End of Software Support - Clarifications

End of Software Support - Clarifications
Ryan S
Userlevel 7
Badge +26
  • Ryan S
  • Retired Sonos Staff
  • 12372 replies

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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4256 replies

R
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

WooHoo!!!

 

You have 15 legacy products that do not receive software updates and new features as of May 2020.

 

Winning!

 

Bought a nuc.  Bought one Allo DigiOne Signature Player.  Roon trial and will buy one year, probably.  Will see if sound quality approves, high resolution support, ...

I think I was the first person to buy a Sonos. At least I feel like it.
A
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

WooHoo!!!

 

You have 15 legacy products that do not receive software updates and new features as of May 2020.

 

Winning!

 

Bought a nuc.  Bought one Allo DigiOne Signature Player.  Roon trial and will buy one year, probably.  Will see if sound quality approves, high resolution support, ...

I saw those Raspberry Pi devices, just not sure how the mesh wifi system would work with multiple speakers??

I purchased my first 2 products in November 2014. Play 5 and Connect. Have built on the system to 8 devices since then. But i just feel let down as i would never have thought for a second these speakers would not work with the rest of them in the same group, in just 5 1/2 years time.

Sonos you need to have a sliding scale of benefit to retain loyal customers. Eg those who buy 3-6 months before a new product is updated, then they should have a larger buy back discount (70%or so) than someone who already enjoyed 5 years before the product was discontinued.

 

 

 

 

 

P
Userlevel 1

Just came on to freak out and vent really, I’ve spent upwards of $6k on Sonos gear and now need to spend $4k (7 devices, including the 30% trade in) to continue getting supported gear past May. Not good enough and will certainly more inclined to buy quality hi-fi gear made to last a lifetime than Sonos moving forward.  

A
Userlevel 6
Badge +10

Just came on to freak out and vent really, I’ve spent upwards of $6k on Sonos gear and now need to spend $4k (7 devices, including the 30% trade in) to continue getting supported gear past May. Not good enough and will certainly more inclined to buy quality hi-fi gear made to last a lifetime than Sonos moving forward.  

This is actually an important point.

Whilst I have loved and worked my Sonos system to death, if it will not grow with me them the distance, then as pkjones says, why not commit to quality end point equipment that can also do what Sonos has done well for so long?

It’s a point I find myself at.

Much as I want clear statements from Sonos and much as I am willing to give a fair bit of slack and not just major on being hacked off, there really are now high end alternatives.

Is a place I never looked …. but now I’ve looked! 

Pandoras box? Maybe …..

R
Userlevel 4
Badge

So I asked Yamaha how long they would support MusicCast products for (particularly the small amp). This was their reply:

“The answer at the present time is that we currently have no plans to withdraw support for this or other MusicCast models and therefore cannot commit to a timeline.”

So for those thinking of jumping ship: you could end up in the same situation and Yamaha may or may not support devices for as long as Sonos once discontinued.


Better the devil you know?

Guy_19
Userlevel 5
Badge +4

So I asked Yamaha how long they would support MusicCast products for (particularly the small amp). This was their reply:

“The answer at the present time is that we currently have no plans to withdraw support for this or other MusicCast models and therefore cannot commit to a timeline.”

So for those thinking of jumping ship: you could end up in the same situation and Yamaha may or may not support devices for as long as Sonos once discontinued.


Better the devil you know?

I am inclined to agree (if I ignore my inner anger about the way it has been handled by Sonos) - at least we are now forewarned about the memory requirement.  If 32mb devices are not going to be supported, we might assume that >512mb devices should last a few years yet.  So that is everything from the One onwards, excluding the IKEA speakers.

 

7 rooms: One SL Stereo Pair, One SL x 2, Move, Play:5 Gen2 & Port into Arcam AVR with AE floorstanders, Port into Denon microsystem.
R
Userlevel 2
Badge +2

WooHoo!!!

 

You have 15 legacy products that do not receive software updates and new features as of May 2020.

 

Winning!

 

Bought a nuc.  Bought one Allo DigiOne Signature Player.  Roon trial and will buy one year, probably.  Will see if sound quality approves, high resolution support, ...

I saw those Raspberry Pi devices, just not sure how the mesh wifi system would work with multiple speakers??

