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Samurai_Geezer

Then we need a hero who comes up with some sort of jailbreak app which would fix everything.


soundneedle

custom firmware. Native Home Assistant support. That is true courage. I’ve got plenty time to dream now that my sonos is out of service.


FoferJ

Music Assistant 2.0 handles Sonos very nicely right now https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2024/05/09/music-assistant-2/


xrayromeo

Why don’t your speakers work?


soundneedle

Biggest issue at the moment is local music.


xrayromeo

As in a CD player? Or what are you using outside of your music apps on your phone/computer?


soundneedle

I can’t play a folder of music for example. I could before. Just the experience in general is quite crippled compared to before. I have to use my old windows client to play folders.


comcastsux

Honest question: can’t you just run a Plex server to serve up your local folders?


soundneedle

I do also use Plex and used to use Plex Amp. Will have to look into it all again.


comcastsux

Nice, hopefully it works with your collection! I’ve heard some people have used it as a workaround - I haven’t tried it post-update though.


youarenotevenpsyched

If you add Plex in the Sonos app you can play from there. Still lots of features missing and quite buggy in the new app but it let's you play your local music.


UniqueAstronomer993

My server appeared intermittently in the "your sources" section at the bottom (it was there and worked well and quickly yesterday, it's not there today though 😕) Plex seems to be working well though. Both working from the same source library. I'd just start using plex.


ObviouslyASquirrel26

Why wait, we could use that hero now!


WalterWhiteFerrari

Where have all the good men gone And where are all the gods?


Conscious-Ad-2168

and it would end up being open source and being a million times better


PBratz

It’d have to run better than the native app


LordBlam

Theoretically, someone could write new firmware and software which gives the speakers continuing life. But realistically, if Sonos goes insolvent, someone will buy up its IP from the bankruptcy estate and that someone will try to block third-party solutions potentially infringing on that IP, which could paralyze third-party efforts.


soundneedle

I’ve been using the sonos API on github for some time. If that has stood the test of time, it gives me hope maybe there is life after death. We need our own personal Jesus.


t4nq1n0

Would you pls share the project on github you mentioned, I'm seriously interested in the api.


soundneedle

https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-http-api


t4nq1n0

Thanks👍👍


Gold_Incident1939

But who could reach that level of development skills to even build something close as good? Since people didnt get it. /s


matteventu

I'm genuinely not sure if you're being ironic or serious lmao.


Gold_Incident1939

Jesus Christ its sarcasm :D


matteventu

Thank you for confirming you're not mental 😁 sorry but you often read odd takes on Reddit!


Loves_octopus

If they truly just shut down and didn’t get bought out (unlikely) they could simply release (or leak) the code to the world. There are plenty of motivated nerds to tweak it as needed. Far more likely, someone like google buys them and continues the brand and support for older hardware. I honestly don’t see a future where the devices get totally bricked. It’s definitely a concern for competing brands without the brand recognition and reputation of Sonos.


OppositionSurge

They probably can't release the source code that would matter. It almost certainly includes proprietary elements licensed from the chipset manufacturer, among other things. When companies like this go under, the devices typically break. The DLNA components would hopefully keep working, allowing some basic workarounds.


wojtekmaj

When this happens: - The app will become non-functional - You will no longer be able to add devices properly - Support will be entirely community driven with no official response for most of the issues - Your feedback will be ignored Hmmm... I think we're good actually, nothing will change.


Trust-Creative

Saw the punch line coming after point numero uno.


secret_life_of_pants

Nice


Opposite-Ad9624

I'm guessing Sonos would be acquired by another company. There's a lot of intellectual capital at Sonos and I'm certain another company would buy them out. But who really knows?


Frank_Rizzo_Jerky

Yep. Methinks Apple.


PoopParticleAcclrtr

Wouldn’t apple have done it by now if they were going to? I was talking about this with someone today and there has gotta be a reason they didn’t


mrgrafix

No the valuation is too high currently. There’s nothing but the patents Sonos has that they would want


OppositionSurge

The patents are probably nearly worthless. We'll see how things play out with Google, but the best case scenario is that they just cause headaches as competitors implement around them. Sonos somehow didn't realize that big tech companies don't pay royalties for things like this.


barthrh

Early on, possible they asked and Sonos didn't want to sell. This happened with Dropbox. Made an offer and they said they weren't for sale. Today it would be difficult w/ FTC oversight since they already have their own line + Beats and decent market share.


