Retired Sonos Staff

End of Software Support - Clarifications

Dec 8, 2022 11:29 AM UTC
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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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richdtremblay

Contributor I

I agree with all these post. Complete BS.

Like others, I’ve slowly added speakers over the years and spent thousands of dollars, all because I believe Sonos is second to none in quality and performance. I can’t wrap my head around how they thought this would be the best route to take. Not a whole lot of people can afford their speakers. They literally halted any sales from current owners until May or maybe forever. I don’t want to give up on them and I hope they retract their decision on this. However, even if they do retract their position and make a bridge to use new and “legacy” systems together, I’ve still lost valuable trust moving forward.

Why wouldn’t Sonos just come up with their own streaming service that’ll support both new and “legacy” systems. Then they could offer this as a monthly subscription service... Why would they allow other companies to dictate how their products are used or performs.

The next announcement better be a home run or they're in a world of trouble.

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Rich

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jwinther

Lyricist III

I am a bit curious - Sonos had other crises in the past, for instance the one around requiring registration, as illustrated by the following cut-out from Amazon.de:

How did Sonos manage to stear through this crisis - and the previous round of retiring products? What arguments or acts ended up calming down their customers again?

As for the registration, I myself got annoyed but then just registered; as I remember it with a kind if reasoning for myself that I was registered with so many other vendors (and also already with this one), so it wouldn’t make much of a difference for me. But others were unhappy - did they leave, did they end up accepting the new terms, or what happened?

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“This is a chance now to come up with a system that doesn’t cause massive planetary damage in exchange for disposable stuff,” Proctor said. (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3a8dpn/sonos-makes-it-clear-you-no-longer-own-the-things-you-buy)

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Saxakola

Lyricist III

I’m new to Sonos, I really like the products. I was planing a house full to add to the three I have. I appreciate your honesty in pointing out the vunerability of modern electronics, but I have stopped buying music and rely on streaming to supply all my music needs. I need to know that your sound system will continue to work until I want to replace it. I dont want to find one day that my whole system no longer plays my music source because of some minor software tweek. Your brand confidence relys on all your equipment flawlessly working together which historically it has. But now? You need to ensure that backwards compatability is maintained and assured, I will need some serious reasurance before I buy another Sonos product. I cannot imagine buying a whole system that the manufacturer may through disinterest render obsolete.

I think come May, we’ll know the party’s over for sure.

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John B

Agree with all the complaints. What numbskull decided to treat customers this way?

30% discount is NOT anywhere near enough for expensive products to persuade us all to trade up.

In one room I have 2 Connect:Amps - only one of which is eligible for the trade in despite being a similar age, which leaves me to either cough up 70% for one Amp and 100% for another Amp or risk them not working together properly/fully as a grouped pair in future.

Why 100% for the second C:A? Why anything for the second C:A?

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debbie_113

Lyricist II

I bought my first Play:5 (gen 1) and Play:1 two years ago, after much thought, consideration and research – Sonos is not cheap! – indeed my speakers were registered in January 2018. And then, after just 24 months I’m told that they’re Legacy and potentially obsolete?? Cripes that’s mean!

The product sales description includes the following:

“ Futureproof
Designed with tomorrow in mind, the speaker combines sleek looks with agile internal sensors and ongoing software updates. This ensures that you always have the most future-proofed audio solution, even as you grow your system over time.”

I am staggered after believing this sales pitch, and now we have the current situation – and all that after two years only! My Play:5 (and presumably soon the Play:1) will be no longer ‘current’ after May. I was about to ‘grow my system’ and buy a couple more – but this has knocked me sideways.

What’s more (and it’s very nice for you to offer ‘30% off’ a gen2 Play:5) – But your Sonos pricing is higher than other ‘retail’ prices. And not sure if I want to pay £4-500 every few years for a new unit.

It’s a shame that two years ago, when it must have been known to at least some at Sonos that this was going to be happening soon – that the prices were not ‘reduced/lowered’ in-store to reflect the ‘short life’ that would be available, but I guess then Sonos may not have sold so many units.

We all do expect our ‘tech units’ to last for more than 24 months – probably more than 10 years with audio – and by that I mean ‘last in fully-rounded working order with all the updates’.

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Gillydior

Enthusiast I

Forget discounts etc. what is the reason why the older products won’t work with the new ones to come? Sonos is meant to be about quality speakers that connect together, why do they want to change that?

And why do they think people will pay lots of money building up a system for it to become obsolete?

Just make the system work, new and all!

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John B

I bought my first Play:5 (gen 1) and Play:1 two years ago, after much thought, consideration and research – Sonos is not cheap! – indeed my speakers were registered in January 2018. And then, after just 24 months I’m told that they’re Legacy and potentially obsolete?? Cripes that’s mean!

The product sales description includes the following:

“ Futureproof
Designed with tomorrow in mind, the speaker combines sleek looks with agile internal sensors and ongoing software updates. This ensures that you always have the most future-proofed audio solution, even as you grow your system over time.”

I am staggered after believing this sales pitch, and now we have the current situation – and all that after two years only! My Play:5 (and presumably soon the Play:1) will be no longer ‘current’ after May. I was about to ‘grow my system’ and buy a couple more – but this has knocked me sideways.

What’s more (and it’s very nice for you to offer ‘30% off’ a gen2 Play:5) – But your Sonos pricing is higher than other ‘retail’ prices. And not sure if I want to pay £4-500 every few years for a new unit.

It’s a shame that two years ago, when it must have been known to at least some at Sonos that this was going to be happening soon – that the prices were not ‘reduced/lowered’ in-store to reflect the ‘short life’ that would be available, but I guess then Sonos may not have sold so many units.

We all do expect our ‘tech units’ to last for more than 24 months – maybe even 10 years with audio – and by that I mean ‘last in fully-rounded working order with all the updates’.

Where did you buy a gen 1 Play:5 two years after Sonos discontinued sales?

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debbie_113

Lyricist II

In John Lewis , Ipswich, UK

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dagel

Contributor I

Update 2/22: A message from our CEO

<...>

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

Patrick Spence
CEO, Sonos

This email (Update 2/22: A message from our CEO) changed my decision: my Sonos systems is no longer up for sale!

But on May 1st, if you don’t have a very efficient way to split my system so that all my Sonos devices work together and you keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches, I’ll will get rid of them!

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user_end_of_lifed

Enthusiast II

It's kind of absurd that Sonos, who brought us a device to hook up our old speakers, can't do the same for their own...

Bingo. This is where Spence lost the plot.

The solution was/is staring at him in the face and he dropped the ball.

Every issue, every complaint, every pissed off poster and loyal customer boils down to this one simple solution.

Ah the confidence that total ignorance of even a single line of the Sonos system code can bring!

You don’t need to know anything about the code. Decoding a synchronised audio stream from other Sonos devices is something every one of their devices can do right now and could therefore do until the end of time. How many software updates have you applied to your DAB radio (as one example) to enable that to continue to work?

Decoding online streaming services MIGHT become infeasible in future. Maybe. Still fairly unlikely though. Again, all of their devices manage this today and the problem is unlikely to change dramatically. The updates that are periodically required to keep these things working are essential but minor.

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