I purchased my first 2 products in November 2014. Play 5 and Connect. Have built on the system to 8 devices since then. But i just feel let down as i would never have thought for a second these speakers would not work with the rest of them in the same group, in just 5 1/2 years time.

Sonos you need to have a sliding scale of benefit to retain loyal customers. Eg those who buy 3-6 months before a new product is updated, then they should have a larger buy back discount (70%or so) than someone who already enjoyed 5 years before the product was discontinued.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll come back to let you know.  So far, though, it’s pretty similar running all Sonos with Roon.  I hear the only thing you can’t do it group Sonos devices with non-Sonos devices.  I rarely, if ever, do that.

I think I was the first person to buy a Sonos. At least I feel like it.
melvimbe

I am inclined to agree (if I ignore my inner anger about the way it has been handled by Sonos) - at least we are now forewarned about the memory requirement.  If 32mb devices are not going to be supported, we might assume that >512mb devices should last a few years yet.  So that is everything from the One onwards, excluding the IKEA speakers.

 

That’s basically the strategy I’m looking at as well.  Worth noting though that the products with onboard voice assistance and/or home theatre functionality are going to use some memory for those functions beyond the regular multiroom audio.  Hence the reason why the SL has less memory than the One, even though it is a newer product.  I’d also say that I think the products with less than 512 MB still have a lot of life in them.  I’m just not looking to look at them much since a similar better product is available or could be (WAG) in the relatively near future.

Danny
P
Userlevel 1

I have spent more than USD. 10,000 on Sonos products Adding up to more than 15 units of which half has now been classified as no longer supported. To make it even worse I will no longer receive new functionality as long as the “old” units are sitting on the network.
 

Starting tomorrow I will sell off every single of my Sonos products until I have none left. What an arrogant and destructive company product support policy. 

S
Userlevel 1

Sonos you have committed suicide, How can anyone trust you now?

£1250.00 of speakers and amps reduced to nothing with a badly thought out email and plan to con existing customers to upgrade to a system that in 4 years will be “LEGACY” too. The only legacy Sonos will have is how NOT to run a company.

I am selling my kit now before it really is just landfill and breaking out my 1984 Sansui speakers that still sound superb! 
Here comes my stacking HiFi and a Bluetooth source with a switch zone amp! 
your arrogance and condescendence  towards existing customers who have invested £1000’s is beyond belief. 

E
Userlevel 3

I do not think second hand values will be good.

I will keep the system until it does not work.

Then I will change system.

E
Userlevel 3

Just came on to freak out and vent really, I’ve spent upwards of $6k on Sonos gear and now need to spend $4k (7 devices, including the 30% trade in) to continue getting supported gear past May. Not good enough and will certainly more inclined to buy quality hi-fi gear made to last a lifetime than Sonos moving forward.  

Could not agree more. And in this day and age where sustainability is key. Clearly someone did not think that one through ...

R
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

I am inclined to agree (if I ignore my inner anger about the way it has been handled by Sonos) - at least we are now forewarned about the memory requirement.  If 32mb devices are not going to be supported, we might assume that >512mb devices should last a few years yet.  So that is everything from the One onwards, excluding the IKEA speakers.

 

That’s basically the strategy I’m looking at as well.  Worth noting though that the products with onboard voice assistance and/or home theatre functionality are going to use some memory for those functions beyond the regular multiroom audio.  Hence the reason why the SL has less memory than the One, even though it is a newer product.  I’d also say that I think the products with less than 512 MB still have a lot of life in them.  I’m just not looking to look at them much since a similar better product is available or could be (WAG) in the relatively near future.

Since I just purchased a brand new (and pretty powerful) router for under $300, there is absolutely no reason why Sonos couldn’t have -at the very least- introduced a product at that price point (or less) that would have acted as a router/bridge that would have allowed older Sonos products to work with newer ones.   Sonos didn’t do that.  And it’s pretty obvious why.     There is no reason to buy Sonos products going forward.  There are other options.

 

N
Userlevel 2

If Google can create a small dongle that can do video streams and multi-room audio for only £30; Why can’t Sonos create a dongle that plugs into the network socket of these “legacy” speakers to handle the processing and pass through a simple music stream……..The answer is they could, they just think they can make more money sending them to landfill.

Absolutely 100% agree, I figured a £50 'bridge' unit would be the solution but apparently not. That's how we know this is all about sales and not processing power

N
Userlevel 2

“Our business model is simple — we sell products which people pay for once, and we make them better over time with software updates.”