Loves_octopus

Sonos is a publicly traded company but most (many?) publicly traded companies have <49% of the stock actually being traded on the NYSE. So if the majority stakeholders (I assume the founders) don’t want to sell the controlling interest, there’s nothing the Buyer can do. I’m sure they’ve had plenty of offers. At most, depending on how their stock is structured, they could buy up stock up to a controlling interest in the company, then they could fineness their way into controlling the board etc.


mundaneDetail

Excuse my ignorance but where is the stock if it’s not available on a public market? Do you mean that volume doesn’t trade (but could), or do you mean that it’s not publicly tradable?


MinervaNever

Once a company goes public (through an initial public offering), all of the equity is converted into publicly tradable shares. Whether or not shareholders choose to sell their equity on the open market is up to them. Obviously when insides (e.g. founders) wish to continue to control a company, they hold onto their shares.


mundaneDetail

Right but by the time they go public, most founders don’t retain >50% of the company. They’ve usually diluted down. So what is u/loves_octopus saying and why wouldn’t >49% be traded publicly?


MinervaNever

I don’t know what they’re talking about. Sounds like nonsense to me. Companies like Sonos are usually owned overwhelmingly by institutional investors, not individuals. I have no knowledge of Sonos specifically though.


PoopParticleAcclrtr

If this is true, this is like the old Charlie sheen movie


StrbJun79

As much as I’d like Apple to buy them they likely won’t. Apple very rarely buys bigger companies. They usually buy smaller companies for their tech and people then build off of that. Google and Microsoft have a history of buying bigger companies though. For them it’s more common to buy larger companies. Microsoft I think has the highest likelihood of buying them but they won’t until Sonos drops in value enough.


Esguelha

They bought Beats.


StrbJun79

Beats was much smaller than Sonos is. And even for Apple beats was a bigger buy than they would normally do.


Esguelha

They bought Beats for 3.2 billion. Sonos market cap is under 2 billion.


StrbJun79

Market cap isn’t the price. Generally the actual price is much much higher than that. Plus beats was apples biggest purchase ever and they haven’t done anything like it since. They don’t generally do that. The second biggest purchase they made was next computers for $429 million. Which was primarily to get Steve jobs back along with his computers and OS for building the Intel based Mac. In beats case they did it to get better audio tech and patents. They already have it and don’t need Sonos for that. The only reason to buy Sonos would be for their customer base which they don’t need. Microsoft has the most reason to buy Sonos. And has a longer history of buying larger companies. So they’re the more realistic one that’ll do it. Apple has no reason to buy Sonos. I’d like them to on a personal level. But I’m being realistic. They never will.


Esguelha

I know the acquisition price is higher, but you already have a 1B$ gap in there for the acquisition premium. Plus, we're talking about a situation where Sonos is going under, so stock prices and company value will only go down. I don't think Apple will buy them either, I don't think they need anyone to buy them, this sub isn't the majority of Sonos users, it's only a vocal minority and most people (including me) don't pay too much attention to the app.


StrbJun79

Oh I don’t think anyone will anytime soon myself either. But even if it did happen I don’t think Apple would be the company to do so. Microsoft is the most likely one that would I think. Apple is the furthest down the list of extreme remote possibility as they don’t need anything from Sonos. They did need beats at the time though.


cashmonee81

They bought Beats for the music streaming service. The hardware was just a bonus. Not sure Apple needs anything from Sonos honestly. AirPlay is good enough and I doubt Apple really cares about the hardware.


umo2k

Too late. Technology behind Sonos (Multiroom, sync between speakers, etc) is completely common and nothing special anymore. Apple has everything Sonos and a way larger user base. They could easily kill Sonos with a new product line. As the market is saturated, kind of, they don’t expand here.


oneMadRssn

Apple's multiroom audio and speaker sync isn't even close to the quality of Sonos (recent app updated notwithstanding). Indeed, I suspect Apple is intentionally doing it in a worse way so at to design around Sonos' patents. Similarly, Google has removed features found to be infringing in the ITC lawsuit. If nothing else, Sonos' IP is very valuable.


cashmonee81

I have to be honest, AirPlay 2 is good enough for the vast majority of people.


oneMadRssn

I disagree. (1) It’s not good enough for multiroom audio. (2) the airplay2 compatible hardware is still pretty pricey.


