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Playing Youtube via SONOS.

  • 18 November 2012
  • 474 replies
  • 662950 views
U
Userlevel 4
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The idea is simple; to have a feature to play Youtube videos directly via the Sonos controller on iPod etc.
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Best answer by Ryan S 2 March 2018, 23:36

Hi everyone, there’s been a lot of discussion here with great suggestions and feedback. We make sure to share all that internally with our teams. I wanted to make an official post here for anyone joining the discussion regarding YouTube and Sonos. There are also some requests in here for sending all the audio from your device (computer or mobile) right to Sonos. I'll pass along those requests too.

We don’t have any announced plans regarding adding YouTube as an official service for Sonos. We’ll let everyone know if that changes in the future. That said, there are some ways to get the audio from your videos playing on your Sonos speakers. Take a look here:

Line-In



A great way to get any audio into Sonos that isn’t available through our software is to use the line-in on a Sonos PLAY:5, Connect, or Connect:Amp. Using the line-in, you are able to bring any audio content from a device with an audio output to play across your entire Sonos system. The line-in can be played from the player it’s connected to to any combination of players in your home.

Taking the audio signal from a streaming video and playing it through Line-In will introduce a latency of around 70ms. In most cases this isn’t noticeable, however, you may experience lip sync issues if you’re watching critically. If you’re looking for a speaker to pair your audio and video with, you may want to take a look at the Playbase or Playbar. These use optical audio connections which give a higher quality and lower latency.


Smart TV to Sonos Home Theater



This is personally my favorite way. If you have a smart TV or something connected to your TV that can receive a YouTube signal, you can even have a Playbase or Playbar connected to that TV playing YouTube on Sonos. The audio from the Playbase or PLAYBAR can also be grouped with other players to send that audio around the house.

This way sounds great. You’ll be able to see the video on a large screen and hear the audio coming from the same place, the way it’s intended.


Airplay 2



Now available, we’ve introduced Airplay 2 to Sonos players. Using AirPlay 2 you can send the audio from your iOS device to a compatible Sonos player (Sonos One, Beam, Play:5 gen2, Playbase, or Sonos Amp) and once that audio is into the Sonos system, you can group that player with any other Sonos devices to play your audio in all the rooms you want. You can find the full details on Airplay 2 with Sonos here.

AirPlay 2 will allow you to send most audio content being played on your iOS device on Sonos; that includes videos, games, podcasts, and music.


Try out Google Play Music



It’s not YouTube support, but if you have a YouTube Red account, you likely have access to Google Play Music as well. This is an official music streaming service on Sonos and has quite the large selection of music of over 35 million songs. You can also use an Android device to send the audio on your Google Play Music app directly to Sonos players.


Unofficial Solutions



There are some other great ways to get YouTube audio playing on Sonos, though we don’t have any specifically to recommend. You can find some good suggestions and ways to go hidden in this thread, so feel free to peruse the comments.


We recommend keeping an eye on this thread for further updates regarding this feature request. As soon as there’s anything new to share, you’ll be among the first to know here.
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474 replies

B
Userlevel 3
I agree, i'm very surprised to discover that SONOS isn't able to broadcast a local source like YOUTUBE from the hardware where the constroller is installed. it's a great frustration.
G
Userlevel 2
I want to play music form YouTube over my sonos system like i can play spotify music. This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled YouTube as a source.
T
Userlevel 2
It would be near perfect if I had the possibility to stream all sound from my laptop to my Sonos controller. If not then at least make it possible the stream the sound from youtube. Every time a friend wants to show a music number it is from youtube and that is where the sonos software limits you. 😕 This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled The possibillity to stream music from youtube to a sonos controller.
P
Userlevel 2
Dear Sonos team,
my son is asking to play youtube (just the sound) via a sonos play 3. He would like to create play lists that could be used from sonos to stream the music or use the sonos controller to select the video where the music should be played via sonos. This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled youtube.com sound on sonos.
C
Userlevel 1
Hello,

I am the proud owner of a Play 3 and a Bridge and I am very satisfied!

