Support Spotify Connect to allow users to use the Spotify app as the controller.

  • 3 September 2013
  • 366 replies
  • 41411 views

Userlevel 3
Spotify Connect was just announced and I was surprised that I didn't see Sonos in the list of companies that would provide support. Many Spotify users have been asking for a long time to be able to use the Spotify app as the controller for selecting songs, as it provides a superior experience (you still can't even see the Top 5 songs in the Spotify view within the Sonos app, and it is difficult to look through an artist's collection to find a specific song unless you know which album it was in). Please support spotify connect. Additional details on Spotify Connect are here: http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/3/4688166/spotify-connect-launches-to-stream-music-to-compatible-speakers If you look at the post on theverge, even the first comment was one asking for Sonos support for the feature.

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366 replies

Userlevel 3
Badge +1
Wow, this is some slack support.
Look at all of these responses without anything from Sonos. The old responses aren't even responses, just repeated company stances without actual substance. I will continue to actively write negative reviews for my Sonos products anywhere I can online and reach out to tech review sites.
Userlevel 3
Badge +1
Wow, this is some slack support.
Look at all of these responses without anything from Sonos. The old responses aren't even responses, just repeated company stances without actual substance. I will continue to actively write negative reviews for my Sonos products anywhere I can online and reach out to tech review sites.
Userlevel 3
Badge +1
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
Wow, this is some slack support. 
Look at all of these responses without anything from Sonos. The old responses aren't even responses, just repeated company stances without actual substance. I will continue to actively write negative reviews for my Sonos products anywhere I can online and reach out to tech review sites.
Userlevel 3
Badge +1
Sometimes I think the ask website here is a way to outsource complaining so companies can ignore it when they want. This is their published email address to Management. Please use it.
ceo@sonos.com

Sonos, I respectfully insist on an update for this. This isn't just a simple request by many of us, but a direct misrepresentation by Sonos. A timeline for your resolution or a true technical reason why this isn't possible should be provided. I invested a good deal of money in my Sonos system and until we receive that update, I will be reaching out to every tech review site through multiple means to explain how Sonos says it's "the best Spotify experience" yet doesn't even meet functional parity. How long has Spotify had Radio? How popular is it? Seriously, your false promises feel like dirty business tactics.

I encourage all to share this thread through social media, by emailing tech review sites like TheVerge, Engadget, Cnet and write reviews on places like Amazon.com or for the Sonos app in the App Store.
Userlevel 3
Badge +1
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
Sometimes I think the ask website here is a way to outsource complaining so companies can ignore it when they want. This is their published email address to Management. Please use it.
ceo@sonos.com

Sonos, I respectfully insist on an update for this. This isn't just a simple request by many of us, but a direct misrepresentation by Sonos. A timeline for your resolution or a true technical reason why this isn't possible should be provided. I invested a good deal of money in my Sonos system and until we receive that update, I will be reaching out to every tech review site through multiple means to explain how Sonos says it's "the best Spotify experience" yet doesn't even meet functional parity. How long has Spotify had Radio? How popular is it? Seriously, your false promises feel like dirty business tactics.

I encourage all to share this thread through social media, by emailing tech review sites like TheVerge, Engadget, Cnet and write reviews on places like Amazon.com or for the Sonos app in the App Store.
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
I've been following this thread for a while... and i can't express how disappointed I am regarding this issue. Specially for the lack of response from the SONOS team. I thought I bought a premium quality product from a respectable company, not from a Chinese phantom company that doesn't answer any questions or gives support to it's users. If you guys are not going to implement spotify connect, just SAY it. We the customers, will take care of the rest. Thanks. 
Badge +18
Alex,

We understand where you're coming from and we hear your point of view.  

Sonos is committed to our partnership with Spotify.  We love Spotify and we haven't stopped improving the Spotify experience on Sonos.  As a recent example, in October of last year we added the ability to Star Spotify tracks direct from a Sonos Controller.

We have no plans to support Spotify Connect at this time, both parties have been upfront about this decision since the initial Spotify Connect announcement last year.  We have not published the details of this decision for our own internal reasons (which I will also not get into).

You're welcome to share your opinion here and wherever else you wish, as well as to examine other options if that's what you'd like to do.

Thanks,

John
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
John, what a let down. It really sounds to me that you/Sonos feels you are too big to fail?

I find it hard to believe that Sonos will be able to pull anything from their hat to match or over go Spotify Connect. If a rabbit is being born, it might be a good idea to spill the beans early before users start to slip away - both existing and potential new ones.

I have 10 devices and 1 controller. Been promoting Sonos for many years and been reason for many additional purchases among friends and family.

I will strongly consider looking to the competition which are nearing in these last few months.

I mostly use Spotify and some Tune-in.

I miss Spotify Radio and I miss being able to control my speakers from the far superior app that Spotify have created and constantly improve.