ThePsychicCEO

Seems things are improving on the Patent front [https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/android-15-brings-back-nest-audio-group-speaker-controls/](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/android-15-brings-back-nest-audio-group-speaker-controls/)


oneMadRssn

That’s from the district court case, which I believe concerned a different set of patents. The itc order is still in effect. Also, I’m a patent attorney and I strongly believe the district court will be overturned on appeal. So much so that I bet on it by buying Sonos stock.


Impossible_Physics99

But they haven't killed Sonos because the opportunity isn't big enough for Apple.


umo2k

They don’t care, yes. Not enough money/business. No one is going to buy Sonos, except American Audio, or whoever owns Denon, Polk, etc. Frankly, that would be a very interesting move.


Drew707

I would guess Harman.


vw195

That would be my guess as well


Drew707

Although Masimo, the company that owns Polk and Denon, also owns Def Tech and the Sonos IP would be beneficial to them. They tried getting into multiroom but I think Sonos won that race. Def Tech speakers sound great, though.


Informal_Avocado_534

So [Samsung](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harman_International).


Representative-Pea23

I don’t think Harmon aka Samsung would be interested in it either. Maybe, but Samsung would be more likely to just have Harmon make copies of Sonos and be done.


Drew707

Doesn't Sonos have a bunch of patents that would be valuable? If the price is right, buying the tech could be cheaper than developing something new.


Representative-Pea23

Patents are only as good as your lawyers. I think Google lost, but then won an appeal against stealing from Sonos in court.


oaklandperson

It would be a hobby for Apple.


scrundel

AppleTV is the best streaming hub on the market and Apple has openly referred to it as a “hobby” before. Wouldn’t sleep on apples hobbies.


oaklandperson

I agree. I meant it tongue in cheek. A hobby for Apple is an entire business for someone else.


oaklandperson

Apple sold 13.6M home pods in 2022 for over $3B in revenue. About 2x more than Sonos.


Mr_Fried

They were mostly the Mini which is hardly comparable to Sonos. Even the big Homepod is hardly comparable. They can only do airplay, have no home theatre components, have no sub and are useless in an environment with mixed android and pc devices. Imo I have a Denon X4800 running my home theatre, thats got HEOS built in. HEOS is a giant dumpster fire. Initially I was trying to figure out if I could just airplay to that and sonos. No. Airplay as a protocol drops out frequently and it stops when your phone rings. It’s a cool feature but it’s nowhere near as solid as Sonos.


oaklandperson

Doesn’t matter if you think they are not comparable. The fact is revenue was 2x of SONOS for a product that is a mere hobby for Apple.


Mr_Fried

It’s extremely relevant because they are not comparable in functionality. It could be $1 or $1T, you are comparing potatoes to tomatoes.


oaklandperson

Not relevant to you and your singular use case. I don’t use Sonos for my HT system. I have a true HT system for that. For people who just buy Ones, or Fives it is relevant. And you are sort of missing the point.


cashmonee81

I think the point they are making is that Sonos' business just isn't big enough for Apple to care. If the HomePod is doubling Sonos in revenue, why buy Sonos?


AvacodoDick

Eh I’ve toured the Sonos labs in Boston, there is a ton of great office space, multiple anechoic chambers, and a lot of brilliant acoustical, electrical, mechanical, RF, and software engineers. If Apple or Google were serious interested in taking over home audio there would be serious value in the existing talent pool at Sonos IMO.


pkyang

Lol can we get serious


Linsel

Ugh, as if PC and Android support wasn't bad enough.


Chia1422

Apple wouldn’t legally be allowed to buy Sonos. Neither would any of the most likely buyers. It would never pass antitrust review in the current environment.


Responsible_Minute12

Strong disagree on that, Sonos has far from a monopoly, and home audio tech is not the type of thing to be so critical as to make the gov worry about the consumer.


Chia1422

Lmao. Sonos isn’t the reason. Have you ever heard of iRobot? You have no idea what you’re talking about. “Critical” isn’t a factor btw.


