I'm planning to buy a Sonos speaker. I would like to know if it is possible to add my own custom radios url at the moment of December 2023? Thanks!

Hi @Vladimir_G 

Yes - you need to install the (unsupported) legacy version of TuneIn to do so. I just verified this still works mere moments ago.

I hope this helps.

What is unsupported version? Is it old version one Tunein?

Hi @Vladimir_G 

TuneIn recently restructured how they do things, so there are two versions of the TuneIn service available for Sonos. They are clearly marked as old and new. In time, the new version will support manually adding station URLs via the TuneIn app, but as far as I am aware, does not yet.

I hope this helps.

From reading the upstream comments, I conclude the following.  Please tell me if I am wrong.

Custom URLs were a feature of an older version of TuneIn, but are no longer a feature of the most recent version.  The old TuneIn is unsupported and may be phased out at a later date.  However, the ability to store and play URLs is native Sonos functionality.  The old TuneIn app was only a convenient way to provide a UI to this functionality.  It could be provided by the Sonos control panel or by another app.

Custom URLs provide one of the last (if not the last) way to play Internet radio on a Sonos without a paid account.  And it is far from clear whether any funds paid to TuneIn (or similar) make it back to the content source (e.g., the public radio station or the like) in any meaningful way.  TuneIn is a directory service/aggregator after all, not a content provider.

It is unclear whether Sonos has the financial motivation to provide custom URLs, and quite possible that it has motivations to the contrary.

Ted Wobber
Ascoli Piceno, IT

My interpretation is: Custom URLs are a function that Sonos provides, and for whatever reason, put it originally under the TuneIn integration. Your second paragraph both denies, and suggests this. 

What ‘funds’ do you speak of in your third paragraph? If you’re setting up a custom URL to a radio station, there is no TuneIn involved, so there wouldn’t be any payments, unless you choose to send the station money on your own to support their ability to maintain an internet accessible stream. 

I’m not sure what motivation there would be to remove this functionality.  

I agree that Custom URLs were a piece of basic Sonos functionality from the beginning.  No point in arguing whether they were initially provided by the base system or by the TuneIn app.  In the early days, I don’t remember any clear distinction between those things.  The key point is that the base system has the capability of both storing and playing such URLs.  The UI that allows them to be created by the user is a small detail.

The funds I am referring to are those I would have to pay to join TuneIn in the absence of Custom URLs.  In my case, TuneIn’s only value-add would be to offer up a target URL that I already know, and could have added myself via a custom URL.  And if I joined, I doubt that any of my TuneIn membership dues would make it back to the service sourcing that URL.

Sonos might have a business interest in seeing subscription TuneIn supplant free streaming.  I have no idea whether this is true,  but given that Sonos offers “Sonos Radio” which seems to be based on TuneIn, it’s clear that the business relationship between Sonos and TuneIn is complex.

Hi @twobbs1 

TuneIn membership is free - you can sign in with your Google or Facebook account, much like many other websites. The Premium version of TuneIn, which is available at a cost, is for gaining access to certain restricted stations - mainly sports and news stations, it looks like, as you will see if you go to the Premium section of their homepage: https://tunein.com/radio/premium/

So, using the TuneIn app and the new TuneIn service to manually add custom radio stations to Sonos (once it is fully implemented) will not cost a penny.

I hope this helps.

I added a custom url in the TUNEIN app and its in their General Folder (you can not specify which folder to save) and added it to Favorites … and yet when I go into SONOS … and open the TUNEIN APP and look … hardly anything that shows relates to my account (and i have logged out and back in on SONOS)  no folders show up not even general… its a mess. 

I delete TUNEIN NEEW and added back the old TUNE IN but of course the custom url is not in MY RADIO STATIONS because the doesnt exist in the new TI… what a mess.  (NOT SONOS fault .. but honestly the reason i dont use TI is the mess its website and app is… its one of the most frustrating apps to use and the website is just as bad.

I wanted to drop this here to help out.

I was able to figure out how to add a custom URL back to the post-updated Sonos App.

A caveat… I did this with an Android phone, so I’ve no idea if these steps will match exactly on the iPhone, but you can post your result if they do/don’t.

Here’s the step by step:

First, this requires that you ALSO have the TuneIn Radio app and a TuneIn Radio account. You probably already have these if you were previously accessing a custom URL via the Sonos app so...

5) Once you tap Save, the TuneIn app should start playing the stream if you added the URL correctly.

Thanks for the guide David, personally i looked at this myself a while ago and noticed the naming issue too.

This is a bug with TuneIn itself, it ignores the friendly name you give a custom URL and just gives it the stream URL as a name, which becomes basically unusable when you have more than a few custom streams. When (if) you eventually get it added as a favourite in the Sonos app it is even worse trying to work out which steam URL is for which radio station.