However, in my opinion it lacks a streaming service that is really essential: YouTube!
Remember that YouTube is the main search engine after Google for music and a huge amount of people listen to music and discover artists every day from YouTube.
Therefore, it would seem to be a serious strategic mistake and a great lack for Sonos users, not to quickly add it to the list of available streaming services on your controller interface!
This would allow to watch YouTube videos on his computer screen, tablet or smartphone (through an embed YouTube video player) and listen to the corresponding soundtrack on his favorite speaker Sonos simultaneous d(-_ ~)b ...

FYI, here is what is preparing competition (including YouTube with a video player): http://youtu.be/8PkJTLN9UJo

Thank you for reading...

Sincerely,
Olivier (from Paris) This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled YOU TUBE AVAILABLE STREAMING SERVICE!.
B
I think you can set up a streaming server on your computer and listen to it via Sonos. I was looking for instructions and found this thread. Icecast is the free/ open source program.
R
Please add YouTube to Sonos Controller. Sonos play3 is a great device and adding YouTube will make it perfect.
V
Have bought sonos play 5 and now play 1.absolutely love the system. Best sound out there but I agree with this thread, sonos needs toextend sservices to allow for sound stream from YouTube or other video apps. I'm sure it will come eventually, not soon enough! Lol
M
I did  a workaround by buying a bluetooth logitech adapter and connected to SONOS amp. Now from my iphone/ipad i connect to the bluetooth adapter ( i got a logitech one) and on Sonos enable the line-in as player on SONOS controller. Now all music from my iphone including youtube plays on SONOS
M
I was actually kinda surprised that Youtube can't yet be played trough my Sonos system. I hope it's possible soon!
L
Userlevel 1
Same here I agree I was bought sonos for my birthday straight away I went to play and watch youtube and was a wee bit sad when I discovered that you can't access youtube. I really hope on the next software upgrade that Sonos will provide this.
Y
Userlevel 1
I was so happy I didm't have to use that Logitech anymore. Now I'm still stuck with it.
Y
Userlevel 1
I just got my Playbar today and I think it's good, especially for Spotify and listening music. However, I'm trying to find a way to play YouTube videos, as my friends usually do. There's no option on out android phones, iphones, mac's and windows laptops to play a single youtube sound via the new Playbar. I'm afraid this means installing my LG 5.1 home cinema again, besides my somewhat expensive Sonos 😞. 
R
Userlevel 1
I'm about to buy a PlayBar but i find it pretty sad that i cant play YouTube through the Sonos app!

I'd really look forward to see an update for YouTube support. Go for it Sonos!

Edit: Maybe ill wait with my purchase until this is cleared up.
Y
Userlevel 1
I just got my Playbar today and I think it's good, especially for Spotify and listening music. However, I'm trying to find a way to play YouTube videos, as my friends usually do. There's no option on out android phones, iphones, mac's and windows laptops to play a single youtube sound via the new Playbar. I'm afraid this means installing my LG 5.1 home cinema again, besides my somewhat expensive Sonos 😞. 
The un-official SoundClound integration to the Sonos app made me change my mind! I can listen to all my music via my laptop, Spotify and SoundCloud and I can totally live without the 8yo's falling on their faces with an American "OMG!"-yell on the background 🙂. 

I got used to my Sonos, fast, and it's not leaving the house. (This is also due to the price I paid for it, the full retail price would be kinda much).

