Handpicked by a team of curators, DJs and artists, the new stations on Sonos Radio queue up diverse musical selections spanning customers’ favorite genres, inspired by both classics and current obsessions. Ad-free artist stations feature current influences and inspirations, starting with a personal station from Thom Yorke (the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead - that's fitting). In addition, Sonos Sound System, will feature new artists, stories and insights into today’s music. And Sonos also brought together long-time partners to deliver a great listening experience with Sonos Radio, from TuneIn and iHeartRadio, to Napster, the first-ever streaming service on Sonos powering the catalog for Sonos Stations.
"Today, nearly half of all listening time on Sonos is dedicated to customers’ favorite stations and DJs. In the age of streaming, radio continues to evolve, inspiring and complementing on-demand music services and podcasts, connecting global audiences eager to discover and engage in shared listening experiences.
“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,” says 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 deliver services that provide our customers a better experience, and provide our music streaming service partners an opportunity to highlight their best content.”
Sonos Radio makes it easy to explore the world’s stations by integrating multiple Internet radio services, including TuneIn and iHeartRadio, with more to come. Users can listen to music, sports, news, and more from local stations based on zip code as well as access any station globally. Start the day with a local NPR station or enjoy favorites from around the world, including SomaFM in San Francisco or ByteFM in Germany. Sonos Radio will be continually updated with new stations powered by partners, including integrations with Europe’s largest radio company, Global, and Radio.com for US listeners, both coming soon.
Sonos Radio also introduces original radio programming from Sonos featuring a range of music handpicked by DJs and artists. Sonos’ signature ad-free station, Sonos Sound System, is curated and hosted by the Sonos team, recorded in a newly built radio studio in Sonos’ flagship store in New York City. Ad-free artist curated stations feature a regularly updated stream of hundreds of songs from artists inspired by their own influences and obsessions.
Sonos designed and developed custom programming and curation tools for Sonos Stations, delivering a regularly refreshed mix of new hand curated music. For the best listening experience across all Sonos Radio streams, Sonos partnered with Super Hi-Fi, a company delivering AI for digital music, for volume leveling across songs and ads, song blending, and seamlessly mixing in voice commentary.
The new Sonos Radio service is now available worldwide via the Sonos app. Sonos Radio appears pre-loaded in the browse menu of the Sonos app after a software update. Sonos’ original programming will be available in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia for now. Support for additional countries will follow.
www.sonos.com
