New to Sonos or Alexa? How to set up

[quote=Ryan S]Hi - I'm getting a white screen on the Alexa app when i enable the skill, doesn't take me to the sign on for linking the account. Anybody know why ?

I am in Canada and currently working for me - try re installing the Alexa app... or restarting your phone?

I am having issues with music playing over my Echo Dot instead of the SONOS speaker. My SONOS speakers are named as follows: Living Room, Kitchen, Office and my Echo Dots are named as follows: Living Room Dot, Kitchen Dot, Office Dot and Bedroom Dot.

If I look in the Alexa app, the SONOS devices are showing up and names as above, do I need to rename the Echo Dots to solve the problem?

Hi, can I disable alexa exho dot from playing music somehow? When i say alexa play artist on pandora it plays on the stupid dot. Also, it says it cant play genres?

Hi, can I disable alexa exho dot from playing music somehow? When i say alexa play artist on pandora it plays on the stupid dot. Also, it says it cant play genres?


You must say what you want Alexa to play it on. It has no idea. Default is always the Alexa device. Easy when you read the question syntax.

Do the release notes say it can play genres?

I took your example, but it just plays Heart Radio on my Dot, not in the Sonos speakers.
Have you installed the Alexa skill and linked it to your Sonos account? The same Sonos account used by your speakers?

Google announced some very cool devices today and while they fall short of the home theater experience I have to believe that their own integration with the Google Assistant is spot on.

You're suggesting that Google's integration with Google will be good? Yeah, Amazon's Echo also integrates nicely with Alexa. This isn't an accurate comparison, and I'm doubtful you actually think it is either.

Any "partner" that has you at the bottom of the search list of your own company name clearly shows their level of commitment.

This has nothing to do with search ranking algorithm; it has to do with level of commitment and promotion strategy.

You're being absurd with these statements. It isn't reasonable to expect ecosystem owners to override user preferences, and it'd be objectionable if they did.

It's also such a ridiculous point that you're nitpicking. The search order is your complaint? Well take it up with Amazon.

I'm truly disappointed at how far behind the curve Sonos is

Do tell us who's ahead of them in this space...

I truly appreciate the feedback but the honest truth is that Sonos made this announcement and commitment over a year ago and the "public beta" is truly just an indication of their level of confidence to deliver - not a true public beta.

I seriously have no idea what you're trying to convey here. Maybe if you use honest, truth, true, or truly a few more times I'll get it.

Sonos v8 is a full release. The Alexa skill is a public beta. These are things that are true. What's your point?

Any idea why Spotify isn't working yet? It's the most popular music streaming service. Hopefully, it's added sooner rather than later.

I don't have any insider information, but let me give you the most logical answer.

The Alexa integration launched with the core functionality that Alexa already brings to bear. It makes sense, those would be the easiest things to make work. Everyone who's asked why not Deezer or Napster or whatever... same reason. Maybe in the future Sonos gets it working with them, but frankly maybe not if Alexa never has the control.

In the case of Spotify I have to assume the extra integration that Sonos:Spotify already has is something they don't want to mess up. So rather than hold all of the functionality they will get it next.

I don't think Ryan ac921o1 meant to imply that you can create permanent groups in Sonos, just that you have grouped them in the app first, then tell Alexa to play a song to one of the speakers in the group.

For me, I almost always have my bedroom and bathroom grouped. It doesn't go away often, because I never ungroup them. Therefore "Alexa, play Weird Al in the bedroom" plays it in both plays synced.

Bingo, that's what I do as well, bathroom and bedroom are always linked, so it works perfect for me.

Is there a way to test this without having an amazon music account? Currently when I ask it to play to living room the echo listens but does or says nothing. I only have Spotify setup on my echo.

