Sonos is the leader in the multi-room speaker market, but there’s one big name missing from the company’s streaming service roster.
We’re talking about Apple Music, Apple’s newly launched music platform that’s due to go live at the end of the month.
While the Sonos app plays host to big industry names like Spotify, Deezer, and Tidal, it’s yet to strike a deal with Apple.
Fortunately, such a partnership isn’t off the table, at least according to John MacFarlane, co-founder and chief executive of Sonos.
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He continued: “You have to earn Apple’s cooperation, they don’t just give it to you for free, but if there’s a delightful user experience and it makes a lot of sense, I think they do it, and there’s lots of examples of that. I think if it’s less than that, then they don’t.”
Music streaming is currently more popular than ever before, but Apple Music is up against tough competition from its rivals, including current market leader Spotify.
Related: Apple Music vs Spotify
Despite the fierce industry rivalries however, MacFarlane thinks that no company will take a significant lead.
“I don’t think you’re going to see any one service win, but I think the way they’ll win you over will be by being better at figuring out what you’re interested in listening to, which will be a combination of understanding your preferences as well as being good at knowing what people like you like,” he explained.
The Sonos chief added: “I think it will be less around the audio quality or the collection of tracks on offer, because those will mostly be the same.
Sonos has garnered much of its success through its wide-ranging catalogue of music streaming services, which gives it an almost unlimited track collection.
It’s this breadth of audio content that is growing consumer interest in music streaming, which could eventually push Apple Music onto Sonos.
“When a person buys a Sonos, the first thing they typically do is add their music collection off their computer or their mobile phone, and then as they add an on-demand service they use that more and more, and use the local collection less and less,” MacFarlane added.
Interestingly, today a report claimed Apple actually killed off a Sonos-rivalling wireless system being developed by Beats. No wonder Sonos wants to embrace Apple…
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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.
