The choice of music on Sonos’ own personal music platform is getting wider, but Aussies still can’t hear it in high-def.
There’s an abundance of choice when it comes to listening to music on speakers and headphones, but there’s also a little bit more if you happen to have a Sonos.
If you live in the world of the Sonos multiroom speaker, you may not realise that you have Sonos’ own service to check out, Sonos Radio. We wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t remember, mind you: Sonos launched the service last year, but its ad-free counterpart, Sonos Radio HD, hasn’t yet been launched in Australia.
A bit of a strange service, Sonos Radio HD provides stations specific to Sonos at a monthly cost in high-definition and without ads, while Sonos Radio in the standard version features ads and runs the music at a slightly lower resolution.
We’re still not sure about a monthly fee for a music service that only works on Sonos speakers — that’s still a strange concept, and something we commented on at the launch in 2020 — but Australians can listen into some of the service, though 2021’s new programming coming may force them to miss out until Sonos Radio HD launches locally.
Outside of Australia, this year, Sonos is adding curated stations from artists, including Bjork, D’Angelo, FKA Twigs, and The Chemical Brothers, joining the likes of Dolly Parton and Thom Yorke which are already on the Sonos Radio platform.
“Sonos’ original and artist-curated stations go beyond the playlist format to inspire listeners to discover new music with the personal context and stories that add meaning,” said Brian Beck, Global Head of Music for Sonos.
“These stations are direct lines into the minds of creators, and opportunities to hear what fuels their creativity in a fresh, raw way,” he said. “We’re giving listeners a chance to find new music by flipping through the personal record collections of some of the most private but influential artists of our time. It’s taking music discovery to the next level.”
More genre stations will be added alongside, though the artist options will be exclusive to Sonos Radio HD, which again Australians don’t see. What Australians will see out of this announcement isn’t quite clear, though it may include some of the new shows launching on the Sonos radio, Sonos Sound System, some of which will cover other artists, with shows by British music publication Crack Magazine, as well as select hours from the the artists being added, even if it may not be the entirety of their shows.
As for when Sonos Radio HD will launch in Australia, a representative for Sonos told Pickr that “Radio HD will come to Australia and other markets in due course”, but right now there was no further detail to add.