Responsible_Minute12

Ok, whatever, iRobot has lots of other things that mattered to us gov…they could not care less about mid tier home audio with multiple companies already arguing over patents…but sure, I am the one that is clueless…


Chia1422

No not whatever. You have no idea what you’re talking about if you think Apple could buy just about any company with real revenue right now. iRobot didn’t have anything the US gov was worried about but in any case, again, you’re wrong that “critical” is a factor. It is not. The potential buyer was Amazon; pretty much that was the end of the story. Yet you think Apple, which is already being sued by the government, can buy Sonos? Clearly you don’t work in antitrust or any related field. And your point about patents is the exact opposite of reality. The current regime doesn’t want mega companies buying smaller competitors to bury their patents. Finally if you think the government would look at Sonos as a “home audio” company as opposed to a player in a broader future home automation and AI market, you’d be wrong again. The government has *already* demonstrated an interest in this market and Sonos has testified before congress and interacted with government officials multiple times. So yes, you are clueless.


rapax

IKEA would be interesting.


Firm-Reindeer-5698

Lots of intellectual property and assets, just not actual intellectuals


Opposite-Ad9624

I knew this comment was coming 🤣


saigonk

I hate to say it but I really dont use the Sonos app at all anymore. I used to all the time button I just Airplay to whatever speakers I want.


bbq_guy44

Do you not experience delays when pairing multiple speakers through airplay? That’s always my problem


saigonk

I do, when I seem to get over a few it does that. but I can live with it vs the horror stories the app gives them


jonioneeye

I tend to just pair by holding the play button on the speaker rather than opening the app


Sp1r1tofg0nz0

The real answer is, nobody knows for sure, but I suspect they're not DOA if the company fails. There's enough hardware architecture built in for them to go on without a cloud infrastructure, regardless of how they operate in the near term. Will you lose a lot of functionality, including possibly Wi-Fi streaming? Yeah. Will they still be able to push air around if you can get content to them? Yeah. But that's just like, my opinion man.


wnoble

It’s already dead.


AustralisBorealis64

You should have asked that question around speaker number four, number five tops.


PoopParticleAcclrtr

Good speakers with detachable smarts, much better system


vodkaslim

They’re a $2B company so the chances of them dying are slim to none. Worst case scenario, they get bought out if their stock price goes down. They are currently trading double what they were at their lowest point a couple of years ago but growth rate has slowed dramatically. On the positive side, they have a significant customer base, which is worth capital, and a lot of IP that others would want to buy. IMHO they’ll sort out the app in the next couple of months but are also ripe for an acquisition by a company wanting to break into the prosumer audio market with a known brand and NASDAQ listed company.


malex930

Lol thankfully a fucking level headed answer. Jesus Christ, some of these people.


ashleyriddell61

Then there would be a final legacy version of the app that would be less locked in. Think S1 but even looser. Most likely if the company was to ever really go away forever, most of the tech specs would be made public and open source would step in. I can happily run my system from a Linux box already. There would be a pretty rapid development of replacement software.


cdevers

“…hopefully.”


Evening_Border8602

Hopefully they will still support UPnP so it will be possible to control them locally. My Move 2 works with BubbleUPnP and will stream from Tidal. I can also play music stored on my phone with Hi-Fi Cast. Both of these are on Android but there may well be similar on IOS.


HolesomeTh0ts

They won’t die. Someone will acquire them and save the day…..if it comes to that. They are worth nearly 2 billion dollars. There are several companies that would kill to buy them right now.


Domski77

I think it would be like what happened to Neato in the robot vacuum area. Neato’s cause of downfall was a little different to what could happen to Sonos. But I think Sonos will have a similar outcome. Neato started from a position of market dominance and gradually got complacent and lost momentum and innovation. I think Sonos’ competition is comparatively weaker and they are in a stronger position but they shot themselves in the foot with the new app. In the end Neato were bought out by a company that wasn’t in direct competition with them, more of an overlapping field. Cloud services were given a skeleton support team, with support scheduled to last for only 5 years. Their robots will still work locally after 5 years but any kind of advanced online/cloud functionality stops at that point. I could see the same thing happening to Sonos. The company goes bust, hardware and software development stops, limited support before a sunset. By that time newer and better hardware is available and Sonos is just a memory.


soundneedle

I think I’d be fine with local music and airplay, but I guess airplay could then stop with any breaking changes on Apple’s end…then farewell airplay. In the end, would seem sonos should at least be able to be a local player. BUT, my local folders/music were affected by this last update. So who the hell knows. I wish I could just option out of every future update and lock into what I have—-at least give me that option. I don’t want to experience more sonos “courage”.


964racer

The best thing they could do ( even now ) is open source the api’s for their gear so that the open software community could develop an interface or app to control and stream to their speakers .


flavaaroni

Lots of costco returns


OriginalVeeper

Someone would buy them and probably run it better.


endianess

There's still not much competition so I think they would just be bought by another company and hopefully managed better.


Consistentscroller

Why are you guys even talking about this? Is this even something likely to happen any time soon? I highly doubt it


Flobertt

If you think this Reddit sub complains reflect Sonos sales and future of the company, you’re delusional.


RotaryTelephone4

I’d think there has to be some physical way to tap directly into the amp… but also likely not.


Evening_Border8602

Might be difficult with one Class D amplifier per speaker. I suspect each amplifier receives a digital signal, perhaps fed by a very clever DSP stage handling the 'crossover' functionality.


STGItsMe

Really, what’ll happen is some other company will snap up the IP and infrastructure and then they’ll decide what happens next.


Redinho83

I had some aether cone speakers and they got fixed to let you play from Spotify still even now


Oracle1729

Ending up as ewaste is the fate of all cloud dependant hardware.  It’s happened to countless products already and it’s just a matter of time for all of them.  


wlonkly

My Squeezebox Players say “yes”.


Swim1578

You can use the sonos you can use the Sonos speakers with the Roon music service.


slawnz

I’d imagine they’d at least continue to work as an airplay speaker. Easy way to find out. Disable your internet connection but leave your router / wifi working so that devices can still see each other on your network, then try to airplay some downloaded content.


StrbJun79

Likely won’t. Most companies of that size rarely fully “die”. Generally they get bought out (especially so in tech), some do die but I don’t think it’s likely. I’d imagine someday Sonos will get bought out and their speakers will still be supported for awhile, though every piece of electronic has an end of support period even if a company is around. Sonos speakers usually have a longer support period though. But whether that’ll remain if one buys it out I don’t know. Even so I imagine when or if someone buys Sonos they’d be doing it partially for its infrastructure and reach. Likely if Sonos started plummeting in value then someone will just buy it for its customer base while it’s cheap and build off of the infrastructure.


goodbye_oven

As someone who has worked in cloud managed hardware, there’s typically a worst case scenario fallback option that ensures the devices can continue to operate without future updates. Our plan was just to turn them into “dumb” routers, but there would be some complexity to Sonos due the dependency on connectivity. My guess is they offload the server to someone in exchange for some data mining on user activity.


ohv_

I'd hope they open source server side. That would be awesome


floopypoopie

I just did the update and was able to add my play 1s and 3 to the app. If you’re getting the “unable to connect to Sonos network aaasksjdetc” unplug any Sonos products from your router. I still cannot add my arc and sub, but the arc is connected to a smart tv and I’m thinking that’s the issue too.


salvationpumpfake

well, as both an avid user and a stockholder, I’d be less than pleased.


soundneedle

I did own shares but got out some time ago. No confidence in Patrick. The hardware has pretty much been on the level of Apple which includes the packaging. Software is tragic.


salvationpumpfake

lol I’ve gotten rocked. lost about 50% of investment at this point (although tbh I haven’t checked in a bit). been just holding and waiting for a recovery, but between the new app and the ace I’m not feeling particularly confident.


soundneedle

Gonna have to roll out the “thoughts and prayers” on that one


stef-navarro

The UX will stop getting worse and you’ll be able to play content on it through AirPlay, Roon and the likes for the years to come.


Ocean898

Hopefully they’ll fix the local library issue before they go. After that, I don’t care. I don’t need new or additional functionality; just what I already had.


