Avid Contributor II

Sonos Play 1 - listening from MacBook?

3 replies
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I have a Sonos Play:1 that I use with Alexa on my Amazon Dot. But is it possible to play content from my MacBook on the Sonos?

I understand that the Play:1 is wifi only, and not bluetooth. So if my MacBook is connected to my internet, can I play things like radio podcasts from my MacBook on my Play:1?

Computer audio

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Keith N

Sonos Staff

Hey there, The Bear. Thanks for posting and welcome to the Community. The only way to get local content from your computer to Sonos would be through setting up a Music Library or Music Share. Here are steps on how to get that going. When it comes to radio on your PLAY:1, you may find the station you are looking for on Radio by TuneIn.

Additionally, if you have your favorite podcasts downloaded and saved to your phone, you can stream the podcast from your phone to Sonos via the "On This Device" section in Browse. Check out this helpful article on how to listen to podcasts on Sonos.

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Airgetlam

No, it's currently not that easy (note I said currently).

The Sonos needs to read the data from your HD as if it is an NAS, i.e. it needs to be visible in iTunes and stored on the hard drive. It can't "see" stuff that isn't either in it's pre-created list of sources like Apple Music, Amazon Music, and other streamers. However, if iTunes can see the "radio podcast" stored on your system, then Sonos should be able to as well.

Now, the caveat. Sonos has said that they are working (or will be working) on implementing Airplay 2. When that is released, I would think that you could then stream your radio podcasts as you play them, without importing in to iTunes. They've said it will be sometime in 2018. Your guess as to when is as good as mine, I haven't been keeping track as to if/when Apple released the Airplay 2 API for Sonos to start working with. I'm guessing it might be 3 to 6 months after the Apple speaker is released, but that's complete conjecture. Sonos doesn't give hard dates 🙂

Bruce

K

Kumar

To be honest, the simplest way to do this is get a pair of computer speakers from Logitech or similar that need not even have bluetooth. And are not expensive. Run a wire from the aux out on the Dot to these and use them as speakers for the Dot/Alexa. Set up bluetooth pairing between the Mac and the Dot, and use the Dot as the target speaker instead of the internal speakers - that will have the wired to Dot computer speakers play. Job done.

I replaced a 1 pair on my desktop with quality portable bluetooth speakers and redeployed the 1 pair because I also wanted a speaker for use on the road/beach/pool etc. So for more money you can do that instead of getting single application desktop computer speakers that need mains power. Horses for courses thinking.

PS: It is precisely for such extension of their use that people have clamoured for years now for a Sonos speaker that has bluetooth and can be run on mains+batteries. It is unlikely that Sonos will make such a speaker in the future, so one moves on to get a solution that meets the needs.

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