Playing from local music library not possible using Alexa/voice control

Ok. Your entitled to your opinion.

I personally find voice control a convinIence appilcTion that has nothing to do with me enjoying my music “even on my nas” using Sonos controller.

There is a work around for 400 Dollars, get a Synology NAS and put your local music library on the NAS. They are working on an Alexa skill that will allow Alexa to play music on their NAS systems. When it will be ready is anyones guess.

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Inc-Audio-Station/dp/B076PBX4LL

WD MyCloud Home are in beta for a alexa skill, only in the USA as well.

You can do it for free, using either Alexa or Google Home voice control, with the Yonomi app. Have to set up routines and playlists, but it will play anything Sonos can play, including files from your NAS.

You can do it for free, using either Alexa or Google Home voice control, with the Yonomi app. Have to set up routines and playlists, but it will play anything Sonos can play, including files from your NAS.

How well does google home works with the sonos system. Alexa is not a great AI when you ask question sometime. Google assistance is much better. I was thinking about going with a google home mini instead of the dot.

This looks interesting. Windows, Mac, Linux and Raspberry Pi supported. Won't work with Sonos One until Sonos fully implements the Audio Player API, but will work with a Dot into a Connect or Play:5. Just $5-$10/year to voice control your local files.

https://www.mymediaalexa.com

How well does google home works with the sonos system. Alexa is not a great AI when you ask question sometime. Google assistance is much better. I was thinking about going with a google home mini instead of the dot.

Works well, but as i said, it's limited to Sonos playlists, preconfigured, so very much a PITA to configure. Unless you have a bunch of Sonos playlists already set up.

FYI: I haven't tried this personally as I prefer the ease of streaming music rather than playing from my local library but for those that are interested, there does seem to be an option for a cost:

1/ Purchase a license for JRiver Media Center: https://jriver.com/purchase.html
2/ Configure JRiver Media Center to access your Local Library stored on your NAS:
3/ Enable the House Band skill within Alexa and link your two accounts.

I'm not sure if this Skill would be supported by the Sonos One but you can try JRiver Media Center for 7 days for free, so some of you may want to try it. If you do, let us know how you get on. 🙂

I still don't see any obvious technical reason why Sonos couldn't do this if they wanted to, as the growing number of options for controlling non-cloud audio is showing.

IMO it's simply down to Sonos not wanting to put some server code on their Sonos devices (which just run a locked down Linux derivative) that would enable communications with the Alexa code on the Amazon cloud. This is all the solutions such as the Synology are doing, they're running code on a device on your network.

If existing Sonos devices can't handle this then as a long time Sonos user I would be happy to buy a new updated Sonos Connect device that could act as the local library server in a Sonos network and talk to AWS, Google or other services. As the local library index is already held on each Sonos device, would some server code to allow access to that and generate the right command string via a cloud service be that complicated?

With money virtually everything technically is possible eventually! The question for Sonos is; do they want to allocate some of their finite development resource to a declining market, albeit with a passionate following. 🙂