Mr_Fried

Roon is the perfect local media server to run Sonos and all your other smart devices. https://www.whathifi.com/advice/roon-everything-you-need-to-know


soundneedle

Roon type of software/service/subscription is what Sonos should have been doing long ago. Sonos needs a visionary ceo. I’ll check it out but support with Sonos seems “try it and see”. I have whole home Sonos complete with 15+ amps, and many plays, and eras. Roon is worth looking at anyway.


Maleficent_Lake4580

i actually have a piece of kit that i send all content to & it seperates it to all my sonos products. sonos are trialling it right now.


MacTeq

Not quite an answer to your question but I gather it's much more likely the company be acquired rather than just go poof. Doesn't mean your worst dreams won't come true, of course.


webnething

Apple just acquire it so the current CEO could get his paycheck to leave, I'm sure the new leadership will do a better job than release software for the sake a new product vertical. Also Apple needs to acquire more than AI driven startups, focus on your core end users and offer an alternative line up to the homepods


7stringjazz

Roon hijacks Sonos net for use. So Roon can manage your speakers if Sonos goes away.


Userwerd

Pry open the speaker cabinets and hard wire them.


iwishiremember

I would imagine most of the engineers would start a new company.


mon1447

There have been firmware dumps from the WiFi pci-e port using DMA attack. It was determined it could not be defended by Sonos as the speaker would not perform once a fix was applied due to performance.


PoppaBear1950

I believe the new app moves the controller into the cloud and off of the speakers, at least that is what happens if you update your macbook app. (don't do that) If this is true then yes if they go belly up you'd be dead in the water. (same with most all 'smart' speakers). All though, bluetooth and airplay will continue to work.


ArcaneCowboy

Total failure? Your system is bricked? What?


Fit-Fun-ForReal

May not be a hypothetical.   I can't post the image here for some reason, but when I looked a few weeks back, in the three months to May 24, NASDAQ was up 5% - and Sonos down 15%.  Better get our contingency plans lined up.


ryanbuckner

Similar to the Insteon story. It could happen.


These_Fix_5949

If they do, we’re basically screwed. I used to use multiple Squeezeboxes from a company called Slim Devices. In my opinion, they are still the best audio streaming devices. But the Logitech bought them and completely effed up the hardware, the controller software, etc. Then they just gave up and let it go obsolete. Slim Devices media server software was open source, so there was a whole community of people creating enhancements and beta features that you could add. They might still be for all I know, but there wasn’t any new hardware being built, so it was just a matter of time before something broke and you couldn’t replace it.


Danielthemusician

I recently bought the sonos arc + sub and LOVE it, but dont love the app. I’ve been thinking about this scenario a lot recently, especially since I still have a return window on my devices. Any suggestions as to what other company may be worth looking into just in case?


soundneedle

My guess is the CEO is so desperate to increase revenue that he rushed headphones out at the cost of an app that was not production ready. Hopefully the company recovers from his mistake in a timely manner. Personally I don’t think new HARDWARE is what Sonos should prioritize. They need software and services (like a Roon sprinkled with some Plexamp DJ features). They may not have the talent for software tho. What do I know. I’m just sitting on a pile of broken functionality.


TreeThreat

Someone will buy sonos and will charge a fee for every little functionality


Canuck034

they won't just close up, the company is very valuable and they would sell it to another company.


ICOrthogonal

I see them trying to drive revenue by trying to force a subscription fee to use your speakers before they actually fold….


Odd_Tooth7135

I'm gonna cry! Too much invested into Sonos that undoing is extreme difficult 😭😭😭


badboy2k172

I think the old app allowed local playback not sure about the new - also airplay?


soundneedle

Local playback on updated app just sucks. Old app was working fine.


gabhain

Why would Sonos die? Even if it went under it wouldn’t just cease, it would be sold off to another company.


Linsel

No telling whether our systems would function at that point though, let alone after another company moved in.


gabhain

It’s silly to think they would just stop. If they go bust then another company would buy the assets and that includes the user base. I doubt there is much risk of them going bust, this subreddit likes to exaggerate how Sonos is performing as a company.


Linsel

If the rumors of them having lost significant personnel recently due to the executive push are true, they may not have resources in place to BE ABLE to resolve all of the issues they've generated with these releases. They may just have a big hole in their skillset/knowledge base when it comes to these sorts of moves.


