New to Sonos or Alexa? How to set up

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P
Userlevel 1
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I'm loving having Alexa around the house and I am madly head over heels with Sonos (cant imagine life without it), but the Alexa integration seems a little broken (is it a beta or is it a general release?). For a start I dont care about music services, I want to play music from my own library. Secondly there's no audible feedback from Alerxa when she cant find a track or my commands dont make sense and thirdly the update has mucked up audio levels between alexa and my sonos. Will being able to play music from my own library be added soon?
C
Userlevel 5
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You are taking cheap shots behind the anonymity of the internet,

This statement in conjunction with the rest of your post making assumptions on my level of experience in bringing applications to market and your opinion that i am "talking out of my nether regions" is somewhat hypocritical dont you think? The anonymity you are being afforded by the internet certainly appears to be facilitating a tone i doubt you would take away from the keyboard.

Fyi I have commissioned apps to be delivered on both android and apple handsets, as well as having had developed bespoke reporting tools used within the uk energy industry.

Whilst not having direct access to amazons own in house developers, i can draw my own conclusions based on my experience in development. I know how much our developers cost, what they are capable of and how much they cost. When i compare our budget to the resources amazon have available, all other things being equal (developer costs and skillset), then the only logical conclusion i can draw is that the functionality omissions are by design.

Maybe im wrong and these functions will arrive. Though whether you choose to accept it or not, there is also the possibility that i am right, and these omissions are down to either commercial design or the fact they just didnt want to bother going to that expense on developers delivering functionality that doesnt provide them (amazon/sonos) with any extra value.
S
Userlevel 5
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i am talking nonsense and cannot be intelligent enough to discern your view.

I can't discern your intelligence online, but your continued peddling of inaccurate or completely unfounded statements is by definition, nonsense.

I have no wish to quash discussion, but it frustrates me when people post misinformation that could cause problems for other people.

In your own words you state nobody outside sonos can say why features did or did not make it into the beta, but then go on to make your own reasoning and justifications for those omissions and dismiss anyone elses opinion as "nonsense".

Unlike you, I've chosen my words carefully for accuracy. I said "definitively". You won't have to look it up, as I'm glad to explain the difference. By using definitively I'm clarifying that no one can say with certainty. I then proceeded to offer a logical theory from the available evidence.
jgatie
Yes, you are talking nonsense. You have no idea of, nor the ability to discern the individual skill levels of their developers by a macro analysis of a beta release. You are taking cheap shots behind the anonymity of the internet, and would probably be rendered giddy at the actual breadth of talent it takes to do these things given the barriers in front of them. Comparing them to a local server driven implementation tells me you know nothing about those barriers, and are simply talking out your nether regions in order to take shots at those who can't fight back.. It is cowardly, and yes, it is nothing but childish nonsense.
C
Userlevel 5
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So because I hold the opinion that large corporates delivering less functionality than currently available using homebrew is lazy development or commercially driven deliberate omission, i am talking nonsense and cannot be intelligent enough to discern your view.

How utterly condescending.

In your own words you state nobody outside sonos can say why features did or did not make it into the beta, but then go on to make your own reasoning and justifications for those omissions and dismiss anyone elses opinion as "nonsense".
S
Userlevel 5
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But they have released exactly that, a compromised offering that excludes the largest music streaming service on the planet.

Nonsense. You continue to be able to only view this from your standpoint. Just because it doesn't do everything for you does not mean it's "wrong".

They've delivered the first wave of functionality. To deliver Spotify would require they had a half-baked implementation or they delayed the release of what is available. Either suggestion is asinine. The features that are available are logically the easiest to bring to market.

there are only two possible reasons for this functionality being omitted from this release.

More nonsense. Just because you say this doesn't make these "reasons" accurate or even plausible.

im really struggling to see why multi million pound companies cant at least mirror this functionality after a year in development..

Look, no one outside Sonos can say definitively why more features couldn't make it in this beta release. Here's what an intelligent person can discern though. The offering as it stands takes advantage of what appear to be the easiest to implement Alexa functions. The more complex abilities that aren't native to Alexa are not.

You should also know that it wasn't until last month (September) that Amazon delivered major enhancements to their developer tools. Don't be surprised if you see a flood of these releases from companies that were waiting on Amazon to finish their integration.

It's fair to be disappointed that the beta release doesn't offer as many features as you want. It's pointless and immature to concoct unfounded theories about backroom deals and question developer competency though. Particularly when there's logical connections to be made that explain the situation. Sometimes a beta is just a beta.

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.

That's a really good example. I do enjoy the ducking feature, but we've got a lot less kit around, so it wouldn't come up for us so often.
M
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. :|
C
Userlevel 5
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There's no evidence to support that. A more logical understanding would be that Spotify and Sonos already have considerable functionality beyond the "standard" Alexa functions which were delivered in this beta skill. It's more reasonable to assume that they didn't want to deliver a compromised offering, and also not hold off on what's currently available until that enhanced functionality was ready.

But they have released exactly that, a compromised offering that excludes the largest music streaming service on the planet.

If playing spotify via sonos with voice commands through alexa is possible using a personal amazon app anyone can download from github, then there are only two possible reasons for this functionality being omitted from this release.

1. There is a commercial arrangement in place between amazon and sonos which restricts spotify for at least a period of time.

2. The developers paid no attention to what people were already doing with their own amateur apps or didn't have the skills to deliver spotify working when these amateur solutions have been working for over a year.

