Spotify Connect

Clare Newsome

New member
Jun 4, 2007
1,657
0
0
Visit site
FWIW, reading all the reports so far, I don't see any major concern. No reason why you wouldn't still be able to enjoy Spotify on SONOS - just not directly controlled via the Spotify App (you've already got the SONOS app doing those duties).

One of the benefits of SONOS is that it's not tied into any particular system, whether that be transmission (eg AirPlay or Bluetooth) or services (Spotify, Napster, many more!)

Many people thought AirPlay would be a threat to SONOS, but the company simply added the ability to stream direct from iOS devices to the SONOS system.... Lot of clever people in California always coming up with solutions!
 

The_Lhc

Well-known member
Oct 16, 2008
1,176
1
19,195
Visit site
Clare Newsome said:
FWIW, reading all the reports so far, I don't see any major concern. No reason why you wouldn't still be able to enjoy Spotify on SONOS - just not directly controlled via the Spotify App (you've already got the SONOS app doing those duties).

Until/Unless Spotify decide that they ONLY want their service running on hardware with the Connect chip (bloody cheeky choosing a name that Sonos are already using as well) and pull it from Sonos completely. Purely speculation of course but I don't see why it couldn't happen, I guess it depends on whether Spotify are simply after the maximum number of Premium subscribers (in which case it would be a backwards step to remove it from Sonos) or if there's anything in the agreement with those other hardware manufacturers that Spotify DON'T offer their service to other hardware platforms, in which case I can easily see it being removed from Sonos.

Got to admit, this has me worried, I've never said that about anything relating to Sonos before.
 

The_Lhc

Well-known member
Oct 16, 2008
1,176
1
19,195
Visit site
John Duncan said:
If they drop Sonos integration, I'll be signing up with Napster...

What worries me is how many people will drop Sonos instead and go with hardware that does support Spotify (again, IF Spotify pull the service from Sonos).
 

professorhat

Well-known member
Dec 28, 2007
992
22
18,895
Visit site
The_Lhc said:
John Duncan said:
If they drop Sonos integration, I'll be signing up with Napster...

What worries me is how many people will drop Sonos instead and go with hardware that does support Spotify (again, IF Spotify pull the service from Sonos).

Seems unlikely to me - if you've invested in a Sonos system, you've likely invested quite a lot of cash, and more than likely Spotify isn't your only music source (e.g. internet radio, your own music library etc.). Far easier just to cancel Spotify and sign up to something else.

Certainly if it happens, I'd drop Spotify and sign up with one of the other streaming suppliers.
 

Clare Newsome

New member
Jun 4, 2007
1,657
0
0
Visit site
The_Lhc said:
John Duncan said:
If they drop Sonos integration, I'll be signing up with Napster...

What worries me is how many people will drop Sonos instead and go with hardware that does support Spotify (again, IF Spotify pull the service from Sonos).

That's a big 'IF' - i'd love to see the business plan that turns its back on an installed base of millions of (existing and potential) users, worldwide, in favour of predicted sales of new products...
 

The_Lhc

Well-known member
Oct 16, 2008
1,176
1
19,195
Visit site
Clare Newsome said:
The_Lhc said:
John Duncan said:
If they drop Sonos integration, I'll be signing up with Napster...

What worries me is how many people will drop Sonos instead and go with hardware that does support Spotify (again, IF Spotify pull the service from Sonos).

That's a big 'IF' - i'd love to see the business plan that turns its back on an installed base of millions of (existing and potential) users, worldwide, in favour of predicted sales of new products...

Yes I agree but two things puzzle me about this, 1) the use of a hardware chip, which seems to be a very inflexible solution (compared to firmware), requires design investment from the hardware partners etc and 2) the really quite firm statement from the Spotify exec. As you say Sonos has allowed a couple of million people to access Spotify easily without the need for a computer and yet we get a forthright, categorical "no further development for Sonos" statement from Spotify. It seems an unusually negative statement to me.

As the news story says, they appear to be gunning for Sonos, what better way to do it than to pull the service from Sonos. Many Sonos users still firmly believe that Sonos control which services appear on their platform (when in fact it's largely the other way around, service providers choose to support Sonos using the freely available API), if Spotify pulled out of Sonos there's a lot of idio^H^H^H users that would blame Sonos for that, despite the facts to the contrary.
 

