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Playing directly from Apple Music app

  • 1 February 2023
  • 10 replies
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R

Is there a way to play songs from the Apple Music app directly to a Sonos speaker (as opposed to using Sonos app with Apple Music as a source)?

This can be done with the Tidal and Amazon Music apps. I like using them because the music service apps are better at accessing their content. The Sonos app has less options available.

Thanks

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Best answer by Airgetlam 2 February 2023, 17:39

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10 replies

R

Another point - I have an older Play 3 that does not have AirPlay.

Airgetlam

From what device?

For instance, from my iOS devices, I just run/play  Apple Music, and then from the AirPlay 2 menu on the top right of the OS, I select the output to go to the Sonos speakers. Don’t recall ever doing it from the Mac, but I’d assume its the same, run the Music App, then go to the AirPlay 2 menu and send the signal to the Sonos speaker that can accept it. 

I have done this often in the past, and it works just fine. After that, I have gone into the Sonos software, and grouped my PLAY:3 with the AirPlay 2 playing speaker, so that I get the signal on the PLAY:3 as well.

Bruce
R

Bruce - Thanks for the reply. 

My only Sonos speaker is an older Play 3 that does not have Airplay. I don’t have another speaker with Airplay so I am not able to group speakers like you’ve done. 

Airgetlam

Ah, I see. Unfortunately, there is no way to use the Apple app and get music to the PLAY:3 directly. If you’re using Apple Music’s cloud service, you can just add that to the Sonos controller, but if you’re trying to play local sources, you’d need an AirPlay 2 capable device, after which you could group the rooms. The PLAY:3 was designed and manufactured long before AirPlay 2 came into existence, and it’s not capable of receiving that type of direct signal. 

Bruce
R

Bruce - Thanks again for replying to my questions. I’m not surprised that my old Play:3 is not able to work with Airplay. 

Airgetlam

Old design, old device. I have a pair which continue to excel in my bedroom as a stereo set, but I did have to add a Sonos One in the bathroom so that I could group the two rooms for AirPlay 2 purposes. 

And your most welcome ;)

Bruce
A

The Sonos integration with music apps is so terrible.  We had Spotify.  Since Spotify doesn't integrate directly with the Sonos app, we had to play our music through the Spotify app, which was cumbersome to select speakers, change speakers, etc. through our phones.  Then we got a "smart" Sonos speaker, and decided to switch to Apple Music so we could use the voice controls.  We absolutely can not control our Sonos speakers through the Apple Music app (why, why, why?), so we need to use the Sonos app, which "integrates" with our Apple Music account.  Here's our problem:  In the Sonos app, we select an artist and only see albums.  So, if we search for "The Beatles," we can't just play the top tracks, which is the first category in the Apple Music (and Spotify) app; we must select an album or individual songs off of individual albums.  We often do listen to albums, but when we want to pull up a new artist, we know nothing about their albums - we just want the top tracks.  Why doesn't Sonos mirror the Apple Music options, including top tracks?  We're honestly considering selling all of our Sonos equipment and trying something different.  I've spent hours researching this problem, and everybody seems to have this problem.  It's a really bad sign to us that two mainstream music apps can't play music easily on our extensive Sonos system (sound bar, sub, ten individual speakers).  So disappointing; what year is it? 

Airgetlam

Apple has implemented what you see for Apple in the interface in the Sonos controller. Sonos doesn’t implement an individual API for each streaming company. Sonos provides one API (see the Sonos partners page) and leaves it to each streaming company to choose which of the available options to implement. 

Given the number of streaming companies that Sonos does support, having individual features for each one might be a logistical nightmare for the programmers at Sonos. 
 

 

Bruce
106rallye
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I’m a bit puzzled by your statement that ”Spotify doesn't integrate directly with the Sonos app”. I can ad different Spotify account to my Sonos system, which would count as “direct integration” for me.

A

A couple clarifications:

  1. Yes, actually Spotify does integrate directly with the Sonos app; however, neither option is satisfactory.  Using Spotify through the Sonos app is the worse of the two options.  Similar to the Apple Music issue, it’s not easy to pull up new music.  It works better to access Sonos through the Spotify app, but that makes it more difficult to change speakers in our various locations, which we do frequently.  Using Spotify for our music, we ended up using a cumbersome combination of the Sonos and Spotify app, which is the major reason we switched to Apple Music.  
  2. I guess this could be put back on Spotify and Apple Music, if they do indeed control how their music services integrate with Sonos; however, since these services likely overlap with a huge percentage of Sonos users, Sonos should have some minimum guidelines for how the services integrate.  For example, in addition to accessing your personal library (check), searching for artists should provide similar results to the music service app, such as top tracks.  
  3. Sonos should also allow Apple Music users to play their music on all Sonos speakers using the Apple Music app directly, which is currently much better than using Apple Music integrated with the Sonos app.  It’s so maddening that this process is not seamless!   
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