On Might possibly well per chance also 7, 2024, Sonos launched a new model of its application supposed to help prospects negate up their music and their Sonos map more with out issue, and with fewer taps. What befell next can handiest be described as a fiasco. Upon opening the new app for the first time, Sonos customers had been not handiest greeted with an unfamiliar interface, many learned that their systems had became unresponsive and that aspects they had attain to depend on (admire alarms and play queue gather entry to) had evaporated.
As days and weeks passed, it turned into wander that these weren’t non everlasting system defects. Sonos’ CEO, Patrick Spence, spent the following summer and tumble apologizing and assuring his prospects (and presumably his board of directors) that the corporate had adopted an all-palms-on-deck stance and that fixing the broken app turned into everybody’s high precedence. Nevertheless, eight months after the originate the app turned into unruffled removed from fastened and Spence turned into fired on January 13, 2025. His alternative, board member Tom Conrad, turned into announced the identical day.
Conrad’s checklist of outdated gigs in senior engineering and product roles at companies admire Pandora, Snapchat, Quibi, and Apple makes him a stable dedication as Sonos’ length in-between CEO. Nevertheless that doesn’t mean it’s been a straightforward transition.
Genuinely, after I caught up with Conrad on his 116th day on the job, he described it as a pretty hellish length marked by a dedication of challenges, including his family’s relocation from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara — a miniature distance on the plan that on the alternative hand grew to became into a mini odyssey beset by the unheard of L.A. wildfires, four diverse AirBnBs, two flat tires, and having his L.A. residence burglarized. Oh, and his dog got skunked. Twice.
And that turned into before we began to discuss about the job he’d been hired to plot: Fix the unruffled-broken Sonos platform so as that its prospects may per chance seemingly well seemingly eventually gather abet to having fun with their music.
Our brief chat managed to shroud lot of ground: the corporate, its products, its now-defunct Ikea partnership, and, for wander, the app (and why, one twelve months later, our Sonos systems unruffled aren’t working as they must.)
Too many silos
When he arrived, Conrad learned that Sonos’ interior teams had been siloed by product class (headphones, residence theater, etc.), making it hard to prioritize, portion sources, or retain a cohesive user journey.
“The very first thing that I did turned into to rob that apart and do the crew abet together into hardware and application construct, and then plot a complete inventory of the total projects that had been underway, a mode of which, it grew to became out, had been insufficiently staffed for success.”
Conrad slashed a list of “dozens” of these projects down to 11 successfully-staffed initiatives. “It changed the mood for the length of the corporate, style of overnight.”
A not renowned core
It also turned into apparent that the sheer dedication of projects and silos had performed a huge role in the atrophy of Sonos’ core application platform. Since 2019, Sonos had launched a mode of recent products. Dolby Atmos soundbars, two styles of transportable speaker, a Sonos-developed assure assistant, its first wi-fi headphones, plus a significant push into the educated installation market. “The funding that the corporate turned into making [in the core software],” Conrad notes, “turned into not enough.”
And whereas the app redesign fiasco of 2024 is barely the most up-to-date symptom of this neglect, Conrad says it’s in payment for the forms of reliability and efficiency components which had been left unaddressed since 2019, or longer.
No more belief
Clearly, having a customer rotten that can’t employ your product isn’t ideal for any company. “No person wakes up in the morning and says, I want to employ some time in the Sonos app in the present day,” Conrad quipped.
He’s crystal wander on the gap between how the app must work: “I specialise in we’ve one obligation. The journey must be instant, legit, usable, and basically gather out of your technique,” versus the place it’s at in the present day, “The sad fact is that Sonos unruffled fails too usually.”
Nevertheless the worst part of the redesign’s fallout has been the erosion of belief. “The rollout of the app closing twelve months turned into this kind of profound mistake. All of the goodwill that our prospects would frequently non-public utilized when they’ve a little hiccup in their journey — we don’t gather any of that perfect thing about the doubt.”
Legacy is unruffled Sonos’ ultimate power … and its ultimate weakness
Conrad also looks to be gradually making his peace with an inconvenient and unavoidable fact: Longtime Sonos prospects usually non-public wi-fi audio system and parts that date abet to 2010 or older, and they also seek recordsdata from them to retain working — “although the iPhone 4 they purchased the identical twelve months has long been relegated to the filth bin.”