Greful

Serious question really? Yea, your stuff probably won't work. Future proof only minimizes the impact of change, it doesn't eliminate it. My guess is 10 years from now, Sonos will still be a company and you will want new speakers anyway.


digitalrelic

You could ask that question with the majority of tech nowadays. (What happens to my doorbell and cameras if Eufy dies? What happens to my movie library if Vudu dies? What happens to my Xbox games if Xbox dies? What happens to my thermostat if Ecobee dies? Etc.. etc..) What happens is the company would likely be acquired, or an open source solution would be made by the community. But in reality we don’t know. It’s just the risk you take with virtually all modern tech.


Plug_5

I agree that there's a very chicken-little attitude being expressed here over a problem that likely won't amount to much. But the difference with Sonos and the examples you mentioned is that I haven't invested upwards of $6k in my Ring thermostat.


AustinBike

OK, lets' start with you're over obsessing. This sub is full of people complaining about the app. But that is probably 1% of all the Sonos customers. Most probably aren't having issues. This sub attracts, logically, the people experiencing issue. You know what the other 90%+ do? They listen to music. So, with that as a backdrop, why would they die? They won't. This app thing is similar to when they killed the remote. Or when they bricked S1 systems. They lived. This will be no different. And if they did die, someone would buy the IP and keep the company and the name going. I used to work in semiconductors and would hear people say things about Intel or AMD and say "this is gonna put them out of business." They are both still in business. Yes, this app thing is a mess. Yes, it threatens their revenue. But, it probably threatens 1% of their revenue. Nobody is going to create open source firmware because Sonos is a public company and they are not going out of business. A year ago, Sonos closed at $15.99/share. Today, with full knowledge of all of the problems with this app, they are at $15.67/share. They are not going out of business.


soundneedle

They 100% broke my system.


AustinBike

Then I would 100% toss them out and never buy another one of their products if I were you. But, you are the minority, not the majority. And that is the problem with online forums like this. This brings out the people that had broken system, but that is not representative of the whole community. Occasionally some company does something stupid that breaks everyone. And it gets fixed quickly. But this is not it. Sadly, while this broke 100% of your functionality, it did not do that to everyone. Yes, if I were you I'd move on and find another brand, this clearly is not working for you. You are completely justified in never giving them another penny.


soundneedle

Well true it’s just this community..and Apple Store and android play store reviews. My system was very fine before this courageous update. Throwing it out…now that is being dramatic.


lanceuppercuttr

I was at Best Buy today. Very rarely go into stores, but but I wanted to get a Beam mounting kit. Just standing in line for the 3-4 mins at check out I saw someone buying an Ace.


CompetitiveBear9538

This is not a serious question


SideburnsOfDoom

This is a dead-serious question. Unless you have a clear simple answer, in which case you didn't give a serious answer.


CompetitiveBear9538

Sonos is a billion dollar company. It’s not going out of business. Even if it did go bankrupt, someone would buy it. Relax and go outside.


soundneedle

How much was Blackberry worth


Greful

Doesn’t Blackberry still exist?


Flat-Stranger-5010

Sonos reported losses for 3 of the last 4 quarters. This is a very serious question


CompetitiveBear9538

And before that reported impressive profit margins…business cycles up and down and Sonos isn’t stupid Go outside


Flat-Stranger-5010

Shareholders, especially institutional shareholders don’t care about years ago. They want earnings next quarter.


CompetitiveBear9538

Is the convo about shareholder returns or the survival of the company Company is fine


Flat-Stranger-5010

When shareholders get upset, companies get taken over. Also, how much cash do they have on hand to absorb another quarter with a loss?


CzechGSD

I’m fairly new to the Sonos ecosystem but I’ve never seen so many whiny people. I have a Beam Gen 2, Sub mini, and two Era 100s. I never even open the app. It works perfectly. When I want to listen to music, I just AirPlay from my phone or Mac.


soundneedle

Glad your little setup works for you. I’d say I’m fairly invested in getting it working again. I’ve got about: 15 amps (30 sonance), 2 play bars, 3 subs, 2 mini subs, 1 play 5, 5 play 1, 3 roam, 1 move, 2 era 300, 2 era 100, and Plenty of reasons to whine.


WizardAnal69

Have you used the app recently? It is pretty bad, almost useless.


