Sonos Teams With Rhapsody for Streams

Yesterday, Sonos announced an update to its software, Sonos v. 2.0, which gives users unlimited listening access to the Rhapsody music subscription service's two-million-plus song library directly from a Sonos Zone player, all for around $10 a month. Sonos, if you're not familiar, is a multi-room music streaming system that uses Wi-Fi to stream up to 24 different playlists in as many rooms. Until now, these playlists, or individual tracks, have been streamed off of the existing music files that reside on your PC or directly from the Internet via your PC.

But this update enables you to browse, organize, and stream tracks directly from Rhapsody right on your Sonos controller, without the need for a computer middleman. One one level, this is cool, because according to the Wall Street Journal review by Walt Mossberg, who actually got some hands-on time at home with the product, Sonos v. 2 is easy to set up and to navigate through. Compare that to configuring a Sonos product with the exisitng music collection on your PC, and the new technology wins for user-friendliness. And there's something to be said about the instant gratification possible when you can just choose whatever song you feel like hearing without having to rip or download it first.

That said, I get similar instant satisfaction from sitting at my PC, logging onto Rhapsody, and downloading subscription songs, which tend to be of higher quality (160kbps) than the streaming tracks (128kbps). And let's face it, sometimes my Internet connection is down, which defeats the whole purpose of unlimited, anytime access. Unfortunately, due to complicated licensing laws that make it illegal to officially stream downloaded subscription tracks throughout the house, you still can't stream your downloaded subscription tracks off of your PC to other rooms. (You have to buy tracks to get multi-room rights for downloaded songs—but if you do, the quality is a super-fine 192kbps, even when you stream).) So you may get unlimited, user-friendly music access for around $10 a month with Sonos 2.0, but the sound quality may suffer. Considering the new Sonos Zone80 players are designed to work with any existing (and presumably) high-end system, the streaming option could be a disappointment for audiophiles. But, hey, hats off to Sonos for once again innovating without complicating.

For more on Sonos 2.0, check out the posts by Robin and Chris.