Feature Request: Export and Import Sonos Playlists

  • 25 February 2013
  • 216 replies
  • 28930 views

Userlevel 4
Like many users, we use Sonos in two different houses. We have two NAS's of music that I'm planning on keeping synchronized with RSYNC. What doesn't sync or cant get exported are Sonos Playlists. It would be great to be able to ad-hoc export them and then to import them as well. Using the UPnP interface, I've noted a Java program that can export playlists, but importing them is a bit troublesome. It would be great to have this feature.

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216 replies

Bless, I guess they think that ignoring a problem makes it go away - i have a couple of sonos playlists which I want to export to iTunes to play in the gym, please give me a way to do this
Userlevel 7
Badge +15
Spotify tracks used to have a small Spotify symbol on them but it was removed a couple if releases ago. Shame because it was very useful - especial for knowing which tracks you could start Radio against.
Userlevel 2
Badge +3
I found a partial fix to this longstanding problem. MediaMonkey 4.1 lets you work with a Sonos playlist, sort it, export to an Excel file, etc. I posted some details elsewhere in this forum.
Dear Sonos Product Managment,

I am planning a substantial purchase of Sonos gear but require Sonos Playlist export/import functionality. Is this functionality on your near-term product roadmap? If not, I will (very) regretfully make my purchase from a competitor.

Respectfully,
/j
Dear Sonos Product Managment,

I am planning a substantial purchase of Sonos gear but require Sonos Playlist export/import functionality. Is this functionality on your near-term product roadmap? If not, I will (very) regretfully make my purchase from a competitor.

Respectfully,
/j


Sonos does not release specific roadmaps, so I would predict no definitive answer will be coming.

However, some clarification is needed: You can at this time easily import playlists in iTunes .XML or .M3U format, they will appear under "Imported Playlists" in the controller. This will allow you to keep copies of any playlists which contain your local library as tracks, and will duplicate in Sonos any playlists you have in iTunes, or any other music manager software. You can also access playlists which are created inside a particular music app (Spotify, Google Play Music, etc.). What you cannot do is export playlists created within the Sonos app (aka "Sonos Playlists").

As to purchasing a competitor is concerned, I know of no competitor who has exporting of playlists as a feature, though to be honest I don't keep 100% up to date with the features offered by the competitors.
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
If exporting playlists is that important to you that it effects your purchase decisions - then I wouldn't rely on it being implemented (as there has never been a sign that it ever will).

As mentioned above you can make playlists with player of your choice and export from it into Sonos.

Interesting I have never seen before anything about Mediamonkey being able to pull in a Sonos playlist. Can't confirm or deny that.
Userlevel 7
Badge +18
Some reaction from Sonos about the future possibility of editing, exporting and backing up Sonos playlists would be nice though.
Userlevel 7
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It would be the same as Ryans response you quoted before in this thread. There is no change in response so not sure why they would repeat the earlier response.
It would be the same as Ryans response you quoted before in this thread. There is no change in response so not sure why they would repeat the earlier response.

Because in case you haven't figured it out, that's beynym's shtick. No matter how many times he's heard the responses before, he insists on hearing them again. He likes to make the Sonos reps dance like monkeys.
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
yet they never like hearing us repeat ourselves do they?
yet they never like hearing us repeat ourselves do they?

Well, we don't work for Sonos, so we don't have to temper our responses as much. As my father always said "You know why people abuse wait staff? Because they can."
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Dancing monkey here. I kid, I kid. But it made me laugh.

Thanks for the interest judoman, and everyone else for the replies. As suggested, we don't have any news that can be shared right now. There are some big changes coming to the Sonos controller interface and the way music is cued up to be played, but it doesn't include any changes to Sonos Playlists and their ability to be exported and saved. The beta is almost making a step away from Sonos Queues in general by making it even easier to start playing a playlist straight away and moving from playlist to playlist during a listening session.

If it's really important to be able to modify your playlists, it's probably best to use iTunes playlists or playlists through a music service, such as Spotify or Google Play Music. Those options have a lot more functionality to them over Sonos Playlists which are just saved Sonos Queues.
Userlevel 7
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I can give you what IN MY OPINION Sonos would say "if they could" after closely following threads here for several years ....