Spotify, local library and grouping/ungrouping etc has been available using home published amazon apps for over a year, so im really struggling to see why multi million pound companies cant at least mirror this functionality after a year in development...
jgatie
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)
S
Userlevel 1
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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.
G
I'm another that would like to be able to play from you library as well. I don't use streaming services (just happen to have amazon prime at the moment) but all my music is stored on a NAS drive that I would much rather use.
That said, so far very impressed with how easy it was to set up and use once i had un grouped speakers.
Best tip so far is to set speaker names to be simple so its easier for Alexa
jgatie

I agree, I wish it was available too. I also wish the ability to change inputs on the Playbase/bar was out there.

I'll make these two points though. I think local play is the minority. Streaming is how most people in the US consume their music. Additionally, from a technical standpoint it will have been easier to deliver the features in this first release than things not inherently part of Alexa.

A few years back, Sonos released some information they gathered about usage, and online streaming was 93% of the usage on Sonos, with local libraries being the other 7%. It most certainly has risen from that figure by now.
E
Thank you melvimbe for explaining. I've grouped the speakers in my Sonos app and will try to leave them that way. The way I'm doing this is I grouped all the speakers together and then told Alexa to play Pandora in the 'kitchen'. Because they are all grouped together it turns on all of the speakers. Now how do I tell Alexa to turn up the volume? If I tell Alexa to turn up the volume in the kitchen will it actually turn up all the speakers because they are grouped?
S
Userlevel 5
Badge +11
I must say that personally I’m really disappointed that this doesn’t allow me to select and play from my own music library... It’s interesting that this use case wasn’t prioritised; but I’m perhaps in a minority here....
I agree, I wish it was available too. I also wish the ability to change inputs on the Playbase/bar was out there.

I'll make these two points though. I think local play is the minority. Streaming is how most people in the US consume their music. Additionally, from a technical standpoint it will have been easier to deliver the features in this first release than things not inherently part of Alexa.
S
Finally! Good integration and intuitive.... and works with existing speakers. Thank you. When I saw the announcement for the One - with integrated Alexa, I thought that was the totality of the Alexa integration, which would have been disappointing.
A
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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.
B
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....
S
Userlevel 5
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So I have to assume there is some commercial arrangement in place between Sonos and Amazon which currently prevents them offering spotify via this release.

There's no evidence to support that. A more logical understanding would be that Spotify and Sonos already have considerable functionality beyond the "standard" Alexa functions which were delivered in this beta skill. It's more reasonable to assume that they didn't want to deliver a compromised offering, and also not hold off on what's currently available until that enhanced functionality was ready.
melvimbe
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.
Danny
E
Ryan S, thank you for replying. I didn't realize the Alexa app wouldn't recognize a device group. Can you help me set up a permanent group in the Sonos app? I couldn't see where to do that. I know I can group speakers while I am listening to music but I didn't realize I could group them permanently.
A
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@Erica,

if speakers are already grouped in the sonos app, and you use Alexa, it will work, if the speakers are not grouped then it will not work, Ryan said a few pages back that they're working on grouping and hopefully sometime down the road, but as of now.

you need to group them in the Sonos app first, then tell alexa, and Alexa is only working on specific speakers right now
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
@ac921ol, I reached out to you in private message to help. Feel free to respond there.

@Erica_1, We're not using device groups through Alexa at this time. Grouping is done through the Sonos app. For the Alexa skill, you'll want to target any Sonos room name. If you already have a group of rooms created in the Sonos app, just pick any of those players and Alexa will play to them all.
Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.
E
Hello,
Like others, I am super excited to be able to control my Sonos speakers with Alexa!!! I have set it up, linked everything and enabled the skill.
The issue I am having is I can't get Alexa to turn on the group, only specific speakers. I created a device group named 'Sonos' and included all of my speakers in there. None of the speakers have the same name as my Alexa devices. I tried renaming the group 'House' in case naming a group the same thing as a skill was an issue but Alexa still won't "Play Pandora on House". Any help folks can offer on how to utilize device groups with this new skill and/or what I am doing wrong?
jgatie

Spotify (and local streaming) seems to work fine on the homebrew apps, using just Amazon and Sonos.

https://github.com/rgraciano/echo-sonos
https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-http-api

^^^^And there it is again folks!! Let's count how many times this "home brew app" is pimped today!!


So I have to assume there is some commercial arrangement in place between Sonos and Amazon which currently prevents them offering spotify via this release.

Or maybe Sonos wants to do it without running a server someplace on your network or having to say "tell Sonos" for every command.

But seriously dude, you pimp this stuff more than one of the actual guys who wrote it. jishi is a member here; he's actually a great guy with a lot of knowledge, and even as the author he knows that pimping his stuff in threads where it doesn't belong is seriously gauche behavior.
C
Userlevel 5
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Amazon, the owner of the Prime music streaming service, did not enable its primary competitor spotify in this release.....shocker.

Good point, except for Spotify has been available as an option to Amazon Music as the default service on Echo/Alexa devices since early 2016. More likely is the interface requires Spotify's help, and getting three parties to get together to wok on software is like the old adage about monkeys and a football.

Spotify (and local streaming) seems to work fine on the homebrew apps, using just Amazon and Sonos.

https://github.com/rgraciano/echo-sonos
https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-http-api

So I have to assume there is some commercial arrangement in place between Sonos and Amazon which currently prevents them offering spotify via this release.
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