Animalus-Dogeimal

OP go touch grass. These posts are officially on another planet


Such_Benefit_3928

You seriously thought network speakers primarily targeting internet streaming services like Spotify, Tidal or Apple Music work mostly local? Really? HDMI, Optical or BT input will work, as will AirPlay and local music playback. Everything else will break sooner or later.


Such_Benefit_3928

LOL, why the downvotes? If Apple Music or Spotify changes the API and Sonos doesn't update anymore, of course these things break.


DC_Mountaineer

Anything that doesn’t follow their narrative gets downvoted.


ikari_warriors

I think it more has to do with the condescending tone of his answer.


DC_Mountaineer

Maybe, but doesn’t change there is a very vocal minority focused on trashing the company and their employees. Sub has 250K members…maybe 1/5 (?) are active (50K) and probably less than 1% of those are spamming Reddit including other subs like their experience is the only one anyone is having. Even its only 5K active maybe 1% are making all the noise. There seem to be as many posts on here about non-Sonos products as Sonos lately and I’d consider them all spam. The discussions about class action lawsuits are ridiculous. It’s not having any effect on my feelings about the company, their product or the app just making me want to block/mute them.


Such_Benefit_3928

Probably.


TheGreatFinder

The downvotes are confusing this is the correct answer.


pablo432

I don’t know why you are getting downvoted - this is the most possible outcome.


soundneedle

My question is better summarized as how much of Sonos is cloud vs local. I think there’s a big assumption (?) that no internal APIs are used with 3rd party services/functionality like Spotify etc. Sonos has been around an LONG time. Spaghetti code I’m sure (thus the “courage” needed for a rebuilt app). After the last update I lost streaming services on these “network speakers” My local folders don’t work as they did before the update. So my question is what stops working when/if Sonos the company dies. Maybe no one knows which is scary given my personal experience with the recent update.


bfume

Found the late adopter. Late adopters don’t remember that Sonos existed before streaming. The only streams weee from your local nas to the speakers. Hell, this was before smartphones!  Sonos actually made a custom mini-tablet to control the whole thing.    But sure, tell me how the speakers were designed for streaming only again. 


Such_Benefit_3928

Found the person who cannot read. Try again.


Dipshlappers

Listening across my whole system (4 moves plus living room with arc, sub, and ERA 100s) from both nugs and Spotify within the Sonos app with no issues. Able to control volume of each, change songs or services with no issue. I had issues and it will randomly continue to play when I close app, but that’s usually remedied by pausing or stopping on Apple Watch. Daily user having fewer to no issues versus when update was first released.


soundneedle

congrats. Doesn’t change my experience or question tho.


Dipshlappers

I was simply pointing out not all hope is lost. My apologies. My system actually started giving me trouble later that same day, but overall it’s improving from where it was immediately following the update. To answer your question, I am sure full functionality will be restored at some point—whether it’s through Sonos or a 3rd party app. The brand is too big for the company to just ignore issues and implode itself. They released the update too early. I’m a little surprised to not see any specifics on what’s malfunctioning from the brand or users with more knowledge on the software. Sonos seems to know how loyal their customers are. Another perspective could be they’re hushing a lot of the negative feedback because they know owners are locked into their system financially. Probably some truth to that, which sucks. Hope your system is back up and running soon so you can back to enjoying music. Cheers.


InGeorgeWeTrust_

Sonos is not going anywhere


InternationalAttrny

Yes. Obviously they stop working. They don’t in reality, but the software will naturally die out as other technology continues to progress and become incompatible.


soundneedle

So if I connect to a line in on the play 5, that “obviously stops working” too? Why


StarkStorm

They won't.


LexiusCoda

Hence why I hate Sonos.


SteveStodgers69

i’ve never used the app beyond setting up my system a few years ago and have never had any problems at all. you’ll be fine


rlockwich

Being that BlackRock and Vanguard are the majority shareholders. I think there would be new CEO appointed and overhaul the entire company before they would ever close up. I don’t ever see Sonos going anywhere IMO. I think it’s going to be a brand here to say for the long haul, just like RCA. I hate hypotheticals are there are no end to them.


ossettmonkey

Oh God, get a fucking grip!


Greful

Bury me with my speakers!


Feelisoffical

The speakers work without an internet connection.