format your head unit requires (probably m3u). Of course that assumes the head unit can access wherever your music is (not gonna work if its on a NAS).
All right. Thanks for your responses. It’s a terrific solution for in the home that Sonos had the vision to see. I hope some company in the future develops an equally good solution for the car. Thanks again for the discussion.
It’s been invented already. It’s called Spotify + Bluetooth. The marginal cost is zero.
You can tell me all you want that the playlist is just a remote control for home-based hardware. That’s perfectly fine. I get that. And I’m telling you that I should be able to get in my car, open up my same playlist, and play the same songs in my car. I don’t want to maintain two different playlists. Obviously I can just use Spotify or Napster or whatever in the car -- using two different playlists -- and that’s the whole problem.
My Sonos playlist pulls songs from Napster, Amazon Music, Google Music, and my own Microsoft One Drive. There is no Napster or Spotify equivalent. So it’s not that simple anyway.
Think what you want, but in the future people will use whatever system works everywhere, i.e., works both at home and in the car. For a fee why not just sell me something that will make my Sonos playlist work in the car? I’ll pay it.
If Sonos wants to live in the past they can. But I’m just going to seek out a solution where my playlist works both at home and on the road. Eventually I will find a solution I assure you. I’d rather that solution be Sonos. But if it’s not, it’s not.
I’m tired of maintaining a playlist that doesn’t work anywhere but home. There’s a great opportunity here for Sonos to get involved in car audio. If they don’t see that, it’s their loss.
I’m tired of maintaining a playlist that doesn’t work anywhere but home. There’s a great opportunity here for Sonos to get involved in car audio. If they don’t see that, it’s their loss.
Are you asking for a Sonos sound system running off 12V that can be installed in cars (which I would assume needs both a Sonos Head Unit and Sonos speakers in order to meet Sonos’ sound quality demands), or just some kind of “portable playlist” that is recognised by multiple equipment manufacturers including Sonos?
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