Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

December 8, 2022 at 11:29 AM
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We announced yesterday that some of our oldest Sonos products will be moving into a legacy mode in May of 2020. Our commitment is to support products with regular software updates for a minimum of five years after we stop selling them, and we have a track record of supporting products far longer.

Here is some public information we’ve shared, gathered into one place to respond to some of your questions in one easy thread, so that people can find the correct information easily.

Beginning in May, software updates and new features from Sonos will only be delivered to systems with only modern products.

After May, systems that include legacy products will continue to work as before - but they will no longer receive software updates or new features.

Sonos will work to maintain the existing experience and conduct bug fixes, but our efforts will ultimately be limited by the lack of memory and processing power of these legacy products.

We don’t expect any immediate impact to your experience, but access to services and overall functionality will eventually be disrupted, particularly as partners evolve their own services and features.

Customers with both legacy and modern products have time to decide what option is best for them. You can continue to use your whole system in legacy mode - in this case, it will stop receiving updates and new features.

You will also be able to separate your legacy products from your modern products, so that the modern products can still receive updates and new features, and legacy products can still be used separately. We’ll have more information on how to do this in May when you can take that action.

Another option available to all customers with legacy products is to take advantage of the Trade Up program, which allows you to upgrade older Sonos products to modern ones with a 30% discount. Trade Up will be open to customers at any time should they decide to upgrade.

We recognize this is new for Sonos owners, just as it is for Sonos. We are committed to help you by making options available to you to support the best decision for your home.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate with asking.

Update 2/22: A message from our CEO

We heard you. We did not get this right from the start. My apologies for that and I wanted to personally assure you of the path forward:

First, rest assured that come May, when we end new software updates for our legacy products, they will continue to work as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away. Many of you have invested heavily in your Sonos systems, and we intend to honor that investment for as long as possible. While legacy Sonos products won’t get new software features, we pledge to keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches for as long as possible. If we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes you’ll see in your experience.

Secondly, we heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to coexist in your home. We are working on a way to split your system so that modern products work together and get the latest features, while legacy products work together and remain in their current state. We’re finalizing details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.

While we have a lot of great products and features in the pipeline, we want our customers to upgrade to our latest and greatest products when they’re excited by what the new products offer, not because they feel forced to do so. That’s the intent of the trade up program we launched for our loyal customers.

Thank you for being a Sonos customer. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. I hope that you’ll forgive our misstep, and let us earn back your trust. Without you, Sonos wouldn’t exist and we’ll work harder than ever to earn your loyalty every single day.

If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Patrick Spence
CEO, Sonos

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Davidrhysshaw

Contributor I

I’m curious about the timing of this announcement. Any decent software \ technology company would give users at least 12 months notice of a product being no longer supported. In this case we have a ridiculously short 4 month’s notice. What is happening in May? Do Sonos have a significant system update that their testing has identified won’t work on the ‘legacy’ items? Or is one of their major music services making changes that won’t work with our older equipment?

Or is this just an attempt to boost trade up sales in this financial quarter??

All may become clear in May. Meanwhile my current thoughts are to continue with my equipment in ‘legacy’ mode, while looking for alternative systems. I’ll not be spending anymore on Sonos equipment. Sad end to a happy relationship!!

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PerfectSound

Lyricist III

It seems to me that Sonos have not thought out how this will work. I use Spotify and think there is a risk that (“legacy”) Sonos won’t work with that anymore.

Ryan, Can you say what Sonos are doing with Spotify to keep legacy products working? Are you talking to them about this?

I disagree (sorry), but it seems Sonos has thought about it carefully for some time, warning investors of the impact of doing it beforehand.

Yes. Premeditated brand killing -- We know this will hurt badly our customers, but we will do it anyway because we think that Sonos can make money with this. The surprise for Sonos has been that people are furious. They clearly have not been thinking to the final step. People are not a little angry.. I can feel much stronger attitude from all users.

It’s easy to destroy something, but how can you build the brand again to the old level? Who is going to trust ever again about the future with Sonos products?