Instead of trying to only keep your own controller software in the market, why not either implement Spotify Connect or push your Play on Sonos feature to the streaming services like Spotify, Wimp, Tune-in etc. Actually I'd prefer the last one over Spotify Connect only as it would give similar features in different apps and also the ability to control the zones which as I understand, would not be possible with Spotify Connect.

Please stop the bullshit and come clean so that we have proper information to go into 2014 with.

Thank you in advance,
A long time customer, friend, supporter and marketer.
Userlevel 1
It always baffles me why companies spontaneously decide to self-combust via bad customer service. We are witnessing such a moment. The "internal reason" is probably, well, internal: the Sonos software is VP Engineering's pet project (or worse yet, the CEO's pride) and no matter how detrimental or dysfunctional, it will be the one and only answer and you, people that spent thousands on this system, go take a hike.

However, this is not John's (the customer representative's) fault. Venting at him is useless. If we want any impact, the only way to get it is to target the company's board (KKR, Index Ventures etc) - the only people that actually can effect change where internal egos are involved. Find their emails, point them to this discussion, and tell them how you find the company's attitude demeaning and will actively report your Sonos experience to the press.
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
I am happy to see more people reacting to this thread. I hope SONOS will reply and give us a status.
################################################# EFFECTIVE WAY TO RAISE YOUR VOICE: Write to ceo@sonos.com -> this is a redirect to Johns mailbox. And believe it or not, I wrote him months ago on this, I can see on tracking pixel that he has read the email. Though no reply but he is aware on the issue. So please do as I have done and right that incredible powerful guy all your thoughts, feelings, fears and open opinion. ---->>>> Be smart and use this chance. I am currently watching out at the CES for a system to take over the role of my osbsolote sonos hardware. #################################################
Just bought a Sonos system, my first, and now I need to return it. I just assumed the Spotify interface would work better, and knowing Spotify exists, it makes no sense to me why Sonos wouldn't drop it's own internal development on the Spotify portion of its Connect platform and just use Spotify's.

Too bad, bye Sonos.
Userlevel 3
Badge +1
The solution is, there is no solution and they aren't sorry about it.
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
We bought expensive Sonos components because Sonos put in our mind that it is the best choice to enjoy music, but it certainly turns out that it is one of the worst choices you can make. I paid over 1000 € for those components, as a christmas gift for my girlfriend. You can't imagine how incredibly disappointed we were, when we found out that it is not possible to combine Sonos and our Spotify music listening behaviour. 

We feel tricked and lied to and I bet my car that there are thousands of people feeling the same way!!!

