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Sonos One with Alexa/Amazon music unlimited in 2 homes?

  • 16 January 2019
  • 6 replies
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Loved Sonos so much, that we bought one for our 2nd home. However finding it's not possible to get Alexa and/or Amazon Music Unlimited to work at both locations. Is there any workaround?
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Best answer by controlav 16 January 2019, 07:11

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6 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +23
To get Alexa to work in two locations, you need to use two Amazon accounts, one on each household. I don't think there should be a problem using one Amazon Music account on two systems though, unless you try to actually Play simultaneously on both systems - some services block that.
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
There also needs to be a 1:1 relationship between and Amazon and Sonos account, Although two members of a family account would also work.
Thanks controlav & UKMedia... will try that!
Userlevel 7
Badge +23
There also needs to be a 1:1 relationship between and Amazon and Sonos account, Although two members of a family account would also work.

Which Amazon account? The Alexa account, or the Amazon music account, or both? (This isn't at all confusing, nooo).

Regarding Amazon music accounts, those will not work on Sonos if you have multiple users on the same Prime account - only the main user will work. Found this out the hard way with my wife. Not well documented. Not sure if that is the same as a "family account".
"Family account" is specific to Amazon music. From what I've gathered, you setup with one Amazon/Alexa account (I believe they are one in the same) as the master and then you add familly members (also Amazon/Alexa account) adds subs underneath it. You can get up to 5 streams altogether (I think) so you can also have multiple streams going against the same account. The master account is charged for the service.

So you should (I've never tried it) be able to setup one home with a Sonos account (A) and Amazon Account (X), than a second home with Sonos account (B) and Amazon Account (Y). If X has a family account with Y covered underneath it, then you would not have to pay for a 2nd Amazon Unliminted Account, and would be able to have several streams going at the same time at both places.

I agree though that it's rather confusing, and not ideal. (I honestly don't even quite understand what having multiple users under the same prime account really means.) The 1:1 relationship UKMedia mentioned is limiting. It would be nice if you could link a single Amazon account to multiple Sonos accounts. Or better yet, be able to use the same Sonos account across multiple physical locations AND link it to one Amazon account. However, it introduces complexities to the setup, and additional scenarios that would need to handled...for only a subset of the user base.
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
The reason for the 1:1 relationship is that as the cloud processes the voice request, it needs to know what Sonos system to activate. I helped someone many months ago, whose boyfriend lived on the west coast and she lived on the east coast. When he requested music it initiated on her Sonos system because they had used the same Amazon account to multiple Sonos accounts.