The_Lhc

Well-known member
Oct 16, 2008
1,176
1
19,195
Visit site
John Duncan said:
Any sign of google play unlimited (or whatever it's called) integration yet?

Again that's down to Google to implement but why would they when they have their own hardware that does the job instead (Chromecast)? Unless Chromecast is a flop I don't see Google ever supporting Sonos.
 

John Duncan

Well-known member
The_Lhc said:
John Duncan said:
Any sign of google play unlimited (or whatever it's called) integration yet?

Again that's down to Google to implement but why would they when they have their own hardware that does the job instead (Chromecast)? Unless Chromecast is a flop I don't see Google ever supporting Sonos.

Well I'd disagree that Chromecast 'does the job' in the same way that Sonos does for starters, but without it being available here yet I'm not sure. And as Clare says above, there's an installed user base of millions who could sign up for Play Unlimited (they really need to sort out what the name is) right now.
 

matt49

Well-known member
Apr 7, 2013
51
1
18,540
Visit site
Spotify made losses of $77m in 2012 (compared with $60m in 2011). This is despite growing its revenue from $252m to $576m. So at the moment the music streaming business model isn't quite there: licensing fees mean that Spotify loses money on every track it streams into our homes. Presumably they reckon that diversifying into hardware will create a strong income stream that doesn't come with any increase in their licensing costs. It's a way of getting Spotify customers to generate more money without streaming more music.

Spotify has a much wider customer base than Sonos. As of 2012 Sonos had sold 1.5m units to 550,000 customers. (Strange: I thought it would have been more.) But Sonos is at least profitable, in good years. Hence its attractiveness as a "target" perhaps ...

Matt
 

Clare Newsome

New member
Jun 4, 2007
1,657
0
0
Visit site
Well you're all talking about it, aren't you? :)

Job done, Spotify marketing team! :clap: (And I mean that sincerely, not sarcastically.)

Without the SONOS mention, the announcement would have been interesting, but then just lost in the IFA new-fest....
 

The_Lhc

Well-known member
Oct 16, 2008
1,176
1
19,195
Visit site
matt49 said:
Spotify has a much wider customer base than Sonos. As of 2012 Sonos had sold 1.5m units to 550,000 customers. (Strange: I thought it would have been more.)

Pretty sure Sonos themselves state that they're in "more than a million homes", so that figure might be a little out of date.
 

The_Lhc

Well-known member
Oct 16, 2008
1,176
1
19,195
Visit site
Interesting:
Techcrunch updated their article:

Quote:Update: Spotify says the quote is taken out of context, in that it cannot share future plans, not that it doesn’t have any at all. “We will continue to support and improve the Spotify experience on Sonos,” a spokesperson noted, once again not confirming any timescale or specifics.
Not sure how " no plan to continue to develop with Sonos" can exactly be taken out of context though, seems pretty clear cut to me...
 

matt49

Well-known member
Apr 7, 2013
51
1
18,540
Visit site
The_Lhc said:
matt49 said:
Spotify has a much wider customer base than Sonos. As of 2012 Sonos had sold 1.5m units to 550,000 customers. (Strange: I thought it would have been more.)

Pretty sure Sonos themselves state that they're in "more than a million homes", so that figure might be a little out of date.

The figures date from an interview with John MacFarlane in April (I think) 2012, so now at least 18 months out of date. It would be a big push to double the number of customers in 18 months though. Even assuming they've managed that, "more than a million" probably means something close to 1,000,001. I'd still be pretty confident in my statement above that "Spotify has a much wider customer base than Sonos".

N.b. I'm not knocking Sonos BTW. As with others who've posted on this thread, I have a stronger commitment to Sonos than I do to Spotify. I'm just interested in understanding the commercial context of this move by Spotify.

Matt

EDITED: missed the stuff about rooms while I was typing this.
 

philipjohnwright

New member
Jun 26, 2009
30
0
0
Visit site
If Spotify goes from Sonos there's always Qobuz. Two advantages - CD quality streaming, and it improves your French as well! I'm just about to cancel Spotify, even though Qobuz is £25 a month (less if you pay for a year).
 

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts