The New Sonos App and Future Feature Updates

Thanks. It took me a while to verify this. Yes, I did verify the music folder as you mentioned, but mine is a little different since I moved my music back in mid-May to a WD MyCloud drive that supports the SMBv2 protocol. In mid-May, I had lost all my music, and it took me a couple of days to get most of it back. But I just realized today, by going into my NAS drive, that there a still songs that I can’t play (or lost) because I am pointing to a specific folder in my iTunes directory. I might try later today to see if I can add a second music source to my Sonos music library, where some of my other songs reside. 

Thank you for your explanation and giving me some input about my music structure. And if I understand the music services, the two songs that I was talking about are basically just place holders or bookmarks to go out and get that music from the cloud. That is a lot of work on Sonos’ part to get everything straight and working correctly. 

I’m going to try adding a second music path to my Sonos music library to try to reclaim the music that I totally forgot that I didn’t have access to. Thank you for the help. John

The Sonos app has not worked properly, functionally, since the major update in spring ‘24. I’ve been using Sonos for over 10 years and have pretty much given up using the app directly. It doesn’t load, it shuts down mid stream, tells me there’s no system, can’t locate speakers...it’s utterly ridiculous. I now have to use my Spotify account and bounce the stream to one of my newer bluetooth enabled Sonos speakers then try to connect to the rest of the system.

What have you developers done? Seems like you’ve effectively ruined what as once the best sound system on the planet. Please fix it!

By all accounts, the developers knew about the flaws, and warned the executives that the app would be a disaster (there are quotes of developers “yelling and screaming” in meetings).  They were overridden.

Also some stories of some of these devs being let go when they did layoffs recently. This whole thing stinks. 

I've not seen any evidence for this, but I'm entirely unsurprised if that did happen. 

People are often first to jump in on the devs but these are strategic decisions. 

And then there was none. This is why nothing is getting done. All the original developers are gone and whoever is left hasn’t a clue. 

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/23/24252545/sonos-employees-reportedly-screamed-about-the-new-app-in-meetings-before-its-release

A new Bloomberg report includes details on some employee pushback to Sonos’ new app ahead of its disastrous launch:

Sonos employees, many of whom were fans before joining the company, started to directly and forcefully raise the alarm with Spence and other executives, according to three current and former employees. They described “yelling” and “screaming” in meetings.

 

How Sonos Botched an App and Infuriated Its Customers

As someone who works in software development, I can confirm that sometimes, when you show sales/management your barely-working / proof-of-concept / unpolished early version, they will demand it ships to EVERYONE without giving you the time to finesse and test and stabilize and generally make it production-ready. That’s if you’re lucky. Sometimes you have to rush to build from scratch something that was sold and promised for an arbitrary release date unencumbered by the realities of available development resources (time and humans).

I don’t personally like the cluttered/busy design of the new app, but I have no issue with the Sonos dev teams, who I’m sure are as frustrated with the situation as we are. Sonos management, on the other hand...

Yep. I'm a Product Manager and I fight these battles on a regular basis. I usually win but every now and again some idiot sells something that doesn't yet exist and isn't yet scheduled for now in the roadmap, and we end up having to pick up the pieces. 

I think our sales teams probably hate me, but keeping the lights on is more important than building new flashing lights. You don't do the latter at the expense of the former. 

Good communication and alignment on strategy across the board is key. Easier said than done though. 

I do look at what Sonos has done to itself and I use it as a cautionary tale. 

And I'm now using it at work too, just in case people don't get the message first time around.

Whatever you do, don't do a Sonos.