End of TuneIn service announcement - how do I maintain my own radio station?

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I recently discovered that the actual TuneIn service will be replaced by a new one which is, for the record, not free anymore. I used the actual TuneIn to add my own radio station (rockradio.com) and was perfectly happy with it for many years. These streams are defined as https links. The own radio station was the only feature I used. I tried the new TuneIn and couldn’t find an equivalent feature.

I have called the support and the only thing they were able to say is that the actual TuneIn service will disappear from my system anytime soon.

I have also on my network a Synology server which provides the music library service. Maybe is there a solution through the Synology?

Has anyone a solution to keep the own radio station service without using TuneIn?

The own radio station was the reason I bought a Sonos system; it could be the reason I’ll get rid of it. I’m quite surprised that adding such a basic thing as a stream is not a native feature of the Sonos system itself.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

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11 replies

controlav
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You can add radio streaming urls using the PC or Mac Sonos apps as they really don’t have anything to do with TuneIn. They are currently displayed in the TuneIn part of the source tree, but it will be trivial for Sonos to move that to another location in their apps.

I think I’m going to do it in my own app soon as this is a more common problem as TuneIn moves from free to paid.

Author of the leading independent Sonos app for Windows, the only Sonos app for Xbox, and a Sonos app for iOS
P
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Hello @controlav 

Thank for your reply. I’m also thinking that Sonos should modify their apps in order to be able to add streams outside any third-party application.

As far as I’ve a clear understanding of the call I had this morning with the support, there is no clear schedule of the decommissioning of the ‘old’ TuneIn service. The answer was anytime soon …

A
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This issue of not been able to add URL of stations is very disappointing. I bought Sonos because of it’s flexibility.

How can you justify charging for listening to internet radio stations that are actually free😡?

Sonos should allow adding URL of stations without a third party like TuneIn.

I am going to get rid of all my sonos system because the new Sonos radio is still provided by TuneIn and am being charged just to listen to internet radios.

P
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This issue of not been able to add URL of stations is very disappointing. I bought Sonos because of it’s flexibility.

How can you justify charging for listening to internet radio stations that are actually free😡?

Sonos should allow adding URL of stations without a third party like TuneIn.

I am going to get rid of all my sonos system because the new Sonos radio is still provided by TuneIn and am being charged just to listen to internet radios.

You’re right 100%. I had some heated exchanges with John B. regarding this topic and exactly for the same reasons. No one at Sonos seems to understand that this feature is a reason why people are buying their systems. It’s aboslutely unbelievable!

D

As an FYI - Tunein built its radio library by harvesting them from and through Sonos.  I routinely listened to several favorite stations.  Earlier this year, stations would suddenly stop playing and a msg would appear with, “unable to play. . . ” - after reoccurring a fourth time, I realized my stations were being harvested - without notice. 

So, by now you’ve heard, Sonos radio, like Tunein, is now charging a monthly fee after a 7-day trial. I won’t sign up because today it’s $7.99 (which, with taxes and fees could be $11ish) and next year it’ll be more, etc.  Now I wonder if they will completely eliminate the ability to create your own playlist - competition, maybe?  I’ve learned that with Sonos, expect the worse.  It started out as an absolute heavenly product and yes, I happily sang its praises.  Guess I’ll go back to my lps and cds because when controlled by someone else, there will always be changes  - and not necessarily for the better.  For a short period Sonos and Mac (iTunes) eliminated the ability to download cds into the Sonos library.  How long this “gift” will continue is anyone’s guess.  I think of all the music I’ve downloaded that may be in jeopardy.  For me, it’s developed into a trust issue.  Why invest when you’ll have to re-invest and re-invest and re-invest for profit and not, I suspect, for the consumer.  While waiting for the other shoe to drop, I’ll have to search for a new system/software.  However, a turntable will always be a turntable and cd changer will always be a cd changer and there’s no one between you and them. 

Airgetlam

Odd. I used to know several folks at TuneIn, back when I lived in San Francisco. Never were they ‘harvesting’ radio stations from Sonos. 