Shame on you Sonos!!!
What a stupid decision from SONOS. Instead of making your product as versatile as possible, you close your system only to match your ego. You're not Apple guys. Your products are not that revolutionary, and if any, they gave other companies an idea to perfect other new products that really adapt to public demand. Just by looking at the DTS and SPOTIFY CONNECT threads here on the forum I can see very clear that i have no more business following this thread or considering new purchases from the already dead SONOS company. BYE, BYE!.
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
Here's a program that can stream Spotify to Sonos (using Shoutcast)... It seems to be a bit techy but I tried it and it works: http://www.spotiamp.com 
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
I'm currently researching multi-room audio systems, I use Spotify via iPhone as my main source of music (Spotify Radio, direct streaming, and playback of my own digital files). I was almost sold on Sonos being the complete solution, but then came across this thread. I too have read the Sonos CEO's comments from last year, and I'm not convinced that they have the customer as their main focus. Unlike most here, I have not yet spent many hundreds of £/€/$ on Sonos equipment, so I really do feel for them, Sonos' existing customers, but if you want to attract new customers and stay "#1" (competition is coming), then you should remove these simple barriers to entry now. The "Play on Sonos" feature that you want other apps to incorporate is all very well, but when other software manufacturers come to you and you say no... surely you realise that this will create resentment on behalf of your customers and industry partners. Tie-ins should work both ways. In addition, and partly linked to this, the reliance on the Sonos app for playback control concerns me. While Spotify's app is far from perfect, it offers usability features that I wouldn't want to do without. Sonos, make your app the best it can be, but don't force customers to use it if they don't have to. I will not be buying my new sound system until the Spring. That's 2 months for Sonos to fix this for me to get on board.
Userlevel 1
I really don't understand why you people expect from Sonos to build a Spotify only solution, by implementing Spotify connect. Do you people also buy €2000,- Sony high end 3D TV, just to watch BBC?? I really don't want hardware that is connected to just one provider. It would mean that Spotify could increase their monthly fee, simply because no one wants to replace their costly and well functioning hardware just to switch from provider, or do you? Just be patient and the rest will follow. Sonos still has the most connectivity possibilities and the most choice in streaming components.
Userlevel 3
Badge +1
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
Well said, Adam. I echo his comments. Sonos, In addition to leaving reviews in as many places as possible and drumming up concern through social media, I have also sent nearly two dozen emails stating the communal frustration shown here to lead editors at major tech review and mainstream press websites. Now that CES has ended, I suspect this will be getting even more attention soon.
Hi folks, There's not much to say at the moment but we'd like everyone to understand where we're coming regarding the announcement from Spotify. Sonos is a platform for music lovers and we want Sonos customers to enjoy all the music on earth from whatever source they choose. We have an excellent partnership with Spotify which is, and will continue to be, an important part of many of our customers music listening experience on Sonos. Thanks for your continued support.
Great effort, Alex! It's the right way to draw some press attention on this issue. Seen the kind of marketing sonos does (featuring spotify as main driver even on pack) its almost a fraud..
I really don't understand why you people expect from Sonos to build a Spotify only solution, by implementing Spotify connect. Do you people also buy €2000,- Sony high end 3D TV, just to watch BBC?? I really don't want hardware that is connected to just one provider. It would mean that Spotify could increase their monthly fee, simply because no one wants to replace their costly and well functioning hardware just to switch from provider, or do you? Just be patient and the rest will follow. Sonos still has the most connectivity possibilities and the most choice in streaming components.
Ren, thanks for your contribution to this discussion. Though I find it a bit weird. Seen the fact that Sonos features Spotify even on Packaging I may answer your question/comparison with the 3D TV with a clear: YES, of course! If watching BBC is advertised as a main feature with a sticker on pack its your clear expectation (and in some countries even legally protected right) to be able to watch it. And to give your comparison some more dimension: To say that you may only watch it in 320x240 and only the news channel and no HD content, video on demand streams or other BBC channels is what Sonos does by trying to control Spotify within the borders of their app. No TV manufacturer would ever be so stupid to get into the sovereign terrority of the broadcasters which are the base for their bread and butter business. No broadcasters = no need for tvs. Now it may become logical why it seems weird when a manufacturer 1) tries to control the industry 2) the industry establishes a well-accepted standard and the manufacturer replies with its own (which by the way nobody uses so far) 3) people are frustrated and freaking out that they spent, partly massive, parts of their income for a system which promises to be the lead brand for supporting a certain broadcaster (spotify) and finally becomes least compatible Spotify is simply the biggest, most popular and most advanced streaming service out there, so maybe this helps you to understand the discussion a bit better 🙂
Userlevel 2
Keep Calm and Carry On. Like other Sonos users, I have been watching this post for a few months to see the outcome.  This is a very long post and my apologies upfront.  A quick background:

1)    I originally purchased 4 Sonos zones for a prior home seven years ago and grew that to seven zones. I migrated all the hardware without a hitch – granted I went into new construction on the next home so installing built-in speakers was nominal in cost but have already paid for themselves given the use case of a turnkey 7 home zone setup.  I do not own any of the speaker products (Play, Playbar, etc.).

2)    I am in the hardware/electronics technology community and talk to multiple industry participants, mostly on the supply chain and components end of companies like Sonos, but also have contacts in the recording industry.  I have spent a fair deal of time over the last several years trying to understand where this industry is heading. Especially since Sonos was the first bona fide example of “the Internet of Things” and it a useful template for where other industries/companies might be heading that offer IoT products.

3)    Though I have met folks at Sonos at trade shows and similar circumstances in the past, I have no strong ties to the company nor am I some blog plant for them.  Candidly, I dislike these cyber threads because it brings out the shameless narcissism of the loud minority, but nonetheless I wanted to share my opinions on this matter to offer some balance to this thread.

4)    Like many of you I made the switch to Spotify about a year ago as it was the most feature rich service on the market.  I even ported all of my Rhapsody playlists (an arduous task) to Spotify.  I also was using Pandora for streaming so I thought I could centralize everything.  Much like you, I found out this was not going to be the case for streaming on Sonos (no Radio is my gripe) and I only have myself to blame for not doing more research ahead of time.  I ultimately reactivated my Rhaposdy account and am now in somewhat of a limbo, waiting for clarity.

5)    Per Spotify, I have to say that I am not a big fan of the interface and since I am not a “social” web 2.0 kind of user, (no Farcebook account here) those features are useless to me and if anything, I would probably find them distracting.  However, I will note that other services have great interfaces but are lacking other features.  Rdio, for instance, would be an example of this.

After outlining all of this, so that all of you know where I am coming from before I get skewered online here, I really don’t view lacking support for Spotify connect as a game changing situation for me and probably for most of you.  Here’s why:

1)    Spotify is an outcast in music services game.  Granted, they got the social aspects of the product down but the recording industry treats them with indifference at best but more or less isn’t happy with them because of compensation issues (not good). Culturally they are an odd company to deal with being from Sweden (i.e. not the US, I love Sweden fwiw) and there is an arrogance here that, at least in my view, will be their demise.  I truly believe in a few years the term “Spotify followers” will be next to “AOL keyword” in the history books.

