Now while its great to see that Spotify radio is going to make it into the Controller app, having used Spotify for a few weeks now on my Sonos system i think Sonos need to go a step further. In effect i think that the spotify app, for ipad for instance needs full integration into the Sonos system (as it does for Napseter etc) What ive found annoying to date is that if im playing a tune on my Sonos system that i like, i then have to go to the Spotify app, search, and find that tune, then click on the star button for example so that its added to my Sonos Controller. That kind of functionality should be included by default.
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I’ve moved to Spotify as my main music platform, which means I discover, share, play music from their library, and I also host my own files on Spotify. I have play lists I regularly update that have both my own tracks and Spotify tracks. Yes, they have 30m tracks but that probably represents a 1/3 of the music out there and i have plenty of music I love to listen to regularly that’s not available on Spotify.
Sonos and Heos are both great systems, seemingly. They both sound great. They can stream music directly to the speaker.
One of my most common use cases: play Spotify playlists on the speaker - doesn’t work if the play lists have local files on either system. Fail.
There is also the other many ways Sonos fails with Spotify, given that the app has so far out reached the sonos app. I’m often using the Spotify app for discovery - can’t do that in Sonos. I have dozens of saved albums and artists - Can’t see them in sonos. Can’t share from sonos. Etc.
At least with Heos you can use the full Spotify app. But while Heos seems to work great once the queue is off and running, the app and platform seems buggy. The heos app often hangs or doesn’t see the speakers. But at least you can use the beautiful Spotify app (although that doesn’t do me any good for playing local files.)
One thing that does seem to work reasonably well is Deezer and Sonos. Deezer lets you upload your own files so they become part of their server library and can be streamed. All good there, except... of course there is an except. My family is on a Spotify family plan, so I have 4 premium accounts for $25/mo. To move to Deezer would cost me $60 and ask everyone else to use a different system.
After doing extensive reading online, it appears that Spotify is withdrawing its support for Sonos and integration through it’s sdk, and pushing companies to support Spotify connect. It would be great to get a more comprehensive statement from Sonos about its direction with Spotify.
One way or another I am going to return one of these systems, or both, in the next couple weeks.
Geoff,
thanks for the info. Personally I use Spotify Connect via a Panasonic ALL1C connected to my Playbar (also with optical switch to change between TV and ALL1C).
It works great and I can group other Sonos speakers to play across the house. Downside is having to use 2 apps when grouping or wanting to change individual volumes (there is an overall volume control using Spotify Connect volume within Spotify app).
Also, the 'Music' setting using the Playbar and rear speakers to give 'Full' music output from all speakers doesnt work as the Playbar assumes its playing a programme or movie and not music. I have to remove the surrounds from the playbar then group them if I wish to have the same levels from the Playbar and the surrounds. A bit tedious.
Anyway, I was curious about your statement "After doing extensive reading online, it appears that Spotify is withdrawing its support for Sonos and integration through it's sdk, and companies to support Spotify connect. It would be great to get a more comprehensive statement from Sonos about its direction with Spotify. "
Do you have a link to support the above ?? This means that, unless Sonos support Connect, they will lose the ability to play Spotify altogether ! Whilst I have a workaround (also great when the rest of 'Spotify on Sonos' experiences one of its many outages), many will not, so be left high and dry with nothing if this proves to be true. Is there any timing on this withdrawal of this sdk ?
Nick
I am trying Google Play Music. Seems to be quite the same of Spotify with a more Sonos friendly App
I’ve moved to Spotify as my main music platform, which means I discover, share, play music from their library, and I also host my own files on Spotify. I have play lists I regularly update that have both my own tracks and Spotify tracks. Yes, they have 30m tracks but that probably represents a 1/3 of the music out there and i have plenty of music I love to listen to regularly that’s not available on Spotify.
Sonos and Heos are both great systems, seemingly. They both sound great. They can stream music directly to the speaker.
One of my most common use cases: play Spotify playlists on the speaker - doesn’t work if the play lists have local files on either system. Fail.
There is also the other many ways Sonos fails with Spotify, given that the app has so far out reached the sonos app. I’m often using the Spotify app for discovery - can’t do that in Sonos. I have dozens of saved albums and artists - Can’t see them in sonos. Can’t share from sonos. Etc.
