Support Spotify Connect to allow users to use the Spotify app as the controller.

  • 3 September 2013
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366 replies

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Because of the reliable hardware, I also planned to extend my Sonos system (currently a Connect for my HiFi systemen and an S5). But after reading this I really start to doubt. When listening to Sonos I listen for 80% to Spotify, 15% music from my NAS device and only 5% streaming radio. There are two things that annoy me about Sonos and Spotify. First the frequent outages of the Spotify - Sonos connection, totday already 48 hours dead! The companies always point to each other, but never take responsibility for this mess. 2nd, the inability to use the Spotify features using the Sonos App, or otherwise the inability to control Sonos using the Spotify App. For me Sonos is just a streamer, I even use a separate Arcam DAC. The Spotify software is much more user friendly, and really serves as a music explorer in which you can discover new music and that’s what I like about this service and Sonos is just the hardware I use to listen! The Sonos control app didn’t make any significant improvement in the past few years, this unlike Spotify! If this battle between Sonos and Spotify continues, I will switch to a Spotify friendly device. Three years ago I have chosen for Sonos above a Marantz streamer, for that reason!. My hardware is 3 years old now and replacing the streamer only for my living room is not that costly. It is highly frustrating when my music evening is spoiled by connection problems. First I start looking for problems in my own network, resetting switches and routers, checking cables, does streaming radio work, does Spotify on my iPad work etc… and until know, in the past three years I am using this combo, it was always the Sonos – Spotify connection and never my own system or the internet provider. So keep in mind, I want a quality music experience and not being a victim of a marketing war! So count your blessings.
I'm pretty sure the poster meant Spotify has no future. The venture capitalists aren't going to forever support a business that is losing millions of dollars a month. There is simply no way to monetize the streaming industry, especially now that Google and Apple, with their unlimited funds, have entered the fray.
Fix this.
What are the alternatives to Sonos? I'd love something that DOES work with the Spotify app on iPad.
Sonos long ago made the decision to be service neutral, and to use the Sonos API as much as possible instead of proprietary service interfaces. There have been exceptions, Spotify being one, but they have refused to go so far as to license their hardware to a particular service provider, which is what Spotify Connect requires. This is mostly due to Sonos early on wasting valuable development time on services which are no longer around.

As to Spotify growing, growth means nothing without profit. They will never be successful until they are in the black, and until then, they are living on borrowed time like every service before them.
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Check out this article for some more details: gizmodo.com/spotify-connect-sonos-like-powers-that-bend-to-your-bu-1228510223 It's essential for SONOS to add, else they will be blasted away by competition. I expect it be in the beta of SONOS very soon, and to have them as primary adoptor. Else the brand is dead :)
Sounds like the last comments might be from SONOS employees. I agree with Nicao, there are too many good competitors out there for SONOS not to take substantial heat here. I just bought my first SONOS Speakers, but will NOT be cornered into their ecosystem. If you love your customers, SONOS, act like it.
Is there an official statement from Sonos WHY they don't want to integrate Spotify connect? It's a simple question, isn't it? For me it's still a dealbreaker! :@

Because it has no future? Spotify can cast to Chromecast Audio. Get one, plug into Sonos aux in. Done.


Not all Sonos have an aux in
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
I use Spotify to create playlists and then Sonos to play them around the house. That is my solution to the relatively poor integration of Spotify into Sonos. Surely you're saving yourself a load of work by getting Spotify to integrate Sonos properly into its platform rather than the other way around?
Meanwhile, in the real world, Spotify launched the system with Pioneer as Launch Partner
Just a few days ago a microsite went live where you can see what alternatives to buy to get rid of your non-supported SONOS devices

https://www.spotify.com/connect/
http://www.cnet.com/news/twitter-earnings-q4-2014/

CEO Dick Costolo, facing pressure to rapidly grow the social network, reports Twitter's third straight quarter of profit. Even though growth of monthly active users failed to impress, the stock soars.


