Can't play non-UK Radio stations

Hi @SSL88.

Welcome, thank you for reaching out to Sonos Community.

You can find the answer here. Radio by TuneIn and Sonos

Let us know if it works. If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

Is TuneIn Pro available on Sonos now?

I am guessing you are in the UK, and recent legal rulings there mean that many foreign radio stations are no longer available to you.

This is likely why:

https://torrentfreak.com/tunein-radio-infringed-sony-warners-copyrights-high-court-rules-191101/

Thanks for the link!

No that doesn’t change anything.

Dear Sonos: can you see the enormity of the damage that’s been inflicted to your product? A major feature of the product has been devalued - at least for UK customers. Internet radio is 90% of what I use Sonos for; 80% of my listening is non-UK. Stopped working overnight. And you seem to be just as surprised as I am. How come you didn’t see this coming? You send me an email whenever you have something new to sell. Why didn’t you send me an email to warn me that this predictable event was going to hit me? You don’t seem to have a mitigation plan. You don’t have a how-to-workaround or this-is-what-we-are-doing-to-fix-it article in an prominent place on your web site.

Note that it’s not only TuneIn that’s now broken but also Sonos Radio. “Sonos Radio is an Internet radio service, exclusively available on Sonos. It features 60,000 radio stations from around the world”, it says on the tin. No it doesn’t anymore. They are still all there but they don’t work when you click on them.

From Sonos’s vantage point, TuneIn may be a separate entity. But that’s irrelevant from my point of view. I want the functionality that the product promises.

OK there may be some workarounds. I’m sure I’ll find them. But the fact remains that a major feature of the product no longer “just works”. It can still be “made to work”, but that takes a certain level of cyber-literacy.

Unless I’m wrong TuneIn still works for content in your region?  I’m not sure what Sonos could be expected to do, they cannot break the law and keep this going.  Clearly this is the reason Sonos now have region added to your account and why you need a mobile to register their devices.  Without this i doubt ANY radio stations would be available.  Otherwise welcome to the steady commercialisation of the Internet.  Soon we’ll have to pay for everything and Internet Radio is just another step in that march.

You can create your own Radio feed if you can find the URL of that station but I’m sure that will stop too in the not too distant future. :(

Internet radio, with the “60,000 radio stations from around the world” (the number is in an article about Sonos Radio) is advertised as a feature of the product. It’s part of the promise. Remember all the fanfare around Sonos Radio just a few months ago? How they deliver on that promise (TuneIn, Sonos Radio, paid-for subscriptions if unavoidable, ...) is up to them.

No we can’t expect Sonos to break the law. But can’t we expect them to deliver on their promises? And can’t we expect them to tell their customers that some drastic change is about to happen?

We can all see the creeping commercialisation and the ongoing legal squabbles. But they are no excuse to pull the plug without warning.

I had the same problem but found that a number of US and other foreign stations that will no longer play on TuneIn are available on Sonos in the UK on myTuner Radio. 

Hope this helps...

Hi @kingofsquid.

Welcome, thank you for reaching out to Sonos Community and giving us some helpful tips.
If you need help with any other information, please be sure to let us know.

I live in the UK and for the past few days I’ve been having the same problem in not being able to stream any non-UK radio stations.  It’s been driving me crazy trying to find a resolution (rebooting routers, rebooting all my Sonos gear, etc) as my wife has been very upset at not being able to listen to her favourite American old time radio programmes.  Like others, most of our radio listening is to US and non-UK stations.  Finally, after much internet searching (including Sonos and TuneIn) I have found this thread and now understand the reason why.

However, as many others have said, this is totally unacceptable.  Sonos should have told us this was coming and offered alternatives and support - as others have said, they are quick enough to tell us to upgrade to the latest OS and sell us new gear we don’t need!

Like others I suspect, I have spent thousands of pounds over the years on building up my Sonos system and now it’s (almost) useless.  I bitterly resent having to upgrade every time I add a new piece of equipment as I’m not able to download (and re-use) any version of the OS - I had to ditch 3 perfectly serviceable CR100 controllers and now use an Amazon Fire tablet instead - but it’s not nearly as good.  I don’t need (or want) to speak to my system, or do lots of the fancy things it now supposedly does - I just want to be able to listen to internet radio stations, play CDs and records and listen to my TV through the system.  Is that too much to ask?

Come on Sonos - start listening to your (many disgruntled) customers and think about them for a change - without us you’re nothing!

Try finding the foreign TuneIn stations on MyTuner Radio which is also available on Sonos.

Jan, I couldn’t agree with you more as you totally hit the nail on the head!!!! 

SONOS’ primary focus should be, looking out for their customers and NOT trying to maximise profit and to keep your customer base well informed.
I work in technology, and before a change is implemented, we notify our customers what the changes are and provide solutions to ensure that existing functionality is NOT broken.

As great as the SONOS products are, this is a massive flaw in your operational procedures, hence would appreciate a solution to get access to international radio stations…. even if this means building a Virtual Private Network (VPN) into your SONOS App.