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

  • 3 September 2013
  • 366 replies
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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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Hi everyone, we appreciate the request for an update to the thread, it’s been too long since our last post here.  

As everyone following this conversation already knows, the decision has been made not to implement Spotify Connect. Like many such decisions, it’s complex, and we don’t want to go into the details.  To put it simply, we don’t see Spotify Connect as the right solution for Sonos at this time.

If you’re new to Sonos, you might not be aware that Spotify was launched on Sonos in 2010, and at the time was the first home hardware partnership for Spotify.  We’re focusing our efforts on this existing integration, and began with improvements to stability under high usage following the holiday outages.  

Our vision is to bring the Spotify-Sonos experience much closer to the experience you have when using the native Spotify app.  It’s going to take time, but work is in progress by both partners.  We’ll keep you posted.

No John, this answer is not what this community needs. Sorry to disappoint you, but we are expecting more from SONOS.

Try to listen to your users needs and solve their problems delivering value.

Currently, You're only delivering headaches instead of the best experience ever.

Spotify & Sonos are not so close anymore: http://spotifygear.com/

It's been years since the Spotify-SONOS experience doesn't evolve. So faith is not keeping us anymore. 

Please give us a timeline and specify your priority list for user experience improvement.

We invest in you and we don't see any commitment from your side, but neutral answers. 

We need your commitment. SONOS is nothing without the commitment of its users, so I'm not asking for something your users haven't gave your already.

Please, stop this kind of messages that doesn't say anything at all in the end.
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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

In other words, you are strongly committed to going out of business in the near future.

"We love Spotify and we haven't stopped improving the Spotify experience on Sonos."

You've done absolutely nothing to improve this particular experience recently, a year later, far as I can tell. Thus the grumbling on these forums, which you choose to disregard at your own peril. 

You've chosen to push the burden on to your own consumers instead of rectifying what is an extremely obvious fix waiting to happen.

Wake up, Sonos. I've unfortunately already commited $ to you, which is absolutely the only reason why I remain a customer as of today. But you've lost my trust. Meaning I won't ever recommend the company to anybody else, and may soon decide to sell & reinvest in a different system in the very near future. 
Hi everyone, we appreciate the request for an update to the thread, it’s been too long since our last post here.  

As everyone following this conversation already knows, the decision has been made not to implement Spotify Connect. Like many such decisions, it’s complex, and we don’t want to go into the details.  To put it simply, we don’t see Spotify Connect as the right solution for Sonos at this time.

If you’re new to Sonos, you might not be aware that Spotify was launched on Sonos in 2010, and at the time was the first home hardware partnership for Spotify.  We’re focusing our efforts on this existing integration, and began with improvements to stability under high usage following the holiday outages.  

Our vision is to bring the Spotify-Sonos experience much closer to the experience you have when using the native Spotify app.  It’s going to take time, but work is in progress by both partners.  We’ll keep you posted.

Sonos, what is the timeline to bring Sonos close to Spotify's native app?

What virtually every Spotify user on Sonos wants are:

- Radio

Under "Browse""
- Charts
- Genres & Moods
- Discover
- New Releases (this is the only "browse" function currently supported by Sonos but "new releases" on Sonos are outdated content and do not match Spotify's most current "new releases" list)
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Not trying to defend Sonos or anything but Spotify are doing this to themselves. They are the most closed of all music services. Their success is going to be their downfall. The invention of Spotify Connect is another bad decisions that is trying to do do the "Apple" thing and lock you into their ecosystem. 

I was a big fan of Spotify until sometime last year when I got some free trial for Google Access and Deezer and had some quality time with them. Spotify sounds the worst of all, after all these years, they are still in the process of upgrading their catalogue to 320kbps. Google Play sounds heaps better, Deezer is now offering FLAC. Spotify is the only music app that is not supporting Chromecast. Spotify is the only app that is not allowing offline downloading to SD card on Android devices. Spotify's app on Sonos is shocking, and I am willing to bet everything it is not Sonos who are to blame for that but the money grabbing bastards from Spotify. Just look at all the other Sonos apps even from the smaller guys in this music service business, they all look much more polished and fully featured.