TuneIn stations are available for free. The following are some TuneIn commands:

To start TuneIn playback
Alexa, play (TuneIn station/radio call sign) in the (room name)
Alexa, put on (TuneIn station/radio call sign) in the (room name)
Alexa, start playing (TuneIn station/radio call sign) in the (room name)

the Alexa integration seems a little broken (is it a beta or is it a general release?).

The Alexa skill is in beta, yes.

Awesome update!
Is there anyway to toggle the ducking feature on/off?
There isn't, I can pass on feedback to the team about it for you. Would you rather it not work at all or just not drop as low? Or something else entirely?

Awesome update!
Is there anyway to toggle the ducking feature on/off?
There isn't, I can pass on feedback to the team about it for you. Would you rather it not work at all or just not drop as low? Or something else entirely?

Ideally it would be cool if it were more granular. If you could set different levels for different speakers or turn it off completely for speakers that would be awesome. It would also be beneficial if you could make it only happen when certain Echo devices are triggered. If I’m listening to my living room Sonos I wouldn’t want it to drop out because my girlfriend asked my Echo in the bedroom what the weather was. Thanks for passing the feedback along!

There needs to be a way to associate 1 or more Sonos zones with each Alexa device for the "ducking" functionality.
We have 11 zones in our house and all 11 zones should not be "paused" anytime you say "Alexa" on any one of the 7 Alexa devices in our house. Or at a minimum be able to disable the feature. Hopefully this is something that can be implemented very soon in the beta as the current "ducking feature" makes this new functionality of controlling with Alexa a nuisance in our configuration. :|

Adding some more details on what would really improve this service where multiple Sonos Zones and Alexa coexists.

Association Mapping:
Each Alexa device (Echo, Dot, embedded, etc) can be associated with one or more Sonos Zones (Amp, ZonePlayer, etc).
- Devices which are both an Alexa device and a Sonos Zone are shown as associated, but can not be disassociated.
- Associated Sonos Zones become the default target for command on the Alexa. "Alexa, play classical music" will default to the associated Sonos zones, but "Alex, play classical music in the Den" would apply to only to the specified Sonos Zone.
- Stretch Goal: A Sonos Group could be used as one of the Sonos Zones
This feature is needed in location that contain many Sonos Zones and Alexa Devices. It would not be desirable to have the music in the Kitchen Zone "ducked" when a query it put to an Alexa a bedroom.

Ducking:
Different sources may want a different effect; for example, streaming music could have the volume reduced to listen for the Alexa commands, but other sources such as Audio Books or PodCasts should instead be paused.
- "Ducking" will apply to all Sonos Zones by default unless there is a user created association. Devices which are both an Alexa and a Sonos Zone are not considered "user created" associations.
- When user created associations are created, only those Sonos Zones are Ducked.
- Stretch Goal: Allow the type of Ducking to be selected per service/source.

Alexa Service Responses:
Ducking should apply to both Alexa command inputs as well as service responses. Several Alexa services such as News ("Alexa, what's in the news?") may respond with audio (and video) from seconds to minutes. During the Service Response, "Ducking" of the associated Sonos Zones should be in effect.
- Stretch Goal: Optionally allow the Service Responses to be played in the associated Sonos Zones; i.e. hear the news audio stream over the Sonos speakers instead of the Echo Dot where the request was made.

I have the original Echo. All of my Sonos players are synced up beautifully, but is it correct that the music WILL NOT play on the echo at the same time - it's just there to accept the voice commands? Is that why the Sonos One was introduced?
That's correct, you can tell the Echo to play with its own commands too, but if you're using a service with stream limitations like Amazon Music you will run into that issue.

I'm new to Sonos, just purchasing when I read about the Alexa integration. The speakers are amazing, but I'm hoping for one particular addition to the Alexa integration.

