Petition to Add Local Library Playback to Alexa/Sonos Voice Control

  • 6 October 2017
  • 53 replies
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Let's let Sonos know we would like this feature added. We've all spent years cultivating music we own, and we'd like to listen to it using the new voice control feature that Alexa has added. Thanks!

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53 replies

Userlevel 3
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I think we would all like our music libraries integrated into voice control on Sonos, but they have chosen to partner a company that has its own streaming service so I really can't see that happening anytime soon .
I think we would all like our music libraries integrated into voice control on Sonos, but they have chosen to partner a company that has its own streaming service so I really can't see that happening anytime soon .

I don't care if library is included since I don't use one, but for the longevity of the company, I want them to please as many companines as possible.

As for why you can't, there are techincal reasons, but almost everyone wants to assume it's all about Amazon greed and Sonos not understanding what features their clients use (even though they track this).
I cannot believe this was not in the initial release. I bought a sonos to listen to the music I own which is stored on a NAS not to rent music. I suspect they will lose many customers if they do not sort this out. Given the amount of interest you would think the company might respond to address the concerns of its customers!!
I think we would all like our music libraries integrated into voice control on Sonos, but they have chosen to partner a company that has its own streaming service so I really can't see that happening anytime soon .

If this were truly about partnering with Amazon, why would they allow basic playback controls of any non-Amazon services, including local libraries? If they wanted to offer Voice Control only for Amazon Music or other Amazon partners, they would have done just that. Instead, everything except initializing playback is available for all other services; Pause, Play, Volume Control, Skip, Previous, even "Alexa, What's playing?" - all available; you just can't add tracks. This, coupled with published facts about the Alexa interface, says it is far more likely there are technological barriers to this feature, rather than any greed/protectionism on Amazon's part.
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Jgatie, I cannot believe that technological Barriers is that big a barrier for two technological companies, if they really wanted to sort it out . Any big company is going to employ a level of protectionism and push their product over it's rivals why wouldn't you ? Amazon have a music streaming service why wouldn't they promote that over a rival streaming company ? Nobody outside of Amazon or Sonos knows the time scale for Spotify integration but I would bet that it won't be before Christmas, and when/if it arrives it won't give you as good an experience as using Amazon's music streaming over Sonos using Alexa .
Jgatie, I cannot believe that technological Barriers is that big a barrier for two technological companies, if they really wanted to sort it out . Any big company is going to employ a level of protectionism and push their product over it's rivals why wouldn't you ? Amazon have a music streaming service why wouldn't they promote that over a rival streaming company ? Nobody outside of Amazon or Sonos knows the time scale for Spotify integration but I would bet that it won't be before Christmas, and when/if it arrives it won't give you as good an experience as using Amazon's music streaming over Sonos using Alexa .

I find the technological barriers to be an adequate explanation. Now could those be due to Amazon not playing ball or prioritizing development because of protectionism? I have no doubt this factors in. But if Amazon is not willing to host a local index in the cloud or is unwilling to accommodate a query to Sonos to get an entry back from the local index, or they push back this development in favor of streaming services, what is Sonos to do? And exactly how is that different from what you would call technological barriers impeding development?

If it doesn't exist in the API, and Amazon isn't working to put it in, that's a technological barrier, no matter the reasons behind it. These are things that have to be worked out, and it stands to reason Sonos and Amazon would do the stuff they can do before tackling the stuff they can't. That "stuff" happens to be streaming services though Amazon. Why would that be surprising to anyone? It's simple common sense.

But I still maintain if Amazon truly wanted to support only their services, they would have locked out all voice commands from anything but their services. This would be easy to do, and there is nothing Sonos could do about it. But they didn't, and nobody claiming there is a greedy conspiracy going on can explain this fact.
Oh and by the way, Facebook posts from the Sonos account state Alexa Spotify support will be here by the Holidays.