And lastly, more and more artists are leaving Spotify because of their practices. 
Hey Sonos. I own 6 of your products. I'd love to own more. Make me love you and support Spotify Connect. Your competition is heating up:

http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/28/polk-omni-speakers-spotify-connect/?ncid=rss_truncated
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Hey Sonos. I own 6 of your products. I'd love to own more. Make me love you and support Spotify Connect. Your competition is heating up:

http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/28/polk-omni-speakers-spotify-connect/?ncid=rss_truncated

"manufacturers quickly started taking advantage of it" - Sadly, Sonos wasnt one of them !
Rather than ponder what might be right for Sonos maybe a more relevant question to be asking yourselves would be "what's right for our users who have invested in our hardware"
Rather than ponder what might be right for Sonos maybe a more relevant question to ask yourselves would be "what's right for our users that have invested in our hardware".
In my opinion the Sonos app will become obsolete as people dont want to use Google Music, Spotify etc from within another app, the current crippled version of Spotify that Sonos offers is a good demonstartion of why this isn't a good solution, and one that I don't believe people will put up with given a viable alternative.
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Speaking of viable alternatives - this is looking to be a good one. Reviewed to be superior to the sonos play 1 AND supports spotify connect http://www.trustedreviews.com/raumfeld-one-s-review
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We all have our own list of priorities and desires when it comes to Sonos.

What however baffles me is the high percentage of Play1 users complaining about lack of Bluetooth and AirPlay support after the purchase. 

If one wants a single (portable) speaker, why would they go with Sonos anyway?

Sorry but you bought the wrong device, its that simple. Go back to the store and exchange it for something that has Bluetooth and Airplay logos on the box, like B&W, Bose or whatever else resides next to it on the shelf.
I also will not expand my Sonos system and will soon begin exploring other options if the Spotify integration issue is not addressed. I have also dissuaded others from investing in Sonos until then.
Sonos: you should reconsider this. I like Sonos, but missed the superior search and radio features of the Spotify app too much, so l sold my Sonos equipment and purchased a competing product with Spotify Connect. I have never looked back.
As a current Spotify user and new sonos owner, how did Google play work out? Thanks! Amy
I have switched to google music away from Spotify, but looking at alternatives as the spotify app is simply the best on the market.  Another vote for Spotify connect to Sonos.
I just bought a sonos connect with the hope that the spotify interface would be better than my existing Squeezebox system. I'm very disappointed to find that it is no better and that sonos is not taking advantage of an existing solution (at least while developing their own integrated solution). As much as I like the sonos hardware and the interface with my local music, I guess I'm going to have to return the connect and look elsewhere. I've already been through Logitech failing to keep up with the competition--I don't need to go through that again.
Hi everyone, we appreciate the request for an update to the thread, it’s been too long since our last post here.  

As everyone following this conversation already knows, the decision has been made not to implement Spotify Connect. Like many such decisions, it’s complex, and we don’t want to go into the details.  To put it simply, we don’t see Spotify Connect as the right solution for Sonos at this time.

If you’re new to Sonos, you might not be aware that Spotify was launched on Sonos in 2010, and at the time was the first home hardware partnership for Spotify.  We’re focusing our efforts on this existing integration, and began with improvements to stability under high usage following the holiday outages.  

Our vision is to bring the Spotify-Sonos experience much closer to the experience you have when using the native Spotify app.  It’s going to take time, but work is in progress by both partners.  We’ll keep you posted.

I'm new to SONOS, having just bought a connect as a look for a replacement for my SQUEEZEBOX system. As I posted elsewhere,  I was looking forward especially to a better interface with Spotify, and I'm very disappointed. As one possible solution, I'm looking at Deezer and I'm guessing that what they have done there gives some clues as to what they are looking to do. Deezer is offering a high-definition (i.e., FLAC) stream that is only available on SONOS, and the SONOS interface is pretty complete. Since I am interested in the higher quality stream, and so far the selection of classical music seems comparable to Spotify, I might be willing to make the switch. However, I would still worry about the slow response of SONOS to this issue and the limited dialog with users about it. So now I have to decide whether to return the SONOS connect and look elsewhere, or drop Spotify for a service that is better integrated with SONOS.
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I dont know what is right or wrong, but SONOS and Spotify should some together and fix this issue.
It will harm them both if people stop buying SONOS and stop using Spotify. 
I have written this on Spotify Comunity and i have written it on SONOS, but none of the firms will take action. Why?
Please take our customers seriously
Poul Erik
Userlevel 1
google play has now replaced SPotify for me. Same price, pretty much same catalog and I can stream / upload music that isn't available to the Google cloud ( ie: my favorite band tool isn't on either service ) and stream it to Sonos . Also i believe Google play highest stream quality is > spotify.
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Mark, the API can handle this but Spotify needs to expose it. Radio Stations, Playlists, Moodxollectiins etc. are from a API perspective all the same just with different tags. But Spotify needs to expose those to enable the Sonos app to consume it.

