Sonos spawns in-app Radio station

Fergus Halliday (PC World) on 21 April, 2020 23:00

Sonos are making it a little easier to listen to the radio through your connected speakers and launching their own in-app music streaming offering.

Build to complement the Sonos' existing platform-agnostic capabilities, Sonos Radio will be accessible via the existing Sonos Controller app and will provide both an simpler way to listen to local radio in addition to Sonos' own set of ad-supported stations.

There are three elements to what Sonos are doing here. Firstly, you've got the baseline radio playback. Powered by TuneIn and iHeartRadio, this lets you listen to local radio through your Sonos system directly using the Sonos App rather than doing so through a middle-man service.

Then, there's Sonos Presents. This includes both Sonos Sound System - the company's own ad-free radio station based in New York - and similarly-curated stations by big-name musicians like THom Yorke and David Byrne.

Finally, there's Sonos Stations. This consists of 30 or so ad-supported radio stations, each of which features a curated collection of music from a different genre.

"Sonos has always made it easy for customers to discover the riches of streaming music services by building premium products that sound great and by giving customers the freedom to use the services of their choice,” said Patrick Spence, Sonos CEO.

“Sonos Radio brings together streaming radio services and a select set of curated radio stations in a simple, elegant way. This is just a beginning as we work to that provide our customers a better experience, and provide our music streaming service partners an opportunity to highlight their best content.”

Customers can listen via the Sonos app starting today.