Feature Request - music library integration

<5% Sonos households have local library a couple of years ago, I recall reading in Sonos annual report, and declining.

Wonder what the number of interested folks are today with the increased CD and album sales? 

Increased physical sales, but also increased streaming sales.

https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/

I very much doubt someone would buy a vinyl LP and rip to store digitally, maybe CD, but its hassle for majority. Which ever way you look at it, local library is very niche across all Sonos households.

If you looked at a specific demographic, with older Sonos devices (S1/legacy) and/or larger systems (10+ devices) on this forum, the 5% might be a little higher, but still niche.

USB-supported local library sounds nice. However, please also look into the indexing isssue with fragmented albums 🙏

Why bother with custom hardware for SD cards? Just allow a regular USB-C stick, formatted FAT32 to be used. “Just” a software update then. It would index pretty quickly too (if the attached device was doing the indexing).

Problem areas: eject support, because to update those files the storage will have to be removed. Also power: if the usb-c port has a storage device in it, the device has to be battery powered. So I guess we also need a usb hub that can power the Sonos device.

But the real issue is getting any love for local libraries at all, for the reasons mentioned.

Hi ​@controlav 

This was a bit closer to my thinking. 

As for ejecting, it would not be needed if the filesystem were mounted in read-only mode.

No power needed for Era devices!

5% of a really big number is still a big number 😁

Here’s hoping - it would certainly be a perfect workaround if anyone had issues doing it through SMB.

Using custom Sonos hardware would only require one Linux device driver to be loaded, generic device support needs a bunch, plus kernal and driver updates as new devices are added to the Linux system. This is similar to the current Sonos USB dongles that have official support by Sonos. Yes, some non-Sonos devices will work if they have the same internal chipset but Sonos doesn't support them.

Read-only at the Samba level makes several things a lot simpler, software, configuration and reliability. Maybe legal issues in some jurisdictions too. Updates would be done by moving the dongle to a computer that could write to the file making even less work for the support folks.

Edit, on re-reading, power could be done by adding a pass-through port to the dongle. Didn't think of that originally as I use the charging base for my Play leaving theUSB open.

Always go for the simple solution!

Linux device drivers have led to many tears and decisions to change careers. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0596005903

Hi ​@Stanley_4 

All USB-connected storage devices use a generic driver - USB Mass Storage Class.

Edit: Though, if you wanted to connect a phone, you may need a special driver. I’m not sure - it may depend on selecting an option on the screen of the phone.

This would be a fantastic option.  To have to ability to connect a USB stick or memory card reader and have access to full library is also a great back up.  I would still have a copy on my NAS but to have a 2Tb MicroSD that I can use on my System but then take that on holiday by inserting into my Walkman would also remove a lot of faff I have when syncing various storage areas.

Question would be... could the Storage card been seen on the network?  This would allow ripping direct to it rather than local PC rip and later sync.

Regardless this would solve a load of issues, and a lot of community questions.