So much for Twitter not making a profit. Plus, Twitter doesn't have the artists it depends on for content sueing them for $150 million for non-payment of royalties. Nor does Twitter have Google and Apple in direct competition. Fact is, Spotify is on borrowed time.
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
I was very close to buying two Sonos Play 1s in the past few days and was shocked to find out that Sonos does not support Spotify Radio. Because of this I will not be buying into the Sonos ecosystem. I shouldn't have to go into a third party app (Sonos) to utilise features (or lack thereof in this case) of music streaming services. The relationship between Sonos and Spotify looks volatile at best and I'll be sticking with Spotify. Until you have more tightly coupled integration with Spotify I won't be investing in Sonos because Sonos is supposed to enable me to listen to my music. I'd be paying enough to not have to come up with workarounds and hacks to utilise features by Spotify to get them working with Sonos.

Please please please support Spotify Connect (and soon!). I imagine it's probably a case of releasing a bridge that has the compatible Connect chip.
I'm confused here. I got this reply from Spotify when I tried to point out their listing of Sonos as supporting Spotify Connect was incorrect:

"We do support Sonos devices with our Spotify Connect feature. However, we're having some trouble with the Connect feature at the moment.

What we suggest is that you reinstall your Spotify app on the device you're using to access your Sonos Device. For a guide on how to get that done on different devices and platforms, please click here .

If you're still having concerns with the Connect feature after reinstalling your app, can you send us a screenshot of the error you're seeing so we can take a closer look ourselves?"

I'm no longer in the location where I was trying to get Connect working - but it seems to me that Spotify say that Connect works on Sonos. Is it categorically the case that this isn't true?
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
Don't force us to use the Sonos app, you should improve the Sonos app to make us want to use it.  Then we won't be asking to play direct from Spotify which offers are much faster and sophisticated solution.

🙂
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
hear hear
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
same here!
From my point of view Spotify app has a great UI, Sonos app doesn't... but you can arrange the different rooms and connect other music services. That's it. No more.

Please Sonos, integrate Spotify Connect!
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
Hey Dude,
I just bought my first Sonos and was planing to expand it. But if I cannot listen to my favorite Spotify radio, I do not see the point.
I feel very disapointed by your advertisement stating that Sonos support Spotify, which is by far exagerated.
I'm not sure basing your purchases on Spotify Connect support is the best way to go. Spotify itself just went against its own Connect implementation and threw support to Google Chromecast, something it was reluctant to do. Seems they are not as confident about Spotify Connect being a success as they once were.
Userlevel 1
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
Has there been any movement on integrating Sonos support into Spotify (via Connect or whatever other means)? The Sonos UI is a pain each and every time that I have to use it. Combined with complete lack of reaction from Sonos, I am just waiting to switch to some other solution the minute Spotify Connect expands to cover more devices...
(different Paul than the one above - but same frustration)
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Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
Sonos, I respectfully insist on an update for this. This isn't just a simple request by many of us, but a direct misrepresentation by Sonos. A timeline for your resolution or a true technical reason why this isn't possible should be provided. I invested a good deal of money in my Sonos system and until we receive that update, I will be reaching out to every tech review site through multiple means to explain how Sonos says it's "the best Sonos experience" yet doesn't even meet functional parity. How long has Spotify had Radio? How popular is it? Seriously, your false promises feel like dirty business tactics. I encourage all to share this thread through social media, by emailing examples to tech review sites and write reviews yourself on places like Amazon.com or for the Sonos app in the App Store.
Sonos is not "just another wireless speaker", regardless if you use their app or not. If they were, they'd be put out of business by $50 Bluetooth models. Their real selling point is perfectly synchronized playback to multiple rooms. You can only synch their speakers with other Sonos devices, so the fear of someone purchasing other, cheaper brands is unfounded. Besides, you can stream direct from the Google Play Music app, so I'm afraid your analysis is quite lacking.

The real reason they won't do Spotify Connect is because it requires licensing and contracts, and Sonos has always been service neutral.
Userlevel 7
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previously I thought this may be related to some kind of hardware requirement but now that I think about it, it doesnt - I have an Iphone and Ipad which clearly dont have the required chip and they can act as 'Spotify Connect' clients.  Yes, they have the 'Sonos App' installed but whats an app other than a bunch of lines of code running on an operating system.  Since each sonos is effectively a little mini Linux computer Im sure with the tech bods could sort something out.
Oh man. This thread is a thermonuclear bummer. Just got home with about $2k worth of Sonos gear last night...i may be an interesting use case so i'll share details about systems, spotify and sadness.