Queue another "Does 'by the Holidays' mean before Thanksgiving, or before January 2, 2018?" discussion. Does Canadian Thanksgiving count? 😉
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yes please!
Userlevel 1
yes please!
Userlevel 2
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Disappointed that we even need to ask for this via a petition. This and similar has been asked of Sonos for some time. Has Sonos responded yet to anyone regarding this?
Userlevel 2
+1 for music library support. I'd like to have a way to replace my queue and start playback with a song, artist, album, genre, or playlist.
Yes please. I'm sure you had to give priority to Amazon Unlimited to sweeten the deal with Alexa, but it would be awesome if we could get a Plex/Sonos via Alexa solution working.
Alexa should definitely be able to play the local music library accessible from my Sonos system. Only being able to link to a streaming service is not helpful when I mostly listen to my own library.
Yes please this is one of the most important uses to me. I already have Pandora and Spotify enabled although I must say it's pretty difficult to get Alexa to play a song from spotify in a given room without her defaulting to the default music service.
Userlevel 3
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yes - absolutely NEEDED!!!
Yes, please, me too. The marketing blurb I read was a little misleading in that it should have stated that ONLY streaming services were supported, currently.
I understand (or have an idea of the limitations) but I hope it could be made available at some stage. Those of us who joined Sonos to play our own library (bought at huge cost) shouldn't just be forced into accepting only a streamed service.
seems to me that by not providing this sonos have shot themselves in the foot ! surely it can't be that hard to do as third party alexa developers will provide the service for a price. Sonos should make it clear that you cannot use alexa to control your nas shared stuff.

Sonos great products but naff customer service !
Count me in on this as well! Definitely need to access my local library and very disappointed it is not available. However, trust that Sonos will listen and offer up a solution soon!
Userlevel 1
yes. If alexa controls sonos we should have ALL OF THE SONOS features. Unfortunately, right now Alexa just uses Sonos as a speaker. Meaning I can't even use Apple Music with the sonos as I always do. Because Alexa doesn't like apple, even though sonos plays it. I just want Alexa to turn sonos on and control the volume. I don't want her to now restrict my music choices. am I missing something or is this true: the current hack just turns your sonos playing into a speaker, you give up all sonos functionality and streaming services if you use alexa to "control" sonos?
I have over 1,000 albums in my library which I would like to control with Alexa. I bought the very first Sonos and have almost every unit built so hope they will not ignore their loyal users!
Count me in..... if it doesn't happen i may as well sell my sonos kit and just but AppleHome or amazon echo speakers.
I am not sure whether to use the term 'petition', 'demand', or 'beg' for this functional option. In my mind it is at the heart of being a Sonos users; you create content, and you listen to it across your Sono's speakers. If your intent is to buy a Sonos One and manage your Sonos playlist, the product is currently not capable of doing that.

Let's be clear here for those who are either using a Sono's One or working with Alexa through a standard bot, the roll out of the product under the marketing message of "control your music with Alexa" is borderline fraudulent; at a minimum disappointing and should require much clearer details explained in full. If you are buying from a retailer, i.e. Best Buy, they have no idea what is can and cannot do across your musical libraries. You need to come to this site to be clear on what you can and cannot do.

There are many types of Sonos users out there, so, it is unfair of me to say I speak for a large number of users. But I know quite a few people, including myself, that really enjoy and have enjoyed the Sonos experience. A large part of the user base are are passionate about music and the specific music content we create, listen to, and share with our families/others. If this is your profile as a user, here is my take on the Sonos One:

1) You cannot control your Sonos library with Alexa, either through a Sonos One or the Alexa app or bot. That is a huge miss for me as a user as I spend quite a bit of time working with music libraries and specific music lists/content.
2) If your primary music service or source is Spotify, Alexa can and certainly at times will, struggle with Spotify playback. Technically you can get it to play your playlists by enabling Spotify music services on the Alexa app, but, at least for me and others I know, it often drops the Spotify link, causing you to have to re-enable the Spotify feed, or in some cases send everything back to factory settings, and then enabling again. Get use to this type of loop. The apparent answer for the Spotify trouble is.....
3) for Alexa to promote Amazon Music Service to deliver the content you seek. It is cleanly integrated with AMS and can pull up your lists, and or deploy genre or mood style playlists for you based on your input. I think it will really help AMS attain new users of there services. But make no mistakes, Alexa wants to take you there as often as she can. If you are like me and have spent extensive time creating both Spotify and Sono's playlists, your playback experience is poor for Spotify and non-existent for Sonos playlists.

The value that Alexa brings is that it can play, pause, adjust volume, skip a song, repeat etc. Things that I usually do from the phone application. So if you are a heavy phone app fan, a heavy Sonos playlist user, and a Spotify source user, there is very little value in Alexa - at this time.

Others may feel differently, and really enjoy the basic commands - and if I was an Amazon Music Service user, I might feel different. But for me this is the first time I've purchased a Sonos product and given it a thumbs down.

gbd
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I'm in. Sonos, please add this feature!
Userlevel 1
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Me too, please get this working