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Jim in Oakland
Contributor I
January 15, 2024

Please stop ads for Alexa

  • January 15, 2024
  • 18 replies
  • 454 views

Sonos recently started playing an ad for Alexa EVERY TIME I TURN IT ON!!!

 

This is infuriating!!!

 

I find this intolerable. I hate Alexa and don’t want to be interrupted every time I use my system. I did not sign up for Ads when I bought my system. WTF!!! Knock it off.

 

to be clear these are NOT radio ads. 

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    18 replies

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    Jim in OaklandAuthor
    Contributor I
    January 17, 2024

    Here are the two audios. Sorry, they are low volume. 

     

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W1GVYE7LDHT5xLzRgV6an-V6sSt9vByQ/view?usp=sharing

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_2tBQwiZbunBfdhXOcDbzVoRUXN6UXGC/view?usp=drive_link

    AjTrek1
    AjTrek1
    January 17, 2024

    @Jim in Oakland 

    I listened to both audios and there is clearly a 3rd party marketing entity involved. 

    Questions:

    Does the add occur on only one Sonos speaker?

    Are the streaming services on an add free tier or not (you would typically pay more for add free)?

    Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
    Jim in OaklandAuthor
    Contributor I
    January 17, 2024

    It happens system-wide. 

    Why do you say it’s clearly a 3rd party? Why are the ads directing me to sonos products and website? 

    Airgetlam
    Airgetlam
    January 17, 2024

    You haven’t answered my question. What does the Sonos Technical Support team say when you call them?

    Bruce
    Jim in OaklandAuthor
    Contributor I
    January 17, 2024

    OK my bad. I could have sworn that I got the ad on spotify too but can’t re-create it. Maybe I AM crazy. 😜

     

    In the other thread I did find this…

    • “I think I just solved the issue.  I just noticed that this message may only come when I use a radio station thru Sonos Radio.  The radio station is KQED.  There are two choices under Sonos Radio: “KQED” and “KQED-FM”.  I had the message problem when connecting to Sonos Radio KQED.  I switched to Sonos Radio KQED-FM and currently I am not getting the 30 second voice message.  I am not going to retry the KQED station version and hope that sticking with the KQED-FM station version has resolved the issue.”

    I found the same result. So problem solved although I’m still perplexed by how/why this happens on KQED. 

    Thanks for your patience and support. 

    melvimbe
    melvimbe
    January 17, 2024

    It happens system-wide. 

    Why do you say it’s clearly a 3rd party? Why are the ads directing me to sonos products and website? 

     

    Because if it was Sonos ad originating from your speaker or a Sonos cloud service, it would appear for everyone across any service, not specific with certain radio stations or services. Services like iheart and KQED make a profit by selling ads, surely even more for targeted ads.  And the service know that you are listening through a Sonos speaker.  If Sonos bought ads with them, then it would make sense to play those ads when someone is using a Sonos speaker.

    NOthing wrong with not liking the ad and wanting Sonos to pull the ad. It’s just likely that Sonos technical group had nothing to do with the ad, because Sonos marketing group ran the ad through a 3rd party.

    Danny
      AjTrek1
      AjTrek1
      January 17, 2024

      @Jim in Oakland

      Glad you resolved the ad issue. One more point …as Sonos has its own Voice Assistant it would have made more sense to push you toward it rather than Alexa.

      Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.
        binaurasaur
        Contributor I
        January 30, 2024

        I posted on the same issue here 

        Jim probably “solved” it the same way I did, by switching to a TuneIn-based stream rather than iHeartRadio, they are both available in the Radio HD service.

        To those asking, I called Sonos Support and they said this is expected behavior as the service is not part of their platform. It is pretty clearly a Sonos-sourced ad though, it’s usually for enabling Voice Control (not Alexa) on speakers you already have, and not selling anything; maybe it’s their default ad when there’s not one available to serve up? Or else they are paying for iHeartRadio to *not* sell speakers to, and just annoy, existing customers?

        Oh well, not the worst thing that’s ever happened ever.

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