I have four Echo Show devices. The Alexa app allows me to link all four of the Alexa Show devices together to synch music (Multi-Room Music option in the Alexa app.) With the beta Alexa integration in place, I was really hoping to be able to add my Sonos speakers to my Alexa Show Multi-Room music group. As you mentioned, this isn't supported. The Sonos speakers do show up in the Alexa app to be added to a "Device Group." If the Sonos speakers would just show up to be added to a "Multi-Room Music" group everything would be perfect. (Without this, the Alexa show does not display what song Sonos is playing on the screen. (Although Alexa knows what song is playing and will tell you if you verbally ask - which causes the volume to duck. Sonos speakers linked to Alexa Show speakers would also greatly enhance Alexa volume control, and add Alexa Show touch screen functions like pause, skip and volume.))

What are the chances of the Sonos speaker together with Alexa speaker "Multi-Room Music" functionality being added in the near future? Would adding a Sonos One to my setup potentially add this functionality now?

Sonos speakers show up to be added under Device group.

Sonos speakers are not available to add under Multi-Room Music group.

I must say that personally I’m really disappointed that this doesn’t allow me to select and play from my own music library. I don’t use streaming or hosted services as music I like isn’t typically available on them. The ability to select music from a known library on a local drive already in the Sonos ecosystem must be possible. It’s interesting that this use case wasn’t prioritised; but I’m perhaps in a minority here....

I am astonished that the much-touted voice control only works with streaming services. When I bought my first Sonos device (I have 12 now) you pointed it at your server or the music directory on your hard disc and it played that. Its primary function was to play locally-stored music. Streaming services were added later, but I don't use them because of the cost (why pay to listen to music I aready own) and the quality.

I have all my music stored as FLACs and I enjoy the sound immensely. In the early days I simply ripped my CDs to mp3/m4a and used the system that way, but I found that over hours of listening I found the sound fatiguing. I listened to the CD version of an album and compared them and they were very close, but I could listen to the CD version all day without fatigue (ie different albums throughout the day in CD format, not the same CD all day!). I have a good ear for music quality but wouldn't call myself one of the 'golden ear' brigade (the ones who claim to be able to hear difference between a standard and gold-plated mains lead...) so I was suprised by this finding.

So out came all the CDs again (and a bigger hard disc) and I ripped them all again, this time to FLAC and can now listen all day without fatigue. I find the same with low bitrate music stations, although the 320k streams are bearable for an hour or two.

Streaming services may be convenient for most people who are used to mp3-level sound quality, but for me I want to be able to listen to my own music (which I've already bought) at the quality level of the original CD, ie FLAC and not compressed.

As an aside, I may be in the minority of people who buy CDs and rip them to a server, but I'd be equally happy to pay for the music and download it in FLAC format and not have to store the CDs in the loft. I know some CDs are available in this way, and of course the model exists if you don't mind a compressed format, but as yet I've not seen it available in a mainstream way for uncompressed formats.

I also have most of my music ripped to FLAC/MP3 on a NAS, played via Sonos Play:1 and PLay:3 stereo pairs. I've managed to find a way of controlling these via the Echo I got for Xmas. I've taken out a subscription to the Amazon Music Storage Service (£22/year). By uploading the music the playback of which I want the Echo to control, I can then ask Alexa to play it, pause it, etc. Not ideal as yet another purchase to make but at least it works (for now!). Sadly Amazon is about to cease allowing new subscriptions but it looks like existing subscriptions will be honoured and allowed to be renewed. Hope this helps!

Thanks, Ryan - that's great! But now I have a few questions... :)

Is there a command to start music playing on all speakers?

Also, do all the services that will play on Sonos via Alexa also have to be set up on Alexa (as in your Pandora example), e.g. Spotify? Does this mean there's not an incantation to play Apple music playlists?

Is there a way to start something in "Sonos Favorites" playing?


Same question here. I have set up everything nicely and can use the commands to get music playing. The only problem i am facing is that when i say for example, Alexa, play X in Living Room. The music will come out of all speakers (I only have a soundbar and Play 1).

Is there a way of splitting it so you can control each speaker separately or if needed altogether via Alexa commands?