Bruce
Corry P
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Hi @DSEERGPROP 

As an FYI - Tunein built its radio library by harvesting them from and through Sonos.  I routinely listened to several favorite stations.  Earlier this year, stations would suddenly stop playing and a msg would appear with, “unable to play. . . ” - after reoccurring a fourth time, I realized my stations were being harvested - without notice. 

I’m not entirely sure what you mean by “harvested”, but if anything, you got it the wrong way around - Sonos Radio populates it’s list of stations from TuneIn. TuneIn has been around for far longer.

So, by now you’ve heard, Sonos radio, like Tunein, is now charging a monthly fee after a 7-day trial. I won’t sign up because today it’s $7.99 (which, with taxes and fees could be $11ish) and next year it’ll be more, etc.

This is incorrect. Sonos Radio is free to Sonos users. Only Sonos Radio HD is subscription-based - it includes 24bit, high definition streams and the ability to skip tracks (both with curated channels only).

Now I wonder if they will completely eliminate the ability to create your own playlist - competition, maybe?

You cannot add radio stations to playlists - it makes no sense. As for other kinds of playlists, that would be market suicide.

For a short period Sonos and Mac (iTunes) eliminated the ability to download cds into the Sonos library.  How long this “gift” will continue is anyone’s guess.  I think of all the music I’ve downloaded that may be in jeopardy.

There is no “Sonos Library”, in the sense that Sonos has any control over it’s contents. Any music files that you downloaded, you downloaded before Sonos had anything to do with them, so I’m not sure what you mean here. Maybe you are referring to the fact that music downloaded from iTunes used to have Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection? This had nothing to do with Sonos, and would have affected other devices just as much.

 

Regarding manually adding stations once the legacy version of TuneIn is removed:

  • Customers who already have manually added stations will have these stations automatically migrated to My Sonos as favourites, so they will not be lost or become unavailable.
  • The new TuneIn container for the Sonos app will not have the ability to add manual stations, but the TuneIn app will, and any added there will automatically migrate to the (new) Sonos TuneIn container, if logged into the same account.

I hope this helps.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
ratty
  • The new TuneIn container for the Sonos app will not have the ability to add manual stations, but the TuneIn app will, and any added there will automatically migrate to the (new) Sonos TuneIn container, if logged into the same account.

 

To continue to enjoy the custom URL functionality will this have to be a paid TuneIn account?

 

Corry P
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Hi @ratty 

I assume not, but I haven’t seen it written down anywhere one way or the other. I’ll try to find out for you for certain.

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein
P
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Hello @Corry P ,

Thank you for the information.

I take the opportunity to ask WHY Sonos does not provide natively a way to add our own streams from the Internet. I listen almost all the time channels from rockradio.com.

I went to Sonos once I listened in a bar the ‘Blues rock’ channel which was playing. It was palying from a couple of Sonos One units and  I the decided to use Sonos products to play this channel among others in my home.

I’m really disappointed and also somehow very uncomfortable by the fact that we will not able anymore to add and/or edit our preferred radio streams.

 

As said, this feature was a reason for me to buy Sonos and I would be very disappointed to have spent so much money in a system that can be changed to the point it could become more or less useless for me and, as we can read in different topics, for many other users.

ratty

I don’t see why Sonos couldn’t continue with a direct interface to add/edit these radio URLs. Hardware vendors such as WiiM do. Apps like VLC do.

The linkage with TuneIn is actually irrelevant. The URL storage is local to the players and doesn’t involve TuneIn at all. Back in the early days it must simply have been expedient to tuck the My Radio Stations container into the TuneIn menu on the Browse UI. In fact you can add a URL via (old) TuneIn, favourite it into My Sonos, then remove the TuneIn service. The URL will continue to work fine via My Sonos.

Frankly the last thing I need would be any suggestion of pre-roll ads, still less a monthly fee, to hear listener-supported stations such as SomaFM when I already contribute to them voluntarily. It surely wouldn’t be rocket science to extract the My Radio Stations UI from under its current (old) TuneIn umbrella.

To be honest, if I have to go a roundabout route via a (new) TuneIn account -- paid or even free -- I’d seriously consider getting a(nother) WiiM unit and hooking that to an available Line-In.

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