Andrew Heinzman
Sonos speaker owners now have access to Sonos Radio, an exclusive streaming platform of 60,000+ local radio stations, genre-based stations, and artist-curated stations by the likes of Thom Yorke, David Byrne, Brittany Howard, and more. Sonos owners can access Sonos Radio for free, starting today.
From the sound of it, Sonos Radio is like an odd mix of Pandora radio and Sirius XM. Its primary feature, the 60,000 radio stations, includes popular names like iHeartRadio and TuneIn. You can discover new radio stations through Sonos’ extensive list of categories, genres, and topics, or look up radio stations by ZIP code for a more local experience.
These local radio stations include ads, of course. But Sonos Radio’s second component, the Sonos Sound System, is a weekly ad-free radio show that’s hosted by guest artists, such as Angel Olsen and JPEGMAFIA. Recorded in the company’s New York City store, each episode of Sonos Sound System is 60-minutes long and includes a mess of new and rediscovered music, along with some “behind the scenes” content.
https://youtu.be/aXdZvYvbElM
The streaming service’s third component, which may attract the most attention, is artist-curated stations. These ad-free stations are regularly updated by artists like Thom Yorke, David Bryne, and Brittany Howard, and include hundreds of songs at a time.
And then there’s Sonos Radio’s fourth and final component—Sonos Stations. These ad-supported stations, which are curated by the Sonos team, span over 30 genres and topics and include some occasional commentary. In all, Sonos Stations will consist of hundreds of hours of music and are exclusive to Sonos speaker owners.
Sonos plans to keep its new streaming service easily navigable, despite its massive library of 60,000+ stations. But the Sonos Radio platform is still in its early stages and is missing some of the core features of other streaming services. You can’t “like” or save Sonos Radio songs to a personal playlist, or even check your listening history to find the name of a track you liked. You can’t use Sonos Radio with voice controls, and the service only works with Wi-Fi connected Sonos Speakers (so you can’t listen through headphones while on a walk, for example).
Sonos Radio is available from the Sonos speaker app, starting today. Some of Sonos Radio’s original programming, such as Sonos Sound System, will launch globally in the coming weeks.
Source: Sonos