2)    Spotify Connect is an inferior product.  Anyone that has fiddled with Airplay knows this is not a substitute for Sonos (that that was Apple!) and despite more centralized features akin to Sonos, it simply won’t work as well.  Why?  Because every manufacturer is different.  Open standards only take this so far in consumer electronics. Take remote controls.  Standards have been around for years for all these guys yet all of them are just “not right” with interoperability.  Enough so that there is a major industry at work integrating them (eg Logitech) and doing a better job as a middleman. This analogy isn’t a great one, but the point here is that any incremental cost to a product (in this case a $0.25 chip) that has a 15% gross margin (if they are lucky) is going to be met with resistance.  And spending incremental R&D $s to have it work seamlessly and tested across others?  No way.  Plug in the chip, put the “connect” logo on the box and move on.  In the end, the consumer will be disappointed.

3)    The cost argument doesn’t hold water.  Granted, Sonos is expensive.  But can any of you with a straight face actually expect a budget minded customer to by a B&O A9 sound discus/tripod for their studio apartment (at a mere $2700)? Or get excited about a Pioneer receiver to stream your music? Seriously, these are partners to get excited about? The best part about Sonos is that you are free to purchase your own speakers, receivers, etc. And Sonos is already moving downstream on the price point.  The Play:1 was a brilliant counter attack by Sonos on all these smaller connected technologies.  For the price of a Jambox (a great, albeit limited product that I own as well), Sonos can get a beachhead with newbie users (they threw in the Bridge for free for a while). Soon I expect a rechargeable Play speaker (like a Jambox) will be offered.  Many in the industry saw the Playbar product introduction as the first legitimate mainstream beachhead into the home.  It has been very successful for Sonos and there is a lot of momentum here.

4)    Spotify is in a crowded market.  I won’t get into all the music services that exist out there but I will grant Spotify a first mover advantage on the social media front. However, the recording industry is absolutely jacked about the upcoming Beats streaming service that will be coming out later this month and you are kidding yourself if you don’t think that will gain critical mass overnight.  Anyone that can sell an inferior $50 headphone for $200 because of branding should be taken seriously. Oh, and they “get” the record labels. My prediction isn't that Beats will be the winner.  Rather, there will be many, many legitimate threats to Spotify.  To assume it will be the clear winner a year from today is shortsighted and presumptuous.

5)    Watch Qualcomm.  The only legitimate substitution threat to Sonos hardware in my view (not the firmware end ecosystem, mind you) is the technology that Qualcomm has unveiled (AllPlay, on the AllJoyn protocol) which will get wide support in the consumer electronics industry later this year.  That being said, I still think it will be an uphill climb given point #2, above though Qualcomm has infinite resources relative to Spotify, and begs the question why any CE manufacturer would waste their time with Spotify Connect with this technology coming down the pike in less than a year.

In summary, I personally don’t think either company needs each other to be successful, but I will say that Sonos has a much less to lose than Spotify.  To think these companies are mutually inclusive for their survival is to be blind to the realities of the streaming music industry.

My final point is as a user for seven years I have never had to scrap a single dollar invested in Sonos.  I even have two original remotes that still work, though the internal batteries have finally started to falter.  But I only use one as a backup to the smartphone remotes that are easier to use (this was also a brilliant foresight by Sonos – creating an app for their remote).  All of the zones are updated, have durable firmware and were built to last.  I honestly can’t say how much upgrading (and disposal) of consumer electronics I have burned through (CD players,  DVD player, video “component” cables/receivers, video game consoles, etc.) over the last 10 years and there is my Sonos equipment, standing the test of time, even through a move.  If you want quality hardware to stream your music that works seamlessly and gives you the flexibility to make changes (upgrade speakers, interoperability, etc.) I can’t say enough good things about my investment in Sonos.
Userlevel 1
Keep Calm and Carry On. Like other Sonos users, I have been watching this post for a few months to see the outcome.  This is a very long post and my apologies upfront.  A quick background:

1)    I originally purchased 4 Sonos zones for a prior home seven years ago and grew that to seven zones. I migrated all the hardware without a hitch – granted I went into new construction on the next home so installing built-in speakers was nominal in cost but have already paid for themselves given the use case of a turnkey 7 home zone setup.  I do not own any of the speaker products (Play, Playbar, etc.).

2)    I am in the hardware/electronics technology community and talk to multiple industry participants, mostly on the supply chain and components end of companies like Sonos, but also have contacts in the recording industry.  I have spent a fair deal of time over the last several years trying to understand where this industry is heading. Especially since Sonos was the first bona fide example of “the Internet of Things” and it a useful template for where other industries/companies might be heading that offer IoT products.

3)    Though I have met folks at Sonos at trade shows and similar circumstances in the past, I have no strong ties to the company nor am I some blog plant for them.  Candidly, I dislike these cyber threads because it brings out the shameless narcissism of the loud minority, but nonetheless I wanted to share my opinions on this matter to offer some balance to this thread.

4)    Like many of you I made the switch to Spotify about a year ago as it was the most feature rich service on the market.  I even ported all of my Rhapsody playlists (an arduous task) to Spotify.  I also was using Pandora for streaming so I thought I could centralize everything.  Much like you, I found out this was not going to be the case for streaming on Sonos (no Radio is my gripe) and I only have myself to blame for not doing more research ahead of time.  I ultimately reactivated my Rhaposdy account and am now in somewhat of a limbo, waiting for clarity.

5)    Per Spotify, I have to say that I am not a big fan of the interface and since I am not a “social” web 2.0 kind of user, (no Farcebook account here) those features are useless to me and if anything, I would probably find them distracting.  However, I will note that other services have great interfaces but are lacking other features.  Rdio, for instance, would be an example of this.

After outlining all of this, so that all of you know where I am coming from before I get skewered online here, I really don’t view lacking support for Spotify connect as a game changing situation for me and probably for most of you.  Here’s why:

1)    Spotify is an outcast in music services game.  Granted, they got the social aspects of the product down but the recording industry treats them with indifference at best but more or less isn’t happy with them because of compensation issues (not good). Culturally they are an odd company to deal with being from Sweden (i.e. not the US, I love Sweden fwiw) and there is an arrogance here that, at least in my view, will be their demise.  I truly believe in a few years the term “Spotify followers” will be next to “AOL keyword” in the history books.

2)    Spotify Connect is an inferior product.  Anyone that has fiddled with Airplay knows this is not a substitute for Sonos (that that was Apple!) and despite more centralized features akin to Sonos, it simply won’t work as well.  Why?  Because every manufacturer is different.  Open standards only take this so far in consumer electronics. Take remote controls.  Standards have been around for years for all these guys yet all of them are just “not right” with interoperability.  Enough so that there is a major industry at work integrating them (eg Logitech) and doing a better job as a middleman. This analogy isn’t a great one, but the point here is that any incremental cost to a product (in this case a $0.25 chip) that has a 15% gross margin (if they are lucky) is going to be met with resistance.  And spending incremental R&D $s to have it work seamlessly and tested across others?  No way.  Plug in the chip, put the “connect” logo on the box and move on.  In the end, the consumer will be disappointed.

3)    The cost argument doesn’t hold water.  Granted, Sonos is expensive.  But can any of you with a straight face actually expect a budget minded customer to by a B&O A9 sound discus/tripod for their studio apartment (at a mere $2700)? Or get excited about a Pioneer receiver to stream your music? Seriously, these are partners to get excited about? The best part about Sonos is that you are free to purchase your own speakers, receivers, etc. And Sonos is already moving downstream on the price point.  The Play:1 was a brilliant counter attack by Sonos on all these smaller connected technologies.  For the price of a Jambox (a great, albeit limited product that I own as well), Sonos can get a beachhead with newbie users (they threw in the Bridge for free for a while). Soon I expect a rechargeable Play speaker (like a Jambox) will be offered.  Many in the industry saw the Playbar product introduction as the first legitimate mainstream beachhead into the home.  It has been very successful for Sonos and there is a lot of momentum here.

4)    Spotify is in a crowded market.  I won’t get into all the music services that exist out there but I will grant Spotify a first mover advantage on the social media front. However, the recording industry is absolutely jacked about the upcoming Beats streaming service that will be coming out later this month and you are kidding yourself if you don’t think that will gain critical mass overnight.  Anyone that can sell an inferior $50 headphone for $200 because of branding should be taken seriously. Oh, and they “get” the record labels. My prediction isn't that Beats will be the winner.  Rather, there will be many, many legitimate threats to Spotify.  To assume it will be the clear winner a year from today is shortsighted and presumptuous.

5)    Watch Qualcomm.  The only legitimate substitution threat to Sonos hardware in my view (not the firmware end ecosystem, mind you) is the technology that Qualcomm has unveiled (AllPlay, on the AllJoyn protocol) which will get wide support in the consumer electronics industry later this year.  That being said, I still think it will be an uphill climb given point #2, above though Qualcomm has infinite resources relative to Spotify, and begs the question why any CE manufacturer would waste their time with Spotify Connect with this technology coming down the pike in less than a year.

In summary, I personally don’t think either company needs each other to be successful, but I will say that Sonos has a much less to lose than Spotify.  To think these companies are mutually inclusive for their survival is to be blind to the realities of the streaming music industry.

My final point is as a user for seven years I have never had to scrap a single dollar invested in Sonos.  I even have two original remotes that still work, though the internal batteries have finally started to falter.  But I only use one as a backup to the smartphone remotes that are easier to use (this was also a brilliant foresight by Sonos – creating an app for their remote).  All of the zones are updated, have durable firmware and were built to last.  I honestly can’t say how much upgrading (and disposal) of consumer electronics I have burned through (CD players,  DVD player, video “component” cables/receivers, video game consoles, etc.) over the last 10 years and there is my Sonos equipment, standing the test of time, even through a move.  If you want quality hardware to stream your music that works seamlessly and gives you the flexibility to make changes (upgrade speakers, interoperability, etc.) I can’t say enough good things about my investment in Sonos.



I think you are right. Sonos was developed as an open platform for music services, that's why most of the customers have chosen for Sonos. There is also no reason to think that Spotify will become the one and only serious streaming music provider. Apple, Google, Netflix and the Music industry, etc, are serious companies that also want to benefit from the revenues from streaming music. The only thing I hope is that the current Sonos hardware in the field, has enough memory and processing power, to add new services and functionality, to be future proof.
Userlevel 1
Badge +1
Keep Calm and Carry On. Like other Sonos users, I have been watching this post for a few months to see the outcome.  This is a very long post and my apologies upfront.  A quick background:

1)    I originally purchased 4 Sonos zones for a prior home seven years ago and grew that to seven zones. I migrated all the hardware without a hitch – granted I went into new construction on the next home so installing built-in speakers was nominal in cost but have already paid for themselves given the use case of a turnkey 7 home zone setup.  I do not own any of the speaker products (Play, Playbar, etc.).

2)    I am in the hardware/electronics technology community and talk to multiple industry participants, mostly on the supply chain and components end of companies like Sonos, but also have contacts in the recording industry.  I have spent a fair deal of time over the last several years trying to understand where this industry is heading. Especially since Sonos was the first bona fide example of “the Internet of Things” and it a useful template for where other industries/companies might be heading that offer IoT products.

3)    Though I have met folks at Sonos at trade shows and similar circumstances in the past, I have no strong ties to the company nor am I some blog plant for them.  Candidly, I dislike these cyber threads because it brings out the shameless narcissism of the loud minority, but nonetheless I wanted to share my opinions on this matter to offer some balance to this thread.

4)    Like many of you I made the switch to Spotify about a year ago as it was the most feature rich service on the market.  I even ported all of my Rhapsody playlists (an arduous task) to Spotify.  I also was using Pandora for streaming so I thought I could centralize everything.  Much like you, I found out this was not going to be the case for streaming on Sonos (no Radio is my gripe) and I only have myself to blame for not doing more research ahead of time.  I ultimately reactivated my Rhaposdy account and am now in somewhat of a limbo, waiting for clarity.

5)    Per Spotify, I have to say that I am not a big fan of the interface and since I am not a “social” web 2.0 kind of user, (no Farcebook account here) those features are useless to me and if anything, I would probably find them distracting.  However, I will note that other services have great interfaces but are lacking other features.  Rdio, for instance, would be an example of this.

After outlining all of this, so that all of you know where I am coming from before I get skewered online here, I really don’t view lacking support for Spotify connect as a game changing situation for me and probably for most of you.  Here’s why:

1)    Spotify is an outcast in music services game.  Granted, they got the social aspects of the product down but the recording industry treats them with indifference at best but more or less isn’t happy with them because of compensation issues (not good). Culturally they are an odd company to deal with being from Sweden (i.e. not the US, I love Sweden fwiw) and there is an arrogance here that, at least in my view, will be their demise.  I truly believe in a few years the term “Spotify followers” will be next to “AOL keyword” in the history books.

2)    Spotify Connect is an inferior product.  Anyone that has fiddled with Airplay knows this is not a substitute for Sonos (that that was Apple!) and despite more centralized features akin to Sonos, it simply won’t work as well.  Why?  Because every manufacturer is different.  Open standards only take this so far in consumer electronics. Take remote controls.  Standards have been around for years for all these guys yet all of them are just “not right” with interoperability.  Enough so that there is a major industry at work integrating them (eg Logitech) and doing a better job as a middleman. This analogy isn’t a great one, but the point here is that any incremental cost to a product (in this case a $0.25 chip) that has a 15% gross margin (if they are lucky) is going to be met with resistance.  And spending incremental R&D $s to have it work seamlessly and tested across others?  No way.  Plug in the chip, put the “connect” logo on the box and move on.  In the end, the consumer will be disappointed.

3)    The cost argument doesn’t hold water.  Granted, Sonos is expensive.  But can any of you with a straight face actually expect a budget minded customer to by a B&O A9 sound discus/tripod for their studio apartment (at a mere $2700)? Or get excited about a Pioneer receiver to stream your music? Seriously, these are partners to get excited about? The best part about Sonos is that you are free to purchase your own speakers, receivers, etc. And Sonos is already moving downstream on the price point.  The Play:1 was a brilliant counter attack by Sonos on all these smaller connected technologies.  For the price of a Jambox (a great, albeit limited product that I own as well), Sonos can get a beachhead with newbie users (they threw in the Bridge for free for a while). Soon I expect a rechargeable Play speaker (like a Jambox) will be offered.  Many in the industry saw the Playbar product introduction as the first legitimate mainstream beachhead into the home.  It has been very successful for Sonos and there is a lot of momentum here.

4)    Spotify is in a crowded market.  I won’t get into all the music services that exist out there but I will grant Spotify a first mover advantage on the social media front. However, the recording industry is absolutely jacked about the upcoming Beats streaming service that will be coming out later this month and you are kidding yourself if you don’t think that will gain critical mass overnight.  Anyone that can sell an inferior $50 headphone for $200 because of branding should be taken seriously. Oh, and they “get” the record labels. My prediction isn't that Beats will be the winner.  Rather, there will be many, many legitimate threats to Spotify.  To assume it will be the clear winner a year from today is shortsighted and presumptuous.

5)    Watch Qualcomm.  The only legitimate substitution threat to Sonos hardware in my view (not the firmware end ecosystem, mind you) is the technology that Qualcomm has unveiled (AllPlay, on the AllJoyn protocol) which will get wide support in the consumer electronics industry later this year.  That being said, I still think it will be an uphill climb given point #2, above though Qualcomm has infinite resources relative to Spotify, and begs the question why any CE manufacturer would waste their time with Spotify Connect with this technology coming down the pike in less than a year.

In summary, I personally don’t think either company needs each other to be successful, but I will say that Sonos has a much less to lose than Spotify.  To think these companies are mutually inclusive for their survival is to be blind to the realities of the streaming music industry.

My final point is as a user for seven years I have never had to scrap a single dollar invested in Sonos.  I even have two original remotes that still work, though the internal batteries have finally started to falter.  But I only use one as a backup to the smartphone remotes that are easier to use (this was also a brilliant foresight by Sonos – creating an app for their remote).  All of the zones are updated, have durable firmware and were built to last.  I honestly can’t say how much upgrading (and disposal) of consumer electronics I have burned through (CD players,  DVD player, video “component” cables/receivers, video game consoles, etc.) over the last 10 years and there is my Sonos equipment, standing the test of time, even through a move.  If you want quality hardware to stream your music that works seamlessly and gives you the flexibility to make changes (upgrade speakers, interoperability, etc.) I can’t say enough good things about my investment in Sonos.



The "Play on Sonos" option seems by far the best route for the consumer. We don't want the people who charge a monthly fee to hold us to ransom. But I fear that Spotify and others wont implement "Play on Sonos" unless Sonos plays nicely with their system too. Prove me wrong Spotify...
Userlevel 2
Badge +7
Keep Calm and Carry On. Like other Sonos users, I have been watching this post for a few months to see the outcome.  This is a very long post and my apologies upfront.  A quick background:

1)    I originally purchased 4 Sonos zones for a prior home seven years ago and grew that to seven zones. I migrated all the hardware without a hitch – granted I went into new construction on the next home so installing built-in speakers was nominal in cost but have already paid for themselves given the use case of a turnkey 7 home zone setup.  I do not own any of the speaker products (Play, Playbar, etc.).

2)    I am in the hardware/electronics technology community and talk to multiple industry participants, mostly on the supply chain and components end of companies like Sonos, but also have contacts in the recording industry.  I have spent a fair deal of time over the last several years trying to understand where this industry is heading. Especially since Sonos was the first bona fide example of “the Internet of Things” and it a useful template for where other industries/companies might be heading that offer IoT products.

3)    Though I have met folks at Sonos at trade shows and similar circumstances in the past, I have no strong ties to the company nor am I some blog plant for them.  Candidly, I dislike these cyber threads because it brings out the shameless narcissism of the loud minority, but nonetheless I wanted to share my opinions on this matter to offer some balance to this thread.

4)    Like many of you I made the switch to Spotify about a year ago as it was the most feature rich service on the market.  I even ported all of my Rhapsody playlists (an arduous task) to Spotify.  I also was using Pandora for streaming so I thought I could centralize everything.  Much like you, I found out this was not going to be the case for streaming on Sonos (no Radio is my gripe) and I only have myself to blame for not doing more research ahead of time.  I ultimately reactivated my Rhaposdy account and am now in somewhat of a limbo, waiting for clarity.

5)    Per Spotify, I have to say that I am not a big fan of the interface and since I am not a “social” web 2.0 kind of user, (no Farcebook account here) those features are useless to me and if anything, I would probably find them distracting.  However, I will note that other services have great interfaces but are lacking other features.  Rdio, for instance, would be an example of this.