He stroke a chord in my memory that Sonos equipment is “sensitive to the info of your position community in strategies that virtually about nothing else you non-public is.” We mentioned the intricacies of Wi-Fi and how, long before there had been any commercially obtainable mesh routers admire Eero or Orbi, the corporate had created its non-public mesh map is known as SonosNet.
For a moment, it sounded admire Conrad is seemingly to be making an are trying to blame the corporate’s efficiency woes on its prospects’ networks. In fairness, we live in a in point of fact diverse Wi-Fi atmosphere than the one Sonos learned itself in abet in 2005, when it launched its first product. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that regardless of these challenges, Sonos has to non-public the alternatives. “We made promises to our prospects that we are going to be capable to synchronize audio across their [devices], and so we’ve to solve for this atmosphere. That is the existence we’ve chosen.”
He’s also posthaste to level that if as soon as-staunch Sonos prospects now instinctively blame the corporate’s products (in position of taking a glance at their net connection or Wi-Fi for the flaw), “it’s totally deserved.”
Brighter days ahead
Belief to be one of many greatest issues with the new app is that it hasn’t proven to be a much less complex-to-employ journey than the one it changed. Conrad sympathizes with these that are wondering, “Why did Sonos non-public this new navigation paradigm?” Admire many Sonos customers, he is seemingly to be rather serious. “It’s not my appraisal that one and all amongst these construct choices had been magnificent ones.”
Serene, Conrad sounds confident about the long escape.
“I specialise in we in actual fact non-public cracked the code on the wide components that we wished to solve on efficiency and reliability, and we’re successfully on our technique to striking that chapter in the abet of us.” He says that fixes to the remaining usability and experiential components are coming during the summer and tumble. “ I non-public in actual fact mountainous about Sonos like minded now.”
On Ikea and that mysterious Pinewood project
On the tail end of our chat, I turned into able to squeeze in one closing sequence of questions across the end of the Ikea Symfonisk speaker partnership — one which produced the most inexpensive and decor-friendly Sonos audio system to this level. Why nix this kind of reputedly magnificent match?
“That partnership is eight years outdated and has diminished to the level of being immaterial to our substitute and theirs. It turned into a request of strolling away from something whose heyday turned into long in the rearview.”
I turned into taken aback to hear that, given how successfully the Symfonisk audio system matched Sonos’ outdated mission assertion of “like every residence with music.”
“That line of pondering is how we got into the partnership,” Conrad acknowledged, “however it absolutely’s not in actual fact the procedure it ever performed out in the staunch world.”
As for the a lot-rumored however by no technique officially mentioned Pinewood project — Sonos’ now-shelved switch into the video streaming world — Conrad refused to be drawn into a dialogue. Nevertheless, he did point out that, “You may per chance per chance know what you is seemingly to be handiest in the area at, and it is miles a in point of fact predominant to bite off an appropriate amount to kind out. With out commenting particularly, you’ll seek for us continue to focal level the place we are able to fetch.”
Down, however not out
From the commence of his tenure as Sonos’ CEO, Conrad has stated the total staunch issues. I got here away from our chat believing that although Sonos’ issues escape deeper than someone had beforehand acknowledged, he’s desirous about what matters most: restoring our Sonos systems so as that they like minded work.
Unfortunately, it sounds admire it’s going to be several more months — on the very least — until that day arrives. Some Sonos prospects non-public already called it quits and I will be capable to’t yelp I blame them. Our residence has Sonos audio system in every room (including one amongst the toilets) and my family has grown weary of not being able to play the music they need with out encountering bugs. We’ve even started announcing “Sonos” as curse discover, kinda admire Jerry Seinfeld feeble to negate the name of his nemesis, Newman.
Serene, when it in actual fact works, I in actual fact non-public yet to gain a multiroom audio map that sounds as magnificent and has as many valuable aspects as Sonos. Wiim is catching up instant — very instant — however for all of its strengths (construct, hi-res compatibility, affordability, and reliability), it’s unruffled not as straightforward and uncomplicated to employ as Sonos (all yet again, when it in actual fact works).
I’ll be sticking with Sonos for a little longer. As frustrated as I am by its ongoing components, I specialise in Tom Conrad deserves a shot at fixing them. And since Sonos didn’t gather itself into this mess overnight (although that’s what it felt favor to most of us), I know the fix can even rob time. I like minded hope that patiently ready doesn’t also conceal to be a profound mistake.