At least with Heos you can use the full Spotify app. But while Heos seems to work great once the queue is off and running, the app and platform seems buggy. The heos app often hangs or doesn’t see the speakers. But at least you can use the beautiful Spotify app (although that doesn’t do me any good for playing local files.)
One thing that does seem to work reasonably well is Deezer and Sonos. Deezer lets you upload your own files so they become part of their server library and can be streamed. All good there, except... of course there is an except. My family is on a Spotify family plan, so I have 4 premium accounts for $25/mo. To move to Deezer would cost me $60 and ask everyone else to use a different system.
After doing extensive reading online, it appears that Spotify is withdrawing its support for Sonos and integration through it’s sdk, and pushing companies to support Spotify connect. It would be great to get a more comprehensive statement from Sonos about its direction with Spotify.
One way or another I am going to return one of these systems, or both, in the next couple weeks.
Thanks - I read an article about the Spotify connect announcement in which a Spotify exec made specific statements about not investing in apps that integrate with Spotify and specifically mentioned Sonos. There was an update to the article that had a retraction, but I interpreted as a momentary inadvertent telling of the truth. I don't have the link but if I see it again I'll post it here. I don't think it means they will stop supporting the sonos connection as it is, but perhaps not invest in developing the api to support new features. That was my impression.
I am very deceived by Sonos. Spotify is not really integrated (no access to "my music", albums, etc.) in their system and the interface is very poor in comparison to Spotify one. I would not recommand sonos to spotify users.
I think they are both contributing to the issue. Spotify is focusing on Spotify Connect, which is at odds with the design approach Sonos has taken.
I've been using Google Play and am very happy with it so far. It does everything Spotify does and in some cases better and the integration with Sonos is decent. (The equivalent of "Your Music" is supported in GP and also local files.) Although Songza is integrated into Google Play, GP's Songza functionality isn't in Sonos at this point, so I use Sonza in Sonos too - both work well.
I've been using Google Play and am very happy with it so far. It does everything Spotify does and in some cases better and the integration with Sonos is decent. (The equivalent of "Your Music" is supported in GP and also local files.) Although Songza is integrated into Google Play, GP's Songza functionality isn't in Sonos at this point, so I use Sonza in Sonos too - both work well.
My understanding is that Sonos Spotify integration is limited due to Spotify not providing access to some features through their API:
https://community.spotify.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/ideaexchange/article-id/16743/
Ideally I'd like to use Spotify's own app and send to Sonos through Spotify Connect. I expect Sono's could easily add this feature with a software update but it's probably being stalled by Spotify/Sonos failing to agree / still negotiating terms.
https://community.spotify.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/ideaexchange/article-id/16743/
Ideally I'd like to use Spotify's own app and send to Sonos through Spotify Connect. I expect Sono's could easily add this feature with a software update but it's probably being stalled by Spotify/Sonos failing to agree / still negotiating terms.
Wow. Just came across this thread. Two years old... Who said technology moves fast?! Proper Spotify/Sonos integration remains a no-go whilst the stare-off continues. Who will blink first and risk satisying customers?!
I just bought several Spotify Connect-enabled multi room speakers (http://spotifygear.com/type/wifi-speakers/), and I might just dump Sonos entirely in the future. Technology does move fast, and it's leaving Sonos behind.
Agree - songs time is limited with me too. The whole point in ease of use - and using spotty as my only content provider for music is going to make me switch too. Let me know if you make the switch and how it is
Sonos's time that is
I've just learned that Sonos refuses to integrate spotify connect into their players because spotify connect doesn't have the multi room playing function (with spotify connect you can only use your spotify account on one device at the same time), and i find this very good! for me spotify connect is not even in my considerations without multi room function! Sonos on the other hand does a perfect job when it comes to this! However I still hope, that the integration of the control options when it comes to using spotifi through Sonos improves vastly in the near future!!
This doesn't really sound accurate. If Sonos updated the speaker software to support Spotify Connect I assume that we could just select one of them, for example a Play:1 as the destination speaker for Connect - and after that use the normal Sonos functionality to stream it to the other Sonos speakers.
I'll be receiving a couple of Spotify Connect-enabled multi room speakers. I'll post an update when i test their multi-room capability
Eh ? Google play doesn't support multiroom either yet Sonos works with that via the Google app directly. Spotify could work just like Google - select a speaker within spotify then use the sonos app to group they speaker with others. Hey presto - multiroom ! Spotify couldnt be used to send different streams to different speakers but neither can Google - you would need a second spotify device to send different content to another speaker. I see no difference between Google play and spotify connect except a willingness to implement it.