 

This shows you how full of **** this CEO is. The quote is from this year when he testified at a Congressional hearing about bigger companies having a monopoly. 

 

He must have known about the announcement at the time. It's going to be really difficult for me to trust this company again with it's current leadership. 

He seriously said that? Wow... This just goes from bad to worse. 

melvimbe

Since I just purchased a brand new (and pretty powerful) router for under $300, there is absolutely no reason why Sonos couldn’t have -at the very least- introduced a product at that price point (or less) that would have acted as a router/bridge that would have allowed older Sonos products to work with newer ones.   Sonos didn’t do that.  And it’s pretty obvious why.     There is no reason to buy Sonos products going forward.  There are other options.

 

Who ever is creating this router has a much larger market to sell to than Sonos does.  Only people who have legacy products that aren’t interested in upgrading and are interested in paying for a such a device.  That could very well mean the price per device to produce is much higher than what you’re expecting.  All that is assuming that such a device would actually work, and without knowing the internal details of how it all works, that’s hard to say.

 

If Google can create a small dongle that can do video streams and multi-room audio for only £30; Why can’t Sonos create a dongle that plugs into the network socket of these “legacy” speakers to handle the processing and pass through a simple music stream……..The answer is they could, they just think they can make more money sending them to landfill.

Absolutely 100% agree, I figured a £50 'bridge' unit would be the solution but apparently not. That's how we know this is all about sales and not processing power

 

Google and other tech giants can create products for cheap because they do not need to make money from product sales, their goal is to get you into their ecosystems to sell you services and other products.    And to repeat the same point above, the market for a dongle that makes legacy products compatible with a modern system has a much smaller market than Google products.

Danny
minty
Userlevel 1
Badge

This is a re-post since the original thread was closed moments after I posted this:

With six of my Sonos devices now considered legacy, I will largely abandon Sonos and reconfigure my system in a more centralized way - like I had before Sonos.  Fortunately, many of my “common” rooms have ceiling speakers wired to a closet. If I use Sonos to drive these, I will probably just have one unit as a source for a third party multi-zone amp. For the rooms that have Sonos speakers (mostly bedrooms), I will replace Sonos with less expensive alternatives. I have no need for these to be part of a central system since the bedrooms are rarely grouped with other zones.

There is a lesson in all this and it extends beyond Sonos.  Many of us have “invested” heavily on Sonos and other smart products like lighting. The truth is that buying Sonos and other smart products is not an investment, it’s spending on disposable goods.  What’s happening will continue to happen and it is causing me to rethink my approach.  Less is more, and all I really want is to listen to music across my home in a pain free way.  I once needed Sonos for that, but that is no longer the case.  With a little work I can build a new system that works the way I need and doesn’t put me at the mercy of any one company.

I now look forward to the thousands I’ve spent in HUE lighting and other smart devices to be rendered obsolete. Good times.

Yeah you’ve expressed that exactly how I feel. This is the thing, it’s not just Sonos, basically any company that you buy into which provides updates etc. makes you vulnerable. Our entire house is lit with LIFX and Hue, Sonos in nearly every room including 4 of the original ZP players. Say LIFX went belly up, no app support, in our case we’d be forced to replace every LIFX light as we built with no actual light switches, entirely dependant on app, voice control, etc. People here worried about no updates for legacy products, what if the actual company went bankrupt and closed? I’d be thinking that over time none of our Sonos products would function properly.

N
Userlevel 2

Since I just purchased a brand new (and pretty powerful) router for under $300, there is absolutely no reason why Sonos couldn’t have -at the very least- introduced a product at that price point (or less) that would have acted as a router/bridge that would have allowed older Sonos products to work with newer ones.   Sonos didn’t do that.  And it’s pretty obvious why.     There is no reason to buy Sonos products going forward.  There are other options.

 

Who ever is creating this router has a much larger market to sell to than Sonos does.  Only people who have legacy products that aren’t interested in upgrading and are interested in paying for a such a device.  That could very well mean the price per device to produce is much higher than what you’re expecting.  All that is assuming that such a device would actually work, and without knowing the internal details of how it all works, that’s hard to say.

 

If Google can create a small dongle that can do video streams and multi-room audio for only £30; Why can’t Sonos create a dongle that plugs into the network socket of these “legacy” speakers to handle the processing and pass through a simple music stream……..The answer is they could, they just think they can make more money sending them to landfill.