I consider this unusable, especially since the “old” InTune Sonos service worked perfectly and didn’t need a 3rd party cloud service to add a simple stream URL. This should be a basic function of the Sonos app itself, but sensible software design is a lost cause at this point... anyhow i won’t rant here.

I’m sure if spoke to Sonos support they would just conveniently blame TuneIn, and TuneIn don’t care because this has been an issue for years. So in the glorious new version of the Sonos mobile app we have a regression that makes adding a custom radio stream unusable.

A number of online stations (with a full broadcast license in my region no less) are not available via MyTunerRadio or TuneIn. More were on radio.net but that was purged, since radio.net was removed i just took to adding the stations I listen to using the “Add Radio Station” option on the desktop app. With those radio streams now missing in the latest Sonos mobile app it makes my multiple Sonos speakers far less useful, and removes a feature I made the purchase decision based on.

Since the last post i have worked out there is a method to rename a favourite so it is not an unintelligible URL. This requires the desktop Sonos app, so given that is also being deprecated who knows how long this will work.

The steps are the same as David mentioned, except after adding the station as a favourite from the new TuneIn service you can then rename the favourite from the desktop app.

1. Use the “Custom URL” option from the Library section in the TuneIn mobile app. Their website does not have this option. Their desktop app might, I’ve not checked.
2. Save the custom stream as a favourite with the heart icon.
3. Go to the new TuneIn service in the Sonos mobile app, find the stream URL under the Favorites section. While it is selected/playing choose “Save to Sonos Favorites” (or “Add Station to My Sonos” on the old mobile app).
4. Notice it appears in your favourites list as just the full URL to the stream .
5. Go to the Sonos desktop app, under Sonos Favorites choose to “Rename Sonos Favorite”, give it a nice name .

So, all that used to take 10 seconds directly in the desktop app with the “Add Radio Station” option that is now gone.

We are also at the mercy of two tech companies and their cloud services to save a URL and a name for it. Either of which could decide they no longer care about this functionality and remove it, or break it by mistake and never care to fix it because it is so overly complex.

This is the Achilles heel of proprietary systems - the Internet radio landscape is littered with the carcasses of systems tied to one aggregator provider (eg. TuneIn, vTuner, myTuner, Reciva).  Some high end systems use Airable - but nobody has reported whether they too are affected by the current shutdown due to legal disputes.

I don't know the mechanics of providing an independent route to specifying a direct url.  Would seem to me that it would be a trivial programming task, but under present circumstances Sonos have bigger fires to extinguish. 

This works perfectly - thank you so much.

I hope custom URLs will be reintroduced. It should be a low-maintenance feature for the developers.

I used this feature more than any other up until it was removed.  Honestly, removing this makes me not want to ever purchase another Sonos product again.  It’s been over a year when is this feature going to be returned or is it permanently gone????

Just use App SonoSequencr on iOS. 
You will get back access to previously added custom url station and you can easily add a new ones. 

“Funny” that you have to use 3rd app to play custom url station and then on Sonos App it is displayed as Sonos Radio…

Just use App SonoSequencr on iOS. 
You will get back access to previously added custom url station and you can easily add a new ones. 

“Funny” that you have to use 3rd app to play custom url station and then on Sonos App it is displayed as Sonos Radio…

Great - but you have to pay for this app (ok so not much cost and fair for the developer) however I already have the Sonos companion app to an expensive sound system and can not make it work on that. Just so bizare. Is Patrick reading these?

This function is working without any paid option.

This solution is a working workaround only.

Second workaround is that I have an old iPhone with previous version of Sonos app, where everything is working fine.

Always I’m checking a new version of Sonos app on spare iPhone, if not working I’m using reliable version on main iPhone.

Using the library function in the TuneIn app it should be possible to ad url's. Did you try this?

Yes this works. I can add the custom url and save as a favorite in Tunein. It streams in Tunein. However you cannot then find this in the Sonos app. Instruction on SONOS website say to look under Tunein (New) favorites but this location is not there. This is on IOS app and the Windows app anyway. I opened a chat session with SONOS two days ago but got no where. Was finally asked to call them. Have not done that as I read so many others can not do this either.

Really? IOS app store shows €2.99 to download - with the promise of further in-app purchases later. Anyway ok I will download it and give it a go. App creators need supporting. Just it should not be required.

Zlom:

 Where is the best place to find TuneIn URLs?

Not Zlom but I have found some I need here:

https://fmstream.org/index.php?c=FT
 

And sometimes from a station’s own website. 

 Thanks!