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jishi
Headliner II
September 3, 2013

Spotify Connect, serious competition

  • September 3, 2013
  • 249 replies
  • 61983 views
Spotify today announced Spotify Connect, which will be a series of hardware from well-known hardware to seamlessly integrate spotify onto devices where the control is from the regular Spotify application on your phone or similar.

Streaming is still done directly through internet, so the phone isn't in charge of it, just controls it.

I really do hope that Sonos will follow this approach as well, I believe there are a lot more like me that primarily uses Sonos for Spotify, and being able to use the same app as always would be awesome.

Seems like there is already a feature request over at ask.sonos.com https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/support_spotify_connect_to_allow_users_to_use_the_spotify_app_as_the_controller
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      249 replies

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      msboon
      Lyricist III
      April 15, 2014
      And now spottily has added the long awaited "Your Music" feature which allows you to organise your music by artist and album rather than playlists. Guess what - not available on Sonos.

      There's a request for this over on the ask.sonos site - https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/your_music_feature_on_spotify

      However, I wouldn't hold out much hope - spotify are concentrating on Spotify connect and don't seem to be adding new functionality to their API (spotify radio being another example).

      I've now cancelled my spotify subscription. I'm just not prepared to continue paying for a premium subscription when I'm not able to get access to all the features.

      Mike
      danc27
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 11, 2014
      http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/09/spotify-now-handles-multi-room-streaming-on-samsung-devices/

      I posted this in another thread, but it is interesting that you can now play to multiple rooms at once with Spotify Connect on the Samsung Shape speaker system. Maybe Spotify has altered the Connect protocol a bit to allow for this, which may be good news for Sonos... if in fact they are hoping to do the same thing. Who knows.

      Just hoping.
      chicks
      chicks
      June 11, 2014
      I don't understand why Spotify is going the old Apple route of a proprietary protocol, like Airplay. Why not do what all the other streaming services are doing, adopting Google's open ChromeCast protocol? Or at least UPnP, which Sonos can render.

      I've stayed far away from Apple for their proprietary ways, and will do the same with Spotify. Lots of better alternatives.
      danc27
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 12, 2014
      Yeah, it would be nice if they used the DIAL protocol as a fallback (what Chromecast is), then it could be supported in a wide range of devices easily. I can't really blame them too much for making Spotify Connect though since they have more control over development. I believe in the future they're going to keep your play queue "in the cloud" as well so it really syncs across devices which is something that would not be possible with DIAL or UPnP.

      What better alternatives are you speaking of? I've pretty much tried them all and for the desktop and mobile experience beyond Sonos, I don't think anyone can touch Spotify unfortunately. Google Music came REALLY close for me, though.
      chicks
      chicks
      June 12, 2014
      Rdio and Google are both superior, IMO. Google is just getting started. They own Android, and their player is installed by default on millions of devices. If they can integrate Songza's simple curation method, add a few more features, and get Chromecast into more homes, Spotify will be looking less attractive.

      Spotify has really mucked up their UI with the black background. What's up with that?
      nicka99
      nicka99
      Local Superstar
      June 12, 2014


      Spotify has really mucked up their UI with the black background. What's up with that?

      Ha - and sonos followed suit !
      nicka99
      nicka99
      Local Superstar
      June 12, 2014

      What better alternatives are you speaking of? I've pretty much tried them all and for the desktop and mobile experience beyond Sonos, I don't think anyone can touch Spotify unfortunately. Google Music came REALLY close for me, though.

      I'm with you on this - I've tried all those available in the UK. Spotify provides the best all round experience across desktop, mobile and sonos. However with the recent change to 'my music', the gap is growing between what spotify offers vs sonos' integration. I spend the most time in my car using the mobile app so this is more important than anything for me. Google comes close of all the rest but the mobile app is pretty poor on IOS. If spotify and sonos worked together to get sonos working with spotify connect I would quit bashing them over the terrible new UI (5.0) as I'd never have to use it again other than the occasional setting.
      danc27
      Trending Lyricist I
      June 12, 2014
      I'm with you on this - I've tried all those available in the UK. Spotify provides the best all round experience across desktop, mobile and sonos. However with the recent change to 'my music', the gap is growing between what spotify offers vs sonos' integration. I spend the most time in my car using the mobile app so this is more important than anything for me. Google comes close of all the rest but the mobile app is pretty poor on IOS. If spotify and sonos worked together to get sonos working with spotify connect I would quit bashing them over the terrible new UI (5.0) as I'd never have to use it again other than the occasional setting.
      I've found that the mobile apps for all of the services can't touch Spotify in terms of streaming reliability and quality (per MB). This is a deal breaker as I use Spotify in the car all the time.

      On another note, I actually really like the new Spotify UI.
      nicka99
      nicka99
      Local Superstar
      June 12, 2014
      I've found that the mobile apps for all of the services can't touch Spotify in terms of streaming reliability and quality (per MB). This is a deal breaker as I use Spotify in the car all the time.

      On another note, I actually really like the new Spotify UI.

      agreed - the spotify mobile app is the most 'robust' for recovering from poor data coverage, good buffering and resuming from where it left off when it hasnt been used for a few hours. The others (Rdio, Google, Deezer, Napster) all fall short one way or another. Im also used to the colour scheme now but its not so easy to read in bright conditions.
      nathan_h
      Avid Contributor I
      June 26, 2014
      I like Spotify, but recently started using Google instead -- at first because the Radio functionality in Google works on SONOS and Spotify's doesn't.

      But now that I get deeper into it, I'm finding near parity for my purposes. Pretty impressive, really.

      And later this year when Amazon's streaming service hits SONOS, that may really seal the deal, since I'm already paying that one, anyway, and my tastes can lag the market by six months, no problem....and I'll have Beats in my back pocket, just in case.

      ....but anyway, my point is, I wouldn't have tried something other than Spotify EXCEPT that Spotify's API is so limited that the experience was lacking on the SONOS. Spotify drove me away.

      And I discovered excellent replacements. Spotify is hurting themself.
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