I currently have multiroom wi-fi systems from Samsung, Play-Fi (DefTech & Polk) and Sonos all set up in my home. I'm a musician/audio professional, and i'm generally of the opinion that there's no way to choose gear without setting it up and using it - so that's what credit cards and return policies are for.

I already have a bunch of high end sound gear - a mixing studio in one room, and a PA with powered QSC monitors in another - but i often don't use them to listen to music for enjoyment because they are often tied up with work tasks (physically or psychologically). So, i want something fun that "just works."

This whole mess started with Samsung R1s being on sale at Costco for $120. I bought three. Easy setup, sounds good enough. Quite reliable as well - mostly used them with Spotify, but a bit of Pandora as well. The problem is with the closed system - no analog line in, and i'm not a huge fan of bluetooth.

Ultimately, I realized the best thing for me would be a system where I could integrate AirPlay, even on a half-assed, ad-hoc basis. I tried out some of the Sony products (X88, etc) and the specs and connectivity options were amazing, but basically it just didn't work well enough. I bet there's a router that it works better with, but I'm not going down that road. This led me to trying out the Play-Fi system (each speaker has an aux line-in) and being pretty happy. With each system, I used Spotify a lot. It's just the most fun and easiest for me...I just want to have the option of sending the audio that's running on one of my pro systems into the wireless speakers as well.

When I came to understand the power of the Sonos Connect, the light bulb lit up. OK, all I have to do is PAY and the problem is solved. Patch in the Airport Express, and done. See where I'm going with this?

So far, I've used the Sonos system for about 15 minutes and I'm figuring I'm gonna have to return it. That's how big of a bummer the Spotify integration is. Spotify Connect, whatever. I don't really care how they do it, but the built-in app is so sad and clunky compared to the latest version of Spotify.

For the casual user, Spotify Connect is a direct competitor to Sonos. For example, on my deck I currently have a Samsung and nothing else. I'm listening to my grouped Play-Fi speakers inside, and when I go outside I just switch to the Samsung from the Spotify app. Yes, of course, not the ideal long-term setup for a fancypants user like me but from a user experience standpoint, a heavy Spotify user could easily buy into multiple systems and unify them with Spotify Connect.

Sonos seems to be betting the farm on being "ecosystem" focused while the hordes of users that will be buying into this marketplace over the coming years will probably be app-focused ("make music app X go into my speakers"). There's probably room for everyone, and maybe I'm wrong.

But, dang. What a bummer. I really thought I'd nailed this thing and so far it seems that the Spotify issue is a deal breaker.
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
SOLUTION: I bought a small Century-branded Bluetooth receiver, no larger than a small match box in Akihabara, Tokyo. Plugged it into the line-in port of one of the speakers on my system. Works like a dream.

When I press the Spotify connect sign on my iPod touch it immediately does what I ask it to do. Stereo remains separated over two speakers and all the functionality of Spotify Connect is available.

Ensure that you have enabled the "automatically detect line-in" setting in the SONOS app. After that, you never have to touch the SONOS app again.

Sound quality is great and range, as advertised, some 10 metres. Cost: JPY 1800. Which is next to nothing.

Very happy - frustration gone. In addition, it works also for my Microsoft Surface with Windows 8, another piece of equipment/OS that SONOS does not want to provide an app for.
I just bought the new Sonos 5. VERY disappointed to learn that spotify connect does not work.

Previously to listen to spotify I was connecting my phone to old speakers via aux in and I wanted something that would just play the music I select in the spotify app without any hassle. I thought sonos was the answer. Apparently not.
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Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
NOT A SOLUTION: I like the workaround, but that isn't a solution. Buying a product from another company entirely isn't how Sonos issues with Sonos products are resolved. Furthermore, you have to have the Sonos Connect piece to have line-in. Not all speakers allow for it.

Sonos, I respectfully insist on an update for this. This isn't just a simple request by many of us, but a direct misrepresentation by Sonos. A timeline for your resolution or a true technical reason why this isn't possible should be provided. I invested a good deal of money in my Sonos system and until we receive that update, I will be reaching out to every tech review site through multiple means to explain how Sonos says it's "the best Spotify experience" yet doesn't even meet functional parity. How long has Spotify had Radio? How popular is it? Seriously, your false promises feel like dirty business tactics.

I encourage all to share this thread through social media, by emailing examples to tech review sites and write reviews yourself on places like Amazon.com or for the Sonos app in the App Store.