No radio on Spotify, Yes on Google
I am an Android and Web Developer and I have to agree on all 3 points! I bought Sonos to replace my hodge-podge of AirPlay speakers but I have so much more flexibility with Airplay! Opening up an API for us developers and adding a "Play on Sonos" button from major web services is key! Chromecast and other services have this integration down and its not that difficult to replicate.
I agree. I do have an airport express connected to a Play:5 on the system, which integrates Airplay with Sonos. I called it "Sonos" on my network and so the result is that you select Line-in on the sonos app and "Sonos" on any Airplay device and it plays.
I never thought of that work around! Thank you for posting that! Saves me a lot of time. Still I would rather just have an API I can call to like with ChromeCast
I've been using Google Play and am very happy with it so far. It does everything Spotify does and in some cases better and the integration with Sonos is decent. (The equivalent of "Your Music" is supported in GP and also local files.) Although Songza is integrated into Google Play, GP's Songza functionality isn't in Sonos at this point, so I use Sonza in Sonos too - both work well.
Songza is fully integrated in the Google Play app, but isn't dubbed Songza. I no longer use the Sonos Controller for Google Play since you can now connect to Sonos from within the Google Play app, which is far, far more functional than the limited implementation in the Sonos controller. I am doing a trial of Spotify right now and will cancel because the Sonos integration stinks compared to Google Play. Both Sonos and Spotify are to blame.
I've been using Google Play and am very happy with it so far. It does everything Spotify does and in some cases better and the integration with Sonos is decent. (The equivalent of "Your Music" is supported in GP and also local files.) Although Songza is integrated into Google Play, GP's Songza functionality isn't in Sonos at this point, so I use Sonza in Sonos too - both work well.
How do you connect to Sonos from within the Google Play app?
I've been using Google Play and am very happy with it so far. It does everything Spotify does and in some cases better and the integration with Sonos is decent. (The equivalent of "Your Music" is supported in GP and also local files.) Although Songza is integrated into Google Play, GP's Songza functionality isn't in Sonos at this point, so I use Sonza in Sonos too - both work well.
Ahh - I see it's for Android - nevermind.
I've been using Google Play and am very happy with it so far. It does everything Spotify does and in some cases better and the integration with Sonos is decent. (The equivalent of "Your Music" is supported in GP and also local files.) Although Songza is integrated into Google Play, GP's Songza functionality isn't in Sonos at this point, so I use Sonza in Sonos too - both work well.
Oh. I didn't think about iOS. Don't think that's coming anytime soon. Too bad. The Android experience is solid for Google Play and Sonos.
I agree. Interesting no reply from Sonos. It's really annoying that I can't access my music on the Sonos app, only playlists. I end up saving albums twice. - once in my music and once in a playlist.
Pretty rubbish given how much Sonos uses Spotify as an incentive for purchase.
I've tried two setups, and am pretty happy with both of them:
1) I connected a ROCKI (http://www.myrocki.com/) to an amplifier and speakers. ROCKIs support Spotify Connect out of the box.
2) I managed to buy several of the discontinued Pioneer wireless speakers on Amazon (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/Wireless-Speakers). A firmware update enables Spotify Connect on them.
So I'll complete my migration away from Sonos by purchasing a couple of additional ROCKIs.
My guess is that Sonos won't implement Spotify Connect because it will commoditize their products: they'll be pretty much undistinguishable from the competition, and thus unable to charge premium prices for their products. That leaves them in a very difficult position: they can't join Spotify, and they can't compete with it.
Oscar - that was a great tip - Id forgotten all about those [now] Spotify Connect enabled Pioneer speakers and they're available at rock bottom prices. I just ordered a new XW-SMA3 from Argos Outlet (via eBay uk) for £69 (reduced from £299). I was going to pick up another Play 1 but, since its only needed for my home office and I wont be grouping it with my other Sonos speakers, I decided to give Sonos a miss this time. Spotify is my main music source and Sonos really sucks with Spotify and Im tired of waiting for them to improve it. Its also portable, battery powered, splash proof and Air Play enabled so will be great for outdoors and holidays.w
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