You've been listening to its speakers for years – now you'll be able to listen to Sonos's own curated streaming service too, as today marks the launch of Sonos Radio.
Free to owners of Sonos speaker systems, such as the Sonos Move, Sonos Radio is an ad-supported addition to the Sonos app. It's somewhere like a halfway house between Spotify's radio stations, and the more heavily curated (and also free) Beats 1 station from Apple Music.
Sonos Radio is split up into the following four sections:
- Artists Stations: The most interesting of the bunch, and the part that most closely resembles Apple's offering. Artists stations will be shows curated by music creators themselves, letting you get an insight into their inspiration. It kick off today (April 21) with Thom Yorke of Radiohead, and will be followed by Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, David Byrne of Talking Heads, and Third Man Records in the coming weeks. It's an ad-free part of the offering.
- Sonos Sound System: Another ad-free part of the Sonos Radio service, this is curated and hosted by Sonos itself, and will feature "new and well-known music, behind-the-scenes stories, and guest artist radio hours".
- Global Stations: A more traditional web radio service, letting you tap into over 60,000 broadcast stations from around the world.
- Sonos Stations: 30 stations based on genre or mood, supported by adverts.
According to Sonos, its users spend about half of all time listening on the speakers to radio stations. So with Sonos already supporting all the other money-making streaming services under the sun, it makes sense for it to offer its own ad-cash-taking money spinner.
In a statement accompanying the news, Thom Yorke had this to say of his involvement with the service – note the unusual formatting here is his own (the kook) so we've retained it for your difficult-to-scan pleasure:
"here
in a new form
is that
ever rolling compilation / office chart habit of mine
of putting together what i have found recently that fascinates or moves me, what obsesses me, challenges me, opens new doors, reminds me of what i might have forgotten, is insanely complex or elegantly simple, violent, funny, messy, heavy or light. whatever has hit me over the head basically .
it may be new or old or just dug up again.
with all
this time we have behind doors i hope this provides a welcome connection and escape .. and perhaps stops the walls closing in quite so quick."
Thanks for that, Thom.
Sonos Radio rolls out from April 21 as an over the air update to all Sonos speaker owners.
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