Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you
Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you
Sonos

Sonos talks to Spotify Free accounts, not just Premium

Owning a Sonos doesn’t mean you need to pay for a streaming service, as Spotify’s free ad-supported tier arrives on the multiroom sound system.

Streaming music is within reach of everyone these days, whether they want to pay for it or not.

If you don’t mind parting ways with money, subscribing to a music service typically provides you with access to any song and albums, plus a variety of playlists and radio stations based on your preferences. It’s like having access to a vast library and catalogue of music the likes of which you’d never own, paid for with a monthly fee.

Music services like Apple Music, Google Play, Tidal, and others typically don’t offer a free tier, forcing you to pay after a trial period. Once you do, you can listen to the music on any supported device.

But there is one service that does offer a free plan, and that free option is finally coming to the Sonos multiroom sound system.

One of the oldest music services, Spotify, offers a free ad-supported option, providing music in a randomised and shuffled mode with ads every thirty minutes or so. You can get it on mobile, tablet, and desktop, and now you can get it on Sonos, too.

From this week, Spotify’s free accounts will work on Sonos, too, complete with personalised playlists including the Daily Mix, Discover Weekly, and Release Radar.

Sonos says it will work with Google Assistant for voice control, but not yet Amazon Alexa, even though Sonos speakers with a microphone can support both. That could be coming later, though for now, it’s just Google Assistant and the Sonos app to bring this to life.

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