Hope that helps.
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.
really Sonos?!? almost two years later and still no support for Spotify Connect? If you didn't get it yet your customers are not happy!
What's the matter not implementing Spotify Connect? Did Google pay you more to implement Google Play?
It seems that Sonos does not plan to support Spotify Connect. I think that it would be like Apple supporting Windows or Android on their Macs & IPhones, and from a strategic point of view Sonos seems to choose the Apple business model : very high-end expensive hardware, closed model. 

This can of course be a success BUT, IMHO, to be sustainable it would require the following key factors : 
- implementing a very good version of spotify so that the user experience is equal or better than Spotify App.
- lower the price of the Sonos Connect in order to avoid customers going to Gramofon.

If you compare with the Apple business model, think of it as :
- Give the customer the BEST user experience. (Think about MAC OS)
- Allow connectivity with existing material with an affordable device (think of Sonos Connect as a parallel of Airport or Apple TV). 

My 2 cents. If you want to be the best, BE the best.

Jerome, happy SONOS customer du to the huuuge quality of SONOS hardware.
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It seems that Sonos does not plan to support Spotify Connect. I think that it would be like Apple supporting Windows or Android on their Macs & IPhones, and from a strategic point of view Sonos seems to choose the Apple business model : very high-end expensive hardware, closed model. 

This can of course be a success BUT, IMHO, to be sustainable it would require the following key factors : 
- implementing a very good version of spotify so that the user experience is equal or better than Spotify App.
- lower the price of the Sonos Connect in order to avoid customers going to Gramofon.

If you compare with the Apple business model, think of it as :
- Give the customer the BEST user experience. (Think about MAC OS)
- Allow connectivity with existing material with an affordable device (think of Sonos Connect as a parallel of Airport or Apple TV). 

My 2 cents. If you want to be the best, BE the best.

Jerome, happy SONOS customer du to the huuuge quality of SONOS hardware.

Jerome Did you sign up to the latest Sonos beta yet ? Sonos 5.4 has much improved Spotify integration with song radio, artist radio, time based playlists, mood and genre playlists and both playlists and songs from 'your music'. Sign in to your account and join the beta program to try it out (not yet available for IOS) It's a big leap forward but still missing Artists and Albums from Your Music, Playlist Radio, Genre and Decade based radio, radio history and any kind of social integration. Let's hope they address some more items in the coming releases.
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We need this! The sonos app is slow. It's missing features.
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It seems that Sonos does not plan to support Spotify Connect. I think that it would be like Apple supporting Windows or Android on their Macs & IPhones, and from a strategic point of view Sonos seems to choose the Apple business model : very high-end expensive hardware, closed model. 

This can of course be a success BUT, IMHO, to be sustainable it would require the following key factors : 
- implementing a very good version of spotify so that the user experience is equal or better than Spotify App.
- lower the price of the Sonos Connect in order to avoid customers going to Gramofon.

If you compare with the Apple business model, think of it as :
- Give the customer the BEST user experience. (Think about MAC OS)
- Allow connectivity with existing material with an affordable device (think of Sonos Connect as a parallel of Airport or Apple TV). 

My 2 cents. If you want to be the best, BE the best.

Jerome, happy SONOS customer du to the huuuge quality of SONOS hardware.

I'm using the latest Sonos beta and indeed, the Spotify support has improved, but it is still a far cry from the Spotify app. With Spotify, I can search the artist bios and information, find related artists, add them on the fly to my playlist etc.

Another thing I can do with Connect is to switch to my PC when I come home from work and continue listening exactly where I was with the same song queue that have built while walking back from work.

And there are other stuff that I discover with the Spotify app every week. I really don't think it's a good idea for Sonos to try to reimplement the functionalities that are working so well in the Spotify app. Best case scenario, you'll do an OK job and you'll always be lagging behind the real thing. I buy Sonos for the hardware, not the software.

So please, implement Spotify Connect.
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Bought a ROCKI for $49, plugged it into the SONOS Line In, now I have both Apple AirPlay and SPOTIFY CONNECT on the SONOS. And Rocki also does DLNA so I can use Windows>Play To command on mp3 files. ROCKI is awesome and makes SONOS awesome. Quick, easy, good times.