If you’re happy to pay a little bit more for your wireless speakers, but not willing to pay to stream music to them, then Spotify and Sonos have some great news for you.
The two firms have announced the ad-supported Spotify Free service is now available on Sonos speakers thanks to a software update rolling out for the hardware today.
Spotify Free offers access to the entire catalogue of music, which can only be played in shuffle mode, as well as more than a dozen personalised playlists like Release Radar, Daily Mix and Discover Weekly. It also enables users to start playlists based on title, genre or mood via the Google Assistant, which finally made it to Sonos speakers this year, and other voice assistants.
Related: Best multi-room speakers 2019
The music can be played via the Sonos application, which had previously only supported Spotify Premium, or directly from the Spotify app. The Sonos app now has a new design for browsing Spotify that makes it more consistent with the actual Spotify app.
Sonos says Spotify Free joins the 100+ streaming services available on Sonos. In order to add it, and others, you can go to Settings > Services > click Add a Service under Music & Content. From there, tap Set-up and Log-in and you’re good to go.
Sonos recently rolled out the Sonos Move speaker, it’s first truly portable speaker with a rechargeable battery. We afforded it an excellent 4.5/5 star store in our review last month, praising the big sound, confident bass performance, multi-room capabilities and voice assistant compatibility.
However, it’s not truly portable, and at £399 it’s very expensive, especially compared to the other speakers in the range like the Sonos One.
Our reviewer concluded: “A price of £400 is a steep ask in a “portable speaker” market where £100 is close to the limit. Nevertheless, for existing Sonos users the Move makes sense. Everyone else is likely to question carefully whether they’re prepared to pay £400 for what is, admittedly, a quality, multi-purpose speaker.”
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.