After outlining all of this, so that all of you know where I am coming from before I get skewered online here, I really don’t view lacking support for Spotify connect as a game changing situation for me and probably for most of you.  Here’s why:

1)    Spotify is an outcast in music services game.  Granted, they got the social aspects of the product down but the recording industry treats them with indifference at best but more or less isn’t happy with them because of compensation issues (not good). Culturally they are an odd company to deal with being from Sweden (i.e. not the US, I love Sweden fwiw) and there is an arrogance here that, at least in my view, will be their demise.  I truly believe in a few years the term “Spotify followers” will be next to “AOL keyword” in the history books.

2)    Spotify Connect is an inferior product.  Anyone that has fiddled with Airplay knows this is not a substitute for Sonos (that that was Apple!) and despite more centralized features akin to Sonos, it simply won’t work as well.  Why?  Because every manufacturer is different.  Open standards only take this so far in consumer electronics. Take remote controls.  Standards have been around for years for all these guys yet all of them are just “not right” with interoperability.  Enough so that there is a major industry at work integrating them (eg Logitech) and doing a better job as a middleman. This analogy isn’t a great one, but the point here is that any incremental cost to a product (in this case a $0.25 chip) that has a 15% gross margin (if they are lucky) is going to be met with resistance.  And spending incremental R&D $s to have it work seamlessly and tested across others?  No way.  Plug in the chip, put the “connect” logo on the box and move on.  In the end, the consumer will be disappointed.

3)    The cost argument doesn’t hold water.  Granted, Sonos is expensive.  But can any of you with a straight face actually expect a budget minded customer to by a B&O A9 sound discus/tripod for their studio apartment (at a mere $2700)? Or get excited about a Pioneer receiver to stream your music? Seriously, these are partners to get excited about? The best part about Sonos is that you are free to purchase your own speakers, receivers, etc. And Sonos is already moving downstream on the price point.  The Play:1 was a brilliant counter attack by Sonos on all these smaller connected technologies.  For the price of a Jambox (a great, albeit limited product that I own as well), Sonos can get a beachhead with newbie users (they threw in the Bridge for free for a while). Soon I expect a rechargeable Play speaker (like a Jambox) will be offered.  Many in the industry saw the Playbar product introduction as the first legitimate mainstream beachhead into the home.  It has been very successful for Sonos and there is a lot of momentum here.

4)    Spotify is in a crowded market.  I won’t get into all the music services that exist out there but I will grant Spotify a first mover advantage on the social media front. However, the recording industry is absolutely jacked about the upcoming Beats streaming service that will be coming out later this month and you are kidding yourself if you don’t think that will gain critical mass overnight.  Anyone that can sell an inferior $50 headphone for $200 because of branding should be taken seriously. Oh, and they “get” the record labels. My prediction isn't that Beats will be the winner.  Rather, there will be many, many legitimate threats to Spotify.  To assume it will be the clear winner a year from today is shortsighted and presumptuous.

5)    Watch Qualcomm.  The only legitimate substitution threat to Sonos hardware in my view (not the firmware end ecosystem, mind you) is the technology that Qualcomm has unveiled (AllPlay, on the AllJoyn protocol) which will get wide support in the consumer electronics industry later this year.  That being said, I still think it will be an uphill climb given point #2, above though Qualcomm has infinite resources relative to Spotify, and begs the question why any CE manufacturer would waste their time with Spotify Connect with this technology coming down the pike in less than a year.

In summary, I personally don’t think either company needs each other to be successful, but I will say that Sonos has a much less to lose than Spotify.  To think these companies are mutually inclusive for their survival is to be blind to the realities of the streaming music industry.

My final point is as a user for seven years I have never had to scrap a single dollar invested in Sonos.  I even have two original remotes that still work, though the internal batteries have finally started to falter.  But I only use one as a backup to the smartphone remotes that are easier to use (this was also a brilliant foresight by Sonos – creating an app for their remote).  All of the zones are updated, have durable firmware and were built to last.  I honestly can’t say how much upgrading (and disposal) of consumer electronics I have burned through (CD players,  DVD player, video “component” cables/receivers, video game consoles, etc.) over the last 10 years and there is my Sonos equipment, standing the test of time, even through a move.  If you want quality hardware to stream your music that works seamlessly and gives you the flexibility to make changes (upgrade speakers, interoperability, etc.) I can’t say enough good things about my investment in Sonos.



I agree that I would rather compromise on the music service ... which is easy to change than the hardware which isn't. In any case the investment of a few dollars means that I have a third party app that lets me stream Spotify radio through my Sonos system anyway. Also as previously mentioned the music services will adapt to take advantage of any Spotify weaknesses, so it will be interesting to see how Beats Music will do,as I hope this will get Sonos support (or will support Sonos - whichever way around) . If the previous Spotify fans want to sell their Sonos kit cheaply - then I for one would be happy to purchase it... as I still have some Sonos-free rooms I could fill.