There's just one more thing, and that's being unable to connect my MacBook to the TV and Playbar. My TV doesn't have optical out (so my TV-decoder is wired directly to it) and my Mac only has analog audio. Streaming services like Netflix don't really do the trick for me because of the hefty prices and low amount of unseen video. 
T
How does one point or address or dlna or UpnP basic web browser audio content (from youtube, safari, chrome, etc) to the Sonos bridge, controller, or play5?
C
Chris

Hello Sonos lovers,

my boyfriend bought me for Christmas a Sonos Play5 +bridge. I love a really good sound. So, so excited about it, but so, so disappointed that I cannot play music saved from iTube on my Ipad over the sonos system.  I bought another aux cable (I wrongly presumed that the one I had is not good), then I searched and searched online only to discover that Sonos is not a good friend or any friend with youtube/iTube. I wonder why. I have to buy some floor speakers now in order to listen to my beloved music.

Such a shame! :-(((( 
  
J
The very low-tech solution for listening to Youtube music via Sonos:
* Note: this is only possible on PC's and other systems that allows for a local music library, from which Sonos can play music. It does not stream youtube sound directly!

1: Find the song on youtube and copy the URL-address
2: Open a website for saving youtube videos, such as savetube.com or keepvid.com, paste the URL into the download-field.
3: Save the video/music file in the folder where Sonos fetches your music files from.
3: Now update your computer's music library in the Sonos app, and it should be there to play (no video is displayed, though. Only sound)

It takes some time for each song, but it is a viable way to do it, if there is no other way of retrieving the song from other sources.
S
The very low-tech solution for listening to Youtube music via Sonos:
* Note: this is only possible on PC's and other systems that allows for a local music library, from which Sonos can play music. It does not stream youtube sound directly!

1: Find the song on youtube and copy the URL-address
2: Open a website for saving youtube videos, such as savetube.com or keepvid.com, paste the URL into the download-field.
3: Save the video/music file in the folder where Sonos fetches your music files from.
3: Now update your computer's music library in the Sonos app, and it should be there to play (no video is displayed, though. Only sound)

It takes some time for each song, but it is a viable way to do it, if there is no other way of retrieving the song from other sources.


or just plug a bluetooth receiver into the line-in on your sonos, set the sonos app to play line in, pair with the bluetooth receiver from your phone and play youtube or whatever else you feel like playing.
J
I don't see this option - to play from youtube (itube) - as a planned feature.. how come?! 
Bought some play:1s and wanted to surprise stepdaughter.. My wife and me like the system very much, but she was not at all impressed, because all her music was played from itube (like all her friends also use apparantly). Sometimes hard to keep up with all the new stuff, but I would say playing from youtube is a pretty obvious feature you would want to implement.
B
I also want to play YouTube sound through my play1 and playbar. My first priority goes out to the audio side of youtube... the video's are less important to me. I use YouTube a lot for listening to podcasts/livesets, while working on my computer.

Ripping every mp3 from youtube and update the sonos library isn't an option for me. Way to slow!
T
Hi Youtube Listeners! I too wanted youtube in my vibe space of Sonos. I accepted the limitation of the Sonos controller (software) to tap into the proprietary Apple DLNA (wireless networking) layer. I bought an Apple Airport Express this weekend to stream youtube wirelessly to a Sonos Play:5 Line-in channel. It works wonderfully! It costs $94.00 extra bucks, but it was worth it to me to remain wireless and stream youtube sounds--I love Chvrches...
I
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Hi sonos.. Please add youtube as an option for wireless music. There are lots of songs that don't appear on streaming services. Thanks!!
S
Hi Sonos team, I'd like to let you know that nowadays Youtube is essential as source for a home music solution. Please add it as soon as possible.
T
Hi Sergio, If you're using a music player, browser, or video player that supports a DLNA broadcaster like Airplay, then I recommend buying an Apple Airport Express and set up a local network to handle the airplay content and route it to the line-in on your Sonos speaker. Unfortunately, this path requires accepting the fact that an expensive Sonos system does not support the content you prefer and getting it to requires spending another $100. It took me 5 months to accept this, but streaming the content I prefer from Youtube and a browser is worth the extra cost. I have used my Sonos much more since being able to stream Youtube content.

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