Spotify for Sonos review

1 of 3

Gallery

Verdict:

The incredible combination of being able to play music from your home library and Spotify's 10 million tracks is amazing. Spotify just makes Sonos even better.

Review Date: 16 Sep 2010

Price when reviewed: £10

Supplier: http://www.sonos.com

Reviewed By: David Ludlow

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

ExpertReviews Award

We're massive fans of Spotify at Expert Reviews. Of all the music streaming services we've seen, it's the easiest to use, has the best quality and the best selection of music. However, we've had one minor problem with it: it's designed for personal listening, rather than having music everywhere in your house.

With the latest update of Sonos, due at the end of September, this minor niggle is a thing of the past, as you'll be able to play Spotify music anywhere in your home. Provided you have a Spotify Premium account (£10 a month), you just configure your Sonos system to add the music service, which appears in the main Music menu of your controller.

Spotify will work on every single ZonePlayer, including the original models and the fantastic new ZonePlayer S5. Music can be controlled from every controller, including the old CR100 click-wheel device, the iPhone and new iPad apps, and Sonos's own CR200 touchscreen controller.

Accessing the Spotify service through Sonos gives you access to any Spotify playlists you've created, plus your starred tracks. You can also search for music by Artist, Album or Track, just as you can with any of the Spotify apps. However, the Sonos search interface is arguably better, as it updates in real-time, as you type. It's incredibly fast and makes finding your music really quick.

It has to be said that the touchscreen controllers are the best option, as they give you an on-screen keyboard, which makes it easier to search for tracks. Using the CR100, it's a real pain to have to use the keyboard with the click-wheel, although it's still a decent device for using pre-created playlists.

Prev Next

Get more reviews, tutorials and in-depth advice, every month with Computer Shopper.
Click here to try 3 issues for £1

< Previous Reviews : Gadgets Next >

Sponsored Links

User comments

Nice review that also reveals its limitation. But because of these it is not worth 5 out 5 stars (imho). This limitations are reason for me not to subscribe to Spotify. If don't want to search on my desktop for new music. I don't want to buy from Spotify (unless it's Apple lossless or a single song), I'd rather buy the CD and import it lossless in iTunes.

By RonaldJ on 16 Sep 2010

Am I missing something?

We can already stream Napster Unlimited on Sonos for £5/month. Apart from slightly better audio quality, why would I pay twice as much for Spotify Premium? I can't see why the reviewer is saying this is 'incredible' and 'unbelievable' when it gives me what I've already got with a worse interface at twice the price.

By JohnWill on 16 Sep 2010

Am I missing something?

By JohnWill on 16 Sep 2010

Hmmmm... expert?

I already do this through SONOS and my Napster Account at half the price. So I am quite surprised at how "incredulous" the reviewer seems to be. Hardly a technological breakthrough is it?

By luke67s on 17 Sep 2010

Spotify/Napster

I am currently using both these services and both are excellent. Once the Spotify Sonos update happens though I will be cancelling my Napster account. Why? Because they don't offer mobile phone service which is important for me at work every day. Now with Spotify on Sonos it covers all of my possible music devices.. Sonos, phone and PC. Excellent.

By Richgordonuk on 20 Sep 2010

RIP OFF

Not impressed with this. Why can I not have Spotify UNLIMITED and use it on my Sonos System - strange that they do not mention I ACTUALLY NEED PREMIUM.

I had Sky and they tried to abuse me and now do not have SKY!

Think of buying Spotify - BEWARE!

By toonAMY on 20 Dec 2010

Leave a comment

You need to Login or Register to comment.