Absolutely 100% agree, I figured a £50 'bridge' unit would be the solution but apparently not. That's how we know this is all about sales and not processing power

 

Google and other tech giants can create products for cheap because they do not need to make money from product sales, their goal is to get you into their ecosystems to sell you services and other products.    And to repeat the same point above, the market for a dongle that makes legacy products compatible with a modern system has a much smaller market than Google products.

Which is why I say £50 for a simple bridge as opposed to just £30 for a full AV dongle. 

R
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

Since I just purchased a brand new (and pretty powerful) router for under $300, there is absolutely no reason why Sonos couldn’t have -at the very least- introduced a product at that price point (or less) that would have acted as a router/bridge that would have allowed older Sonos products to work with newer ones.   Sonos didn’t do that.  And it’s pretty obvious why.     There is no reason to buy Sonos products going forward.  There are other options.

 

Who ever is creating this router has a much larger market to sell to than Sonos does.  Only people who have legacy products that aren’t interested in upgrading and are interested in paying for a such a device.  That could very well mean the price per device to produce is much higher than what you’re expecting.  All that is assuming that such a device would actually work, and without knowing the internal details of how it all works, that’s hard to say.

 

If Google can create a small dongle that can do video streams and multi-room audio for only £30; Why can’t Sonos create a dongle that plugs into the network socket of these “legacy” speakers to handle the processing and pass through a simple music stream……..The answer is they could, they just think they can make more money sending them to landfill.

Absolutely 100% agree, I figured a £50 'bridge' unit would be the solution but apparently not. That's how we know this is all about sales and not processing power

 

Google and other tech giants can create products for cheap because they do not need to make money from product sales, their goal is to get you into their ecosystems to sell you services and other products.    And to repeat the same point above, the market for a dongle that makes legacy products compatible with a modern system has a much smaller market than Google products.

Which is why I say £50 for a simple bridge as opposed to just £30 for a full AV dongle. 

I have legacy products and while I might have purchased more Sonos devices, I didn’t want to get ride of my old devices

 

minty
Userlevel 1
Badge

I do not think second hand values will be good.

I will keep the system until it does not work.

Then I will change system.

Anyone that’s done an ounce of research wouldn’t touch Sonos let alone the legacy products. Only existing owners would be interested and they will only pay a fraction of the new price cost. So you are correct. Better to run the system until it’s completely obsolete, then throw it in the bin and go with whatever new system there is in the future. 
 

And let’s not forget that right at this moment in time every Sonos product works, and will for the immediate future. It’s still the best system for streaming music and ease of use, be happy folks. 

G
Userlevel 6
Badge +4

I do not think second hand values will be good.

I will keep the system until it does not work.

Then I will change system.

Anyone that’s done an ounce of research wouldn’t touch Sonos let alone the legacy products. Only existing owners would be interested and they will only pay a fraction of the new price cost. So you are correct. Better to run the system until it’s completely obsolete, then throw it in the bin and go with whatever new system there is in the future. 
 

And let’s not forget that right at this moment in time every Sonos product works, and will for the immediate future. It’s still the best system for streaming music and ease of use, be happy folks. 

There’s a lot of truth in this 

F

Hi there.

 

 Thank you for contacting Sonos Customer Care. My name is Bailey and I'll be happy to assist you.

 

At this time we are still working on the configuration of how Legacy and Modern products will work together. When more updates become available you will be notified.

 

Thanks again for contacting Sonos Customer Care.

 

Best regards,

Bailey W.

S
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

I do not think second hand values will be good.

I will keep the system until it does not work.

Then I will change system.

it might be (from may) if you need a legacy unit to swap out a modern unit... 

perhaps a cottage industry demand for legacy / discontinued units! 

S
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Sonos Reports Record First Quarter Fiscal 2020 Financial Results

 

https://investors.sonos.com/news-and-events/investor-news/latest-news/2020/Sonos-Reports-Record-First-Quarter-Fiscal-2020-Financial-Results/default.aspx

Paul St
Userlevel 3

Just had a quick flick though the report. Not a mention of the mess they have just created, unless I missed it. .Just continued talk about growth, I think the next quarter report may show a decline not an increase, as I’m sure most will not be buying any new products, until the mess they have created is sorted out.

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