And if you can make money in short term with “blackmailing” what about the long term? And I don’t think the short term will work either because old users will not take -30% deal. It’s bad and the real deal is about -10% if you will compare that to the prices for other shops.

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Goodbye Sonos

Enthusiast II

Thing is these aren’t cheap throwaway disposable items.

Sonos sold itself on the longevity of the product and the ability to build a system over the years to come.

Two things that no longer hold true.

There are cheaper ways today to accomplish similar results, and Sonos makes a lot of sales on a repeat sales basis.

Why would anyone invest more into a Sonos system, now that they know their investment will become an expensive brick after 5 years?

It will only take a tiny API change to take out streaming services one by one.

Also the major advantage Sonos had when it came out was the ability to play the same music across multiple rooms in time\sync.

Anyone with legacy kit will lose this function 100% - unless (and I can’t for the life of me see why anyone would want to do this) they decide to forego all updates to their “current” products - which would means their current products could also be broken by tiny API changes to streaming services.

This is a really bleak outlook however you look at it.

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sampoljewl

Lyricist I

I am a long time Sonos user and have spent thousands of dollars on your products. I am no longer going to spend a single penny on your products any more.

I don’t even own these ”obsolete” products. I’m just worried now you’re going to do the same thing to the speakers I bought only 4 years ago. I can’t trust any speaker you sell today will become obsolete in a couple of years. I want my system to continue to receive updates and work with older speakers.

What a shame. I felt so much loyalty to Sonos

I have only had my Paly 5 for 3 years talk about planned obsolescence… This is what killed the big 3 autos in the 70’s. I agree such expensive eqipment now outdated. Shame on you Sonos

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kingerrj

Lyricist II

Is there any evidence that Sonos is listening? This is corporate suicide! They must understand that this will poison their corporate image. It is also a shame because up to now I have been very happy with their product. Sonos Corporate: Think!! Fire whoever came up with this cynical ploy, change your position and come up with a reasonable option before it’s too late!

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smellster

Lyricist III

Congratulations Sonos, you made the headlines in the Times and the Guardian in the UK.

Anyone interested in crowd funding a Hercules so we can airdrop a few tonnes of 'legacy' speakers onto the Sonos headquarters in Santa Barbara, California?

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goodboyr

Trending Lyricist I

I am betting that the next step will be a subscription model, where for a monthly fee, they will guarantee upgrades to your equipment as it gets obsolete.

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KingPin

Enthusiast II

Since buying into Sonos in 2007, I have used only two of the new features: I have connected Spotify and I use the iphone app. Haven’t needed more and do not need more to be perfectly happy with the system. I wonder what remarkable services they are going to add to warrant me scrapping half my system. I doubt I’ll use a single one.

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derekdavies

Contributor I

This doesn’t explain why speakers that play music now won’t be able to music in the future. I understand why they won’t have additionally features; but, this doesn’t explain at all why music won’t be able to be played.

They will be able to play music in the future!

I’m affected by this news (4 out of 6 zones are ‘legacy’) and wholeheartedly agree the announcement was incredibly badly handled, that the forced creation of e-waste is abhorrent, the splitting of zones into ‘legacy’ and ‘modern’ networks negates half the reason for owning a Sonos system and that the 30% ‘upgrade’ discount isn’t enough, but this thread is becoming more and more hyperbolic!

No one’s equipment is suddenly being ‘bricked’ and the share price, while falling, is not ‘sinking faster than the titanic’. By all means continue to voice displeasure, it might have an affect, but at the moment its hard to see past the melodrama and people patting themselves on the back for lowering a company’s score from 4/5 to 1/5 in various places. Why would anyone from Sonos come on here to comment currently? - nothing constructive would come of it.

Who’s side are you on? if they don’t positively respond soon they’re a bigger bunch of morons than we all believe them to be already. All these comments are going global, not just here.

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kingerrj

Lyricist II

This might be a perfect opportunity for Sonos competitors to scoop up disgruntled customers. Blue sound, whoever else: if you’re listening, give angry customers a good trade in exchange for jumping ship and you might find a real growth opportunity out of Sonos’ historic blunder!!

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