Custom URL Without Tunein

Sonos tends not to discuss ‘pipeline’ projects. It has been the same for quite a while, with the FAQ here. Are you having an issue? 

I have been adding URL stations since 2012 and the TuneIn link no longer will accepts them.  I looked at multiple solutions that don’t work.

Tim C

Have you tried searching the radio station in Sonos radio?

I don’t use this feature, but I’d think it works for most people. Specific stations/links might help those familiar with it help you. Have you called Sonos Support to discuss it?

When you speak directly to the Support staff, they have tools at their disposal that will allow them to give you advice specific to your network and Sonos system.

Absolutely and even when it does work, the process is clunky and frustrating. I still don’t understand why they never brought this feature back.

That said, I’m not upset about it. Sonos can’t do everything, and I’ll vote with my wallet. I’ve actually retired the Port in my kitchen (where I do most of my listening) and switched to a different streamer (the WiiM Pro). In addition to radios, it handles local libraries and audio formats much better. 

The feature is still there, but its hidden in some of the apps.

My app (see profile) makes it easy to add custom streams (including testing they are valid before actually adding them) and play them back.

I have a free login with TuneIn and always sign in before adding a new URL.  On my old S1 that I use at my office with a couple of older Play 5’s, I still can add URL’s without issue.  It is the S2 that has changed over the last 6 months that I am seeing these issues.  What I am missing in the S2 TuneIn section is “My Radio Stations”.  I see the favorite section and I am able to add to that section by applying the heart but I can’t get any of them to play over to my SONOS S2 for playback.

My guess is they will never directly support this as they want people to pay for TuneIn or SonosRadio in order to generate advert money.

Oddly, the TuneIn/SonosRadio feeds of the same stream experience intermittant skips/pauses.  Streaming these directly with another system does not have these skips. Apple Music, at much higher bitrates, streams flawlessly… 

Conspiracy or not?

Any monies you pay to TuneIn don’t come back to Sonos. And as far as I’m aware, you don’t have to pay for TuneIn to have an account. 

Nor does Sonos put any additional advertisements on TuneIn streams. 

Seems extremely unlikely there is any conspiracy at all. 

AFAICT, if I search Hirschmilch Radio Chillout on Sonos Radio, you will get the TuneIn station, which is a re-broadcast of the official Hirschmilch stream. You will get ads, but you won’t get the interruptions.

Sonos Radio has some Sonos-specific streams which will not have ads. If you pay for Sonos Radio HD, you won’t get ads, but why would I pay for that if the streams I want are available elsewhere (and I would happily pay for them directly if it were possible).

All global broadcasts are provided by TuneIn.

For Sonos-owned and operated stations only. Excludes global broadcast stations. https://www.sonos.com/en-us/sonos-radio

Sonos might not get the ad revenue, but I don’t care about that -- I don’t want ads on free streams, and I don’t want Sonos gatekeeping my access to freely available streams (yes, i can use workarounds, so it’s light-touch gatekeeping)
 

Right now, I’m testing whether I get additional ads using the stream accessed via Sonos Radio.

How does one expect “free” streams to remain free without some sort of revenue being generated?  Licensing and distribution costs money, and last time I checked, the penalties for not paying those fees aren’t conducive to staying on the air.

​@jgatie AFAICT, TuneIn is just a middleman that provides discovery, and Sonos has partnered with them and intentionally (given the mobile client fiasco it could be accidental, though even previously the old TuneIn app managed custom stream favorites) made it difficult to access streams directly. 15m of searching and I can’t find any information on TuneIn paying streamers -- nothing on TuneIn’s site indicates they pay streamers.

I’m fine with directly supporting streamers (and I have donated to Groove Salad for years). I have no idea how any streamer makes money if they don’t have donations or a paid service--most of the small ones seem to do it for love (and then disappear).

Sonos makes a great platform for streams to directly profit via the service integrations. I pay Hearts of Space a ridiculous amount of money because they are integrated with Sonos!

Honestly, if TuneIn pays streamers a reasonable (i.e. over half of their subscription cost), I’d love to know that and would definitely support them via TuneIn. I just can’t find any mention of this, and I would expect it to be a great marketing point.