Sonos Controller

After expending about $3000.00 US on my system I am told that I need a phone to set it up.. who does this to their customers ??? No phone no setting up my system.Really SONOS ??? Just got off the phone from Sonos "tech" support. Confirmed that Win App software upgrade create a status quo of that you need a smart device i.e. apple / android to manage and configure your system. Basically in brick layer terms is that the Sonos Play5 hardware and software need these devices being Android / IOS to get the system to speak to your router, and as in their business model to bi-directionally send your usage data to Sonos. That way Sonos stay in control of you because your Sonos device will not work unless you play by their rules......Mark of the beast ring a bell somewhere????

Sonos needs to collect the usage data in order to send targeted advertising through your home audio system:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4235857-sonos-future-may-depend-services-hardware
You do fall for hacks, don't you?

Being that targeted advertising would violate Sonos' declaration that they will never sell you data, now or in the future, your link is either fake news, or a declaration that Sonos is the dumbest company on the face of the earth.

I'm not sure that it would. Sonos could theoretically do targeted advertising without selling your data. If, for example, a user had a Pandora free account with ads, Sonos could insert the targeted ads in the stream on behalf of Pandora without providing any data to Pandora. If a user opted out of data collection, then a user would then get un-targeted ads.

I'm not saying Sonos will ever do this, but I'm not sure it would really bother me too much. If I'm going to get ads, I'm fine with them being targeted as long as my user data doesn't leave Sonos.

Regardless, this is getting offtopic. The thought was that Sonos had made the move to mobile app setup only to enable data collection, which is completely untrue.

Regardless, this is getting offtopic. The thought was that Sonos had made the move to mobile app setup only to enable data collection, which is completely untrue.

Yes, considering Sonos has been collecting data forever, the data collected is almost exclusively via the Sonos players themselves, and (even if it wasn't) there is nothing unique about a PC/Mac app that precludes collecting data, the premise is nonsense.
To the contrary: 'Manage --> Settings --> Additional Usage Data'.

To the contrary: 'Manage --> Settings --> Additional Usage Data'.

Not what I meant. I meant that Sonos can collect data via the PC/Mac just as easily as it does via the mobile app, so the premise that they are pushing people towards the mobile controller in order to facilitate data collection is nonsense.
That's exactly what I meant.

To the contrary: 'Manage --> Settings --> Additional Usage Data'.

Not what I meant. I meant that Sonos can collect data via the PC/Mac just as easily as it does via the mobile app, so the premise that they are pushing people towards the mobile controller in order to facilitate data collection is nonsense.

Then what is the reasoning to require a phone to set up. No one can answer this.

Then what is the reasoning to require a phone to set up. No one can answer this.

As stated by pwt, Sonos has usage data on what controllers are used and how often, and they used that data to decide to concentrate development on voice/mobile instead of PC/Mac because they foresee a greater ROI by advancing mobile/voice and deprecating the PC/Mac controller. No conspiracy, just economics.

Then what is the reasoning to require a phone to set up. No one can answer this.

As stated by pwt, Sonos has usage data on what controllers are used and how often, and they used that data to decide to concentrate development on voice/mobile instead of PC/Mac because they foresee a greater ROI by advancing mobile/voice and deprecating the PC/Mac controller. No conspiracy, just economics.

So it's strictly for their own benefit.
I just wanted something to play my music through my houses. I could have just bought a receiver but I liked the ideas of playing different music in different rooms. This has become super disturbing for me.

[quote=jgatie]

Is it really so "super disturbing" ?

Yes. Its like buying anything (washer, tv, car...) and then 6 months later they say you have to use "this" now or it wont work. I could see if this was a subscription that I was paying monthly for, I would just cancel...Not when you spend thousands of dollars for something that cant be returned.