+23
I see that in the Add Services dialog, TuneIn is listed as “no longer supported” (on mobile, Desktop doesn’t include the summary text). We are supposed to use “TuneIn (New)”, which requires a TuneIn account to work.
Looks like this means we cannot add custom URLs any more once TuneIn (classic?) is removed?
Support, can we get an official statement on this please?
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!
+18
Hi
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.
Hi
Yes - you need to install the (unsupported) legacy version of TuneIn to do so.
What is unsupported version? Is it old version one Tunein?
+18
Hi
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.
+18
Hi
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 contacted TuneIn and they basically said the My Stations feature will not be added to the “new” TuneIn, so I assume I will be losing all of the custom URLs I created over the years.
Additionally, while I can add a custom url to TuneIn using their PC desktop app, for some reason, the full “library” (ie the list of all of my favorited stations) I created using the desktop app, does not show up in the favorites section of legacy or “new” TuneIn apps inside Sonos. Even though I’ve logged into TuneIn inside Sonos with the same credentials, I get a different and shorter favorites list in the Sonos version of both TuneIn apps (legacy and new) versus the list I see while using my PC, Android, iOS versions of TuneIn.
Unless this is a bug, it leaves me to conclude that TuneIn doesn’t pass through the library of favorites (including any custom urls) to Sonos. So, the suggestion above to add custom URLs to the desktop version of TuneIn doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t pass into Sonos.
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.
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