Playing Local Music Library on Sonos through Alexa

Not happy. I don't subscribe to "this is a day one release" theme of thinking. Sonos have been actively marketing this for over a year. Never once did they say that this would be limited to online streaming services (apologies if I'm wrong on this, but they have been advertising "Complete control"). There were unofficial Sonos skills published many months back that were almost as polished as today's offering, so technically this is not rocket science (I've played with the Alexa API, it's pretty straightforward).

Today we get the most basic of basic functionality, still in beta format. Sonos is not Microsoft. They have built a brand that promotes excellence and ease of use. It's a luxury product that it's loyal user base expect quality from. Today it failed.

Footnote: It doesn't even include support for the streaming service "Deezer", which I joined following a one year free subscription offer I received when I bought my first Sonos One. Thanks.

I imagine things will get better, if they had said that they will support local libraries in the future then I wouldn't even by angry, but all current info suggests it'll be streaming services only.

Being able to have Alexa play one of my own imported playlists (or artists) is the #1 improvement I am hoping for for the Alexa/Sonos partnership.

I'd go as far as to say totally misleading. I don't have not want to sign up to a streaming service to use voice control. Sonos should have made this clear you need a streaming service to use it. I dot. What to be forced into renting music

Misleading? They stated right in their annoncement what would be supported!

I think it's obvious that they said control your sonos with Alexa - you cannot

No, the announcement today specified exactly what sources could be controlled and how. No specifics were given before today, and if you assumed, . . . well . . . you know. But hey, plumbers gotta plumb, complainers gotta complain. One is who they are.

It's a comment forum, people complain, get over it

Come on people! This is a launch, it’s early days and who knows what constraints Amazon may have put on it. Of course in the first instance it works best with Amazon music services, but I’m sure more is to come. The fact that it can tell you what is playing from your own library is encouraging so I would expect control of local libraries can’t be far away. Why persecute the company? Is there any other independent with a similar offering?

I’ve enjoyed being part of the beta, it has come a very long way and will doubtlessly go further.

One thing I did realise is that personally I rarely know exactly what music I am to play and tend to leaf though the app albums or artists list for inspiration, much like flicking though a stack of lp’s in my youth. Being able to skip tracks with voice is very handy, especially when listening to the garbage that is 50% of tacks on “the difficult second album “.

Give Sonos a break, many have complained how long voice control has taken to arrive,or if it even would, and now the overwhelming response is unjustly negative.

If it's able to tell you what it is playing how hard can it be to ask it to play that song in first place? Amateur Code exists that has this functionality

Not happy. I don't subscribe to "this is a day one release" theme of thinking. Sonos have been actively marketing this for over a year. Never once did they say that this would be limited to online streaming services (apologies if I'm wrong on this, but they have been advertising "Complete control"). There were unofficial Sonos skills published many months back that were almost as polished as today's offering, so technically this is not rocket science (I've played with the Alexa API, it's pretty straightforward).

Today we get the most basic of basic functionality, still in beta format. Sonos is not Microsoft. They have built a brand that promotes excellence and ease of use. It's a luxury product that it's loyal user base expect quality from. Today it failed.

Footnote: It doesn't even include support for the streaming service "Deezer", which I joined following a one year free subscription offer I received when I bought my first Sonos One. Thanks.

I imagine things will get better, if they had said that they will support local libraries in the future then I wouldn't even by angry, but all current info suggests it'll be streaming services only.

Sonos is extremely slow at implementing anything hence my frustration like many others that they didn't even bother putting local library control at top. A year for this , wow, what did the beta testers even say? I presume they all rented music through streaming services and don't own music

Im fairly sure the beta testers will have mentioned spotify, napster etc and locally stored music.

Its also my personal opinion that Sonos/Amazon have more than enough resource and technical ability to make these work. I choose to believe (whether accused of being a conspiracy theorist or not), that these are deliberate omissions owing to the fact that Amazon have their own music streaming service and the ability to host peoples own music libraries, for a fee of course.

Once amazon and sonos see that the orders coming in from the existing userbase for both thee the new hardware and the amazon streaming/storage offerings are starting to level out or tail off, then I believe thats when we will see spotify (and others) and local play becoming available.

Why would they offer people the ability to avoid the music storage membership fee right off the bat. They have free trials on the music service too, so the lack of spotify may prompt people to take up this, and who knows people may choose to leave spotify and go with amazon prime music unlimited after the free trial.

So imho the lack of spotify and local play is deliberate to at least force some people to try out the alternatives.

Or maybe . . . just maybe . . . local library support is a lot harder to implement than streaming services, and Spotify is later than Amazon Music because Amazon created the API; so they would have a leg up on any other service.

In other news, Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK, Neil Armstrong actually walked on the moon, and Elvis is currently worm food.

Its also my personal opinion that Sonos/Amazon have more than enough resource and technical ability to make these work.

Perhaps, but I think you also have to factor in that Sonos was also working on developing the Sonos One and rebuilding their app at this time. Their resources are not unlimited. Amazon/Alexa has been rather busy with new products and features as well. Without inner knowledge of how all this is happening, you could make an argument either way.


I choose to believe (whether accused of being a conspiracy theorist or not), that these are deliberate omissions owing to the fact that Amazon have their own music streaming service and the ability to host peoples own music libraries, for a fee of course.


That is possible, but there are other reasons as well. Some reasons we can guess at, others we just don't know.


Once amazon and sonos see that the orders coming in from the existing userbase for both thee the new hardware and the amazon streaming/storage offerings are starting to level out or tail off, then I believe thats when we will see spotify (and others) and local play becoming available.


Actually, I think the biggest factor for pushing change and additional features is the competition. It's not a coincidence that Amazon and Google came up with improved sound quality after Apple Homepod was announced. Or that Google and Amazon both have calling features. So I'm betting the biggest motivator of getting more features with Sonos/Alexa is more features with Sonos/Google or Sonos/Apple.


Why would they offer people the ability to avoid the music storage membership fee right off the bat. They have free trials on the music service too, so the lack of spotify may prompt people to take up this, and who knows people may choose to leave spotify and go with amazon prime music unlimited after the free trial.


I honestly don't think it's really that much about the storage fee. I don't think it's a coincidence that Alexa came out with multiroom before integrating with Sonos. They are good with giving people the option of Sonos, but perhaps they don't want you be able to do anything with Sonos that you couldn't do with echos alone.

That isn't all of it though. It's a complex evolving market where you compete with your partners. Hard to really see motivations.


So imho the lack of spotify and local play is deliberate to at least force some people to try out the alternatives.

Maybe, but how many of these Sonos user who want to do voice control already had echos and tried out the alternatives already?

We are told that support for Spotify is on the way. I have no reason to doubt that. Is it reasonable to assume that Amazon wanted its own service to be supported first? Yes. Is this a "conspiracy"? No, it is a "business model".

Just adding my two cents that we need local music library AND Sonos playlist support. Hopefully before Christmas. Grouping is ok but can be done via Alexa. Getting use to the system but not being able to play my Music Library and Playlists is a real showstopper