Sonos 11.1 Brings Sonos Radio

I already needed to register my system to an e-mail address when I first started Sonos in 2013 (7 years ago) and as far as I understand, Sonos has always gathered user data.

Not so! I purchased a connect, connect AMP, soundbar, and woofer in the early part last decade as wireless speakers - not data harvesters. At some point along the route (7.0?), an email was required, I just gave a false one and continued fine. Now just to upgrade you need to remember the false email (and confirm it!). Why?

It’s impossible to use the mobile app without upgrading it with the rest of your apps every other week, and the minute you do upgrade, you have to upgrade the whole speaker system! Why?

This is all unnecessary. I run my Sonos firewalled from Sonos Inc. and it works fine with Apple Music and my local file (music) server.

And by the way, I don’t use Google/Facebook/etc, but they never asked me $5000 for their wares. We paid a premium for this hardware and they have no right to our data retrospectively. I would never buy a Sonos product again.

P.S. Tune-In DON’T collect any personal data from me. I’ve never registered or had to provide an email to use Tune-In!

I am not going to get in a "did not, did too" debate with you, there have been many threads on here where long term users have confirmed that they registered their system to an email address years ago.

The point about being able to turn off updates has been made extensively on these boards already, too, so need to get back into that.

That you don't need an account for TuneIn, does not mean you are not being tracked. If you're smart enough to firewall your Sonos, you should know that too. If a service is free, YOU are the product.

Also, Google, Amazon and Facebook are everywhere, and it is nearly impossible to block them without severely impacting your online experience.

​​​​​​Anyway, thanks for your rant, I repeat my advice of living offline if you don't want anyone collecting your data and will get back ontopic now.

Curious about this TuneIn integration... 

How do I set Sonos Radio as the default radio player for Google Assistant? Currently it still uses TuneIn when I ask it to play a radio station.

I don't see that changing soon. Asking GA to stream anything on Sonos works through a different mechanic than controlling Sonos with the app. This also the reason why voice control on Sonos is bound to the "single stream" restrictions from some services, whereas regular control on Sonos is not.

Google decides which radio service is used by Google Assistant, just like they decide which streaming services can be controlled by it.

Re: Programme info on BBC Radio streams

Have just updated my system and have noticed that unlike the BBC Radio 2 stream on ‘Radio by TuneIn’, there is no ‘On Now’ programme info on ‘Sonos Radio’, so for now, I’m sticking with TuneIn as this seams like a backwards step for BBC Radio streams.

Can I ask about explicit content on Sonos Radio. I use the content filter on Amazon Music which works well. 
 

Do the curated Sonos radio stations include explicit content?

I’m still using a few CR200 controllers around the house. I’ve installed the Sonos Radio service, it appears on the controller but when I select it, all I get is ‘unable to browse music’.

Would it be a correct conclusion that Sonos Radio isn’t supported on the CR200?

I agree with many of the comments above about including a ‘National’ category to find radio stations which are broadcast nationwide across all cities. 

It would also be useful to have a ‘My Radio Stations’ similar to the TuneIn function - this is particularly true when setting up an alarm, as currently there is no way to quickly find a radio station you listen to frequently.  Foe example to set up an alarm with BBC Radio 2 you need to select Sonos Radio / Browse Radio / Locations / Europe / United Kingdom / (then know you need to select London to see nationwide stations) London / Then you can finally select the station you are looking for - not the simplest of processes

Once you’ve eventually found the station you are looking for you can add it to ‘My Sonos’, which then appears under ‘Stations’, but unfortunately when adding an alarm there is no option to quickly select from My Stations (it would be good if there could be an equivalent of the Sonos Playlists function for saved radio stations when setting an alarm)

Just to clarify - does the TuneIn system still work as normal? e.g. is the new Sonos service totally separate from, and in addition to, TuneIn, or does it partially replace it?