Renowned Enthusiast I

Spotify volume decreased?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
May 10, 2025
82 replies
5159 views

Hello everyone,

Lately, I've noticed the volume level seems lower when integrating Sonos and Spotify. I've tested this on several Era 100s, Fives, and Sonos Ones, and I find myself needing to increase the volume significantly compared to last week. Do you know if there have been any recent changes to the Spotify integration volume? This occurs whether using Spotify Connect and the Sonos app. Do you have the same feeling?

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Pinned Reply By Mike H

Hey hey folks! Someone on Reddit called this out as well, so I did some digging to investigate what has changed. The short answer is that the volumes is perceived lower due to volume normalization.

Now for the longer answer:

Spotify gives us a volume normalization gain value to apply to each track. Earlier this year, we began applying this gain value whenever users use Spotify Connect. This change was needed because it helps with cases like loud advertisements that play between tracks, which can be very apparent and annoying, especially for free users. They might have experienced a jarringly loud ad when all they wanted was to listen to some chill, relaxing music.

Most of the gain values provided by Spotify are negative, which means they lower the volume. That’s why many users perceive this decrease in volume as a drop in quality, which isn’t the case.

Show previous replies

buzz

We all tend to assume that our feature desire or error/awkwardness discovery should be the center of the universe with respect to implementation/resolution. Unfortunately, this is not the way large development teams tend to function. The request must go up the marketing or support chain to the top for evaluation, and then down the development chain to get scheduled for implementation. I agree that it can be frustrating for users.

I recall a very different experience with a different program a few years ago. The program was a single developer’s product. At 10:00am on a Sunday I sent the developer a note asking for a feature. 11:00am: “Why would you want to do that?” I justified my request. 1:00pm: “I’ll think about it”. 8:00pm: “Try this”. There was my feature. We tuned it over a couple weeks and it was released for general use soon after. It can be annoying at times, but a large team cannot respond this fast.

K

kdth_jhspk69Author

Renowned Enthusiast I

At least more and more of us are reporting the volume issue with Spotify Connect. So, I assume that sooner or later they’ll look into it and give us a solution.

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RTX6400

Lyricist III

Agreed, personally I think when using spotify connect the music sounds low quality and unimpressive now. I think new customers/users would think sonos just makes bad speakers I don't think many people would know to initiate the playback from the app.

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Rhonny

Prodigy III

I don't think many people would know to initiate the playback from the app.

Isn’t that how most people would play music on their Sonos speakers?

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RTX6400

Lyricist III

I don't think many people would know to initiate the playback from the app.

Isn’t that how most people would play music on their Sonos speakers?

I personally never used sonos app prior to two months ago. Spotify connect was always easier to use and spotify app is better for navigating their own library it was also easy to change where you wanted music to play. I only tried the Sonos app when I noticed a notable drop in volume and qualify when using my system as I have done for the past 2 years.

I was able to set up system and stream music to all my devices using spotify connect and only used sonos to group rooms etc but once that was done you could connect to the system in multiple ways and it would sound great.

Now that I have to use the sonos app I can see why people are upset about the S2 updates. When using spotify connect you basically bypass all the playback issues.

Basically being locked to Sonos app now if you are any type of audio enthusiast is a let down in flexibility.

Again hopefully this is a glitch and not intended by either Sonos or Spotify.

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wesleyrosenblum

Lyricist I

I noticed this issue right away after setting up my first Sonos device (Arc Ultra)

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Jamroz

Lyricist II

@buzz Bruh- this is widespread. Take it easy with your passive aggressiveness. I shouldn’t have to provide diagnostics and videos and more info that everyone else has complained about. Just fix it please. People are annoyed. Sonos speakers aren’t anything revolutionary, audio-wise. They’re paying for the user interface and supposed ease of use. Otherwise, why don’t we just switch back to a different speaker system? Folks like myself have invested thousands into speakers from Sonos due to its user friendly aspects. This isn’t the case now. This is something that’s changed, so it’s not on the user to just accept that this is a byproduct of Sonos being part of a “big deployment or implementation.” It’s been months now which is unacceptable.