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jhl88
Enthusiast II
September 1, 2023

sonos metadata features

  • September 1, 2023
  • 33 replies
  • 1312 views

Raising this because some other threads look old. I’m dumbfounded that the Sonos app has no information about release dates, album credits, lyrics, artist descriptions, album descriptions, and so forth. All of the major music services have found a way to do this, surely Sonos can too. Not to mention no way of viewing the audio quality of an album (ie atmos) before clicking play. For Apple Music, this means that you have to research what albums are in atmos or hi res lossless, then go back to the Sonos app, search for the album, play it & then verify if it is actually playing atmos or not. This is very time consuming and a real pain in the ***. 
 

I’m tempted to ditch Sonos soon, purely because Sonos really can’t seem to get their act together on the software front. And reading prior threads, the response seems to be to punt the responsibility to the third party service, saying there’s nothing that can be done on the Sonos side. I don’t know, maybe set up a call or two with developers from the other third party services? And hire some UX experts while you’re at it. Surely there’s some way that this can be fixed. The basic functionality of the app seems stuck with almost the same functionality it had 10 years ago, it feels like a slow dinosaur. 
 

Anybody have any insight if Sonos has some of these features on a roadmap? Or do they just not care, which is what it seems like to me.

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    jgatie
    jgatie
    September 16, 2023

    The fact you are on this forum is proof you are not listening to reason.  Because if you were, YOU'D BE COMPLAINING TO APPLE AND SPOTIFY!!!!!

    jhl88Author
    Enthusiast II
    September 17, 2023

    The fact you are on this forum is proof you are not listening to reason.  Because if you were, YOU'D BE COMPLAINING TO APPLE AND SPOTIFY!!!!!


    This is exactly why I’m complaining. I shouldn’t have to, that’s on Sonos to do the legwork on behalf of their customers. I’m writing this here, because my opinions are about Sonos & I want them to “hear” it. If I could play atmos through airplay, I would then only use the Sonos app for speaker grouping & use the apple app (or other) for music nerd info browsing, scrolling lyrics, etc. As it is, you are forced to use the Sonos app to play atmos. This might be on Apple or limitations of airplay streaming. Regardless, because of that the user is now required to use the Sonos app. Considering that Sonos is pushing their hardware as cutting edge atmos capable, it’s ridiculous how terrible their software user experience is. Every time I use it, I’m incredibly frustrated. 

    I’m attaching the current artist Sonos app experience via apple. What dates were the albums released? Are these all albums or EPS or singles or live or compilations? Are they hi res or atmos albums? How about a short bio of the artist? Photos of the artist? Related artists? Members of a band? Most popular songs / albums? None of these questions are answered in the Sonos app. Scrolling lyrics? You can dream Sonos customer, you can dream. It might be on the roadmap 5 years from now. Static lyrics? Also no. The only info displayed on the Sonos app is the title of the artist and a grid of record covers. As a fun bonus, searching for REM or R.E.M didn’t yield any results. I had to search for an album title instead just to get to the artist page. 

    And yes, I will go to apple and complain because I’m now curious what the response will be on their side, if there even is one. However, the whole reason this complaining continues here is because THE SONOS APP SUCKS. 
     

     

     

      jhl88Author
      Enthusiast II
      September 17, 2023

      PS, hardware volume controls on iphones no longer work, so you are also forced to open the Sonos app to adjust the volume. 

        jgatie
        jgatie
        September 17, 2023

        So “it might be on Apple”, but here you are?  I rest my case.  Again, Apple is responsible for their appearance and functionality within the Sonos app.  Sonos couldn’t change it if they wanted to, and have no financial leverage with Apple, unlike those who pay for the subscriptions. 

        SO GO COMPLAIN TO APPLE!!!!!!!

        jgatie
        jgatie
        September 17, 2023

        As a sociology experiment, the dynamic at work here is absolutely baffling.  A user will spend hours of their time and endless posts complaining at a place which cannot solve their problem, and yet refuse to spend any time posting at the one place which can fix their problem, because . . . reasons. 

        Freud would have a field day. 

        jhl88Author
        Enthusiast II
        September 17, 2023

        So, the lesson I am to take here is that Sonos prefers their customers to complain to other large tech companies for them. Again, in my opinion this is punting the ball. I will do so as instructed, and report back. 

         

         

         

          jhl88Author
          Enthusiast II
          September 17, 2023

          So “it might be on Apple”, but here you are?  I rest my case.  Again, Apple is responsible for their appearance and functionality within the Sonos app.  Sonos couldn’t change it if they wanted to, and have no financial leverage with Apple, unlike those who pay for the subscriptions. 

          SO GO COMPLAIN TO APPLE!!!!!!!

          Sonos couldn’t change it if they wanted to? This is the defense? Anyways, I will complain to Apple too!  I’m curious to see if either company gets off their ass now. 

            jhl88Author
            Enthusiast II
            September 17, 2023

            Here you go, folks:

            https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255131988

            For those interested in following along. 

              jgatie
              jgatie
              September 17, 2023

              Sonos couldn’t change it if they wanted to? This is the defense? Anyways, I will complain to Apple too!  I’m curious to see if either company gets off their ass now. 

               

              I suggest you read this:

              https://devdocs.sonos.com/docs/content-service-get-started

              jgatie
              jgatie
              September 17, 2023

              So, the lesson I am to take here is that Sonos prefers their customers to complain to other large tech companies for them. Again, in my opinion this is punting the ball. I will do so as instructed, and report back. 

               

              No, Sonos knows it has no financial leverage with Apple, so their lobbying will mean nothing until subscribers start requesting features too. 

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