"Yes we have known for a long time people want to export playlists but there are a lot of complications behind it. We looked at it but it would be more of an undertaking then you would think and it would be a support nightmare. Plus we are now moving away from local music libraries, which the playlists really only work best with as far as permanent indexing. We are also moving more toward 3rd party application Sonos integration and less dependent on playlists within the Sonos application. So unfortunately you have about as much a chance of exporting your playlists as playing a DTS track on your Playbar. Thank you for being a Sonos Customer. Have a wonderful day!"

How is that!
Userlevel 7
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Dang it Ryan beat me to it! I mean our responses were close to the same ...right 🙂
Userlevel 7
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P.S. I love my Sonos playlists for saving my queue. Especially after a party where others have added a lot of their favorites. However, as a permanent place for keeping music to listen to it can easily become a mess because a lot of times the music is being picked from multiple services and if I change services those tracks don't continue to work. It is better to build permanent playlists directly within service you want (apple music, Spotify, etc.) as it gives you a lot more permanent options.
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
Dang it Ryan beat me to it! I mean our responses were close to the same ...right :)

They were close. It really was only the tone, content, intent, and specifics that were off 🙂
Userlevel 7
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yea... exactly .... so close
Userlevel 7
Badge +18
If it's really important to be able to modify your playlists, it's probably best to use iTunes playlists or playlists through a music service, such as Spotify or Google Play Music. Those options have a lot more functionality to them over Sonos Playlists which are just saved Sonos Queues.
If only someone warned me years ago about this lacking functionality (a Sonos rep? a user manual? a remark on the Sonos website?) before I started building Sonos playlists of over 500 items, which later proved to be uneditable, unbackuppable and unexportable.
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
Did someone imply you ever would be able to back then?
I hear you beynym! What I don't get is that Sonos can't grasp what they're actually stating on this subject. Something like: Welcome to Sonos, if you want to weed out doubles or backup your long playlists you can't do that with our system, use something else like Subsonic or some such.

If you think about it, it really is idiotic. Good luck with your new car mister, but in case you get a flat tyre our supplied jack won't work. You have to use another manufacturer's equipment for that.

Never mind, Sonos won't listen anyway. I only saw this conversation because it was in my favourites. I suppose I'd better take it out before I get worked up about this and other issues again.

Have fun all!
Userlevel 1
I have another reason to be able to export my Sonos Playlist. Backup is one reason. The other is to move from house to house. A number of people have more than one house or a vacation cottage. Sonos is both. Be great to sync the Playlist in the cloud but export/import would be another approach.
Userlevel 7
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Very true - only way to do it now is to take one of your home devices to the vacation home with you and re-setup network using its settings.
Userlevel 1
It's hard to believe a company as great as Sonos has ignored a basic export feature request for years... Sad.

1) I need to export my playlist so I can import it on a second Sonos system at another location.

2) I also want an export just for basic backup purposes. My playlist was put together over years and I need a text file in case I lose it.

3) Also, a quick sort alphabetically feature would be appreciated. It's hard to scan for duplicates, or find a specific song on a long playlist.

4) A search Sonos playlist feature would be very helpful as well.

Aren't all of these things basic? I'm really surprised all of them we're added years ago. I'm all for keeping things simple, but not for not adding basic functions that anyone would need sometimes.
Userlevel 7
Badge +18
1) I need to export my playlist so I can import it on a second Sonos system at another location.
I can see that might be hard to implement, if the two music libraries at the two locations aren't the same.

2) I also want an export just for basic backup purposes. My playlist was put together over years and I need a text file in case I lose it.
I fully agree and would expext Sonos to make this possible. Rather sooner than later.

3) Also, a quick sort alphabetically feature would be appreciated. It's hard to scan for duplicates, or find a specific song on a long playlist.
Agreed.

4) A search Sonos playlist feature would be very helpful as well.
Agreed.

Aren't all of these things basic?
Yes, they are and in my humble opinion it's a shame Sonos hasn't shown any willingness to solve this problem.
Userlevel 3
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Just to add my +1 to this feature request, and to keep the thread live. Can't believe that the functionality doesn't exist yet.