A Spotify stream started by someone with access to your system? Generate a diagnostics report: Sonos support can probably tell you. 

I don’t use Spotify. And it’s playing my music playlist. This is not the first time this is happened. Sometimes the speakers in the house are playing a different playlist than the speakers outside  I have shut down my iPad, which is the source. Still playing. Where the hell is the music coming from??

I’m sitting inside and music is still playing outside. How is this possible?? I’m going to have to go outside and unplug my speakers to get it to stop playing. 

Sonos uses the computers inside the speakers to play music, not the Sonos app (with random AirPlay 2 considerations, but still not the Sonos controller). Once you start the music, it should continue whether or not your phone or tablet are connected, but you can stop the music again through the controller. 

And, unless you’re using AirPlay 2, the ‘source’ of your playlist music isn’t your iPad, but some other source. It could be a hard drive, an NAS, or a streaming service. The only way to play music that resides on an iPad is to use AirPlay2, Apple has removed all other possibilities. As has Google (Android). 

Each SONOS player can independently play music fetched from the Internet or local storage device. The phone/pad/computer is simply a remote control. As you have discovered, once a SONOS Playlist is started, the controllers can be shut down, taken out of the area, or uninstalled and the music will continue.

You’ll need to open a controller, call up the room and stop the play. You can also use the pause button on each player.

Music service Apps, using Bluetooth, Airplay, or direct control are different because they use an App on the phone/pad to play the music directly to a player. In this case the App is in control and must be running while playing music on the SONOS system.

Edit: Airgetlam types faster than I, but we are saying the same thing.

Thanks for the info! Guess I got confused because all these years, I’ve controlled the music by using my iPad.  I use the app, dJay2, and my playlists play on all speakers in my system.  When done, I just pause the music and close the app.  All music stops until I start again next time.  But recently, it’s gotten weird.  I close the app as usual, but music keeps playing on some speakers, not all.  And sometimes I’m getting one playlist playing on 2 speakers and a different playlist playing on the other speakers.  Nothing I do will stop all the speakers from playing. Finally have to unplug the speakers to shut them up. And speaking of weird, I can have some speakers playing that are part of my system even though they don’t show up any more on my speakers list on the Sonos app (on my iPad). I just opened the app and only 1 of 4 speaker zones is showing up. When we’re having people over, I have to spend hours ahead of time getting the music to play on all speakers. I always tell people that Sonos is really great...when it works.

This suggests a local network issue.

Give us details about your SONOS system and network, or submit a diagnostic and work with SONOS phone support.