Sonos Radio HD-Thoughts?

I signed up for the trial and now get “unable to connect to sonos radio - the connection was lost”. It still works on S1 item.

does seem overpriced for the few stations I would listen to.

I predicted a subscription service in a post a few months back. I think it’s the inevitable outcome of floating the company - they now have to demonstrate ways of increasing revenue streams for their shareholders. In the U.K  the U.S ads from the free version seem bizarre and irrelevant.

If Sonos wish to commoditise streaming music that’s their business but I see nothing new or even as good as other available services. What really concerns me is if Sonos were to start “encouraging” (forcing) users to access their streams by removing Tunein etc from the app. I’m not trying to demonise Sonos, heaven knows I own enough of their products but I have a healthy scepticism when companies join an already crowded marketplace with less than stellar offerings. Currently I have a choice between Sonos Radio and Tunein versions of all the stations I wish to use. I’ve tried both and am now going to switch everything to Tunein. Should Sonos choose to “encourage” me to use their service that would be the end of my use of their products. That may sound dramatic and hopefully will prove unnecessary but corporate arm twisting is not for me. 

I doubt Sonos would force you as all the stations appear to be from Tune in apart from their bespoke ones. But who knows with big tech.

Regulators in the US I believe are beginning to look in to the separation of the hardware and software on certain platforms to avoid such issues.
 

Sonos Radio HD sounds good but choice needs to widen considerably to be worth the price.

@Beagle it doesn't sound dramatic. I think Sonos Radio uses tunein for their non Sonos stations, (based on the tunein branded cover art). Just a guess, but it wouldn't be a stretch to see Sonos drop the TuneIn plugin and default to Sonos - allowing Sonos to insert ads at the beginning of streams etc or implement premium features for $$ 🤷 

This wouldn't push me away based on my listening habits but can see how it might for other owners. 

Interesting times with Sonos for sure. 

It should be standard for what you are buying into with Sonos in the first place.

So lets get this right Sonos launch a radio service a few months back that quickly broke down, because it couldnt provide the very thing that people wanted, the ability to listen to overseas radio stations. Sonos then launch an “HD” version with the same problems, and then expect you to pay a subscription fee per month for the privilege? Thanks Sonos but no thanks ! 

Shouldn’t Sonos be HD in the first place?  That’s what I was getting at with my comment earlier.  Companies that make hardware don’t do well trying to make bring software into the picture in my opinion.  For example, Microsoft made software, then ventured into hardware.  How long did it take for them to succeed, if you consider their latest products a success?

The standard bitrate for radio broadcast is 64 kbps to 128 kbps.

https://radio.co/blog/best-radio-station-bitrate#:~:text=128kbps%20is%20the%20standard%20bitrate%20every%20broadcaster%20should%20be%20using.

I’ll be the slight contrarian. I do enjoy the quality of the new streams, and can definitely hear the difference. That said they need to strengthen their HD offerings quickly to sustain their price point. If they can, it seems more of a threat to Pandora than other services, and the lack of an out-of-home option is a real pain point.

The other odd part is that looking at the HD offerings, I have no sense of what audience they are targeting.

Sonos can only offer HD for their own radio stations.

[Footnote] For Sonos-owned and operated stations only. Excludes global broadcast stations.

https://www.sonos.com/en-us/sonos-radio?utm_source=ENsonoscommunity