Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Sonos

Over 140,000 People Expected To Attend CES

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:48:55 +0000

The International Consumer Electronics Show kicks into full gear this week and I know my inbox will start clogging up with press releases from companies that will be showcasing some of their latest products. The good news is that over 140,000 people are expected to attend the event this year. The bad news is that this is the last time Microsoft will be giving a keynote and this year’s show is unlikely to be the place where a blockbuster product will be introduced.

Former HP CTO Phil McKinney said that for larger companies, the show has become “less important.” He also pointed out that when the show starts to lose more anchor-type brands, it may cause a tipping point. Consumer Electronics Association president Gary Shapiro said that he was sorry to see Microsoft go, but believes that it would have little impact on the popularity of the show. Shapiro said that CES does not have any rival in its ability to attract top tier executives in the tech industry.

The reason why big companies hold their own private events is so that they can filter out all of the other noise at C.E.S. They can have a captive audience to themselves at private events. Sonos CEO John MacFarlane believes that announcing new products at CES would make customers who bought products during the holidays feel annoyed for missing out on the newer products. “Why would you ever release things just in front of the slowest six months of the year?” said MacFarlane. Sonos stopped exhibiting at CES almost about a decade ago.

When it comes to the preferred timing of the show, Microsoft and Sonos seem to be an exception because exhibitors are routinely surveyed for when the show should be and “January is the preferred time” said Shapiro.

A couple of other reasons why Microsoft decided to bail is because the board of the show indicated to Microsoft that they may be interested in having another company opening up the keynote for the event. The software giant may have felt gypped by this since they have been the opening keynote address 14 times since 1995. According to a source with The New York Times, it is believed that Microsoft was spending about $1 million per year producing the keynote event, which included equipment, cameras, and cameo appearances from celebrities.

[NYT]

Sonos Updates Android App To Support Slacker and Spotify

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:39:39 +0000

Wireless streaming music service, Sonos, has updated their Android application to support music streaming applications Slacker and Spotify. The Sonos System Software version 3.6 also adds Sonos Wireless HiFi, and support for Android tablets running 2.2. or higher. Below is the press release:

SONOS ADDS MORE CONTROL AND MORE MUSIC TO WIRELESS HiFi SYSTEM

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – November 30, 2011 – Sonos, Inc., the leading manufacturer of wireless music systems, today announced Sonos System Software 3.6, an innovative update that adds more control and more music to the Sonos Wireless HiFi experience. This free software is available to all Sonos customers via a one button update to their system.

“Today’s feature update reaffirms our commitment to persistently innovate so that Sonos users have the ultimate music experience in every room of the home,” said John MacFarlane, founder and CEO, Sonos, Inc. “Endless music and effortless control are what will keep us as the gold standard for listening out loud in the home.”

The free Sonos Controller for Android now supports Android® tablets as well as smartphones, letting you control Sonos from any Android device. With Sonos, you can stream all the music on earth wirelessly in every room, and now control it wirelessly on a larger screen with any Android tablet running 2.2 or higher, including the Kindle Fire, HTC Flyer™, Motorola Xoom™, Samsung Galaxy Tab™, Sony Tablet S™, and many others. Plus, Sonos Controller for Android includes new enhancements such as alarms, music library management and Twitter support for Android smartphones and tablets alike. Download it from Android Market.

Slacker® Radio is now available as a free music service on Sonos in the United States and Canada. With Slacker on Sonos you can tune in for free to over 150 expert-programmed stations and create unlimited custom stations from a library of millions of songs. You can even read artist biographies as you listen in every room. Upgrade to Slacker Radio Plus for an ad-free experience or Slacker Premium Radio for even more features like on-demand access to millions of songs, albums and artists and the ability to create custom playlists. Subscribers can also fully personalize their ESPN Radio stations with their favorite shows, plus team and sports updates. To register or learn more about Slacker on Sonos, please visit slacker.com/Sonos.

With Sonos 3.6 software, Sonos is also introducing Sonos Labs, a new Beta environment where customers will be able to test out music services before they’re officially launched on Sonos. New music services will be added to Sonos Labs on an ongoing basis. Media and music service developers can learn more about becoming a Sonos Labs music partner at http://musicpartners.sonos.com.

Sonos 3.6 also includes improved Spotify® integration on Sonos, giving Spotify fans on Sonos access to their Spotify Inbox and ability to play music from Spotify’s new releases and top tracks.

Other features of Sonos 3.6 include:

AAC+ codec support

More local language support with Danish and Norwegian

Full details of Sonos 3.6 software can be found here: http://www.sonos.com/support/software_updates/.

Sonos Raises $25 Million, Led By Index Ventures

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:35:15 +0000

Sonos is a Santa Barbara based wireless music company. They sell devices that can wireless play music around your house using an iPhone, iPod, FM tuner, or other music player. Sonos also has an iPhone app that allows you to control the music player controls. The company has raised $25 million in recent funding, led by Index Ventures. Mike Volpi has joined the board of directors as a a result of the funding. [VentureBeat]

Digital Music Player Company, Sonos Raises $6 Million Series B

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 14:23:58 +0000

Sonos[1] is a company that develops wireless, digital music streaming players. This digital music player can be used all over the house and supports RealNetworks’ Rhapsody[2] as of last September. And the company has also recently signed a deal with Pandora as well. Sonos’ Digital Music Systems have the ability to read music from network hard drives and URLs and play it.

It was recently discovered that Sonos raised $6 million in Series B funding from BV Capital[3] and several other investors. This adds on to the $32 million Series A funding that Sonos was received. Of the $32 million Series A, BV Capital accounted for $10 million of it.

Sonos is hyper-competitively chasing after other music players like the Microsoft Zune and Apple iPod and by signing deals with online music companies, it only whets the appetite for technology geeks even more.

[1] Sonos.com
[2] Pulse 2.0: Sonos supports Rhapsody streaming music
[3] bvcapital.com