I've been a Sonos megafan for years. Owned probably two dozen devices for different homes. Mainly amps for in-ceiling speakers, but also some Ones, 3s, 5s. All of it. Because it Just Worked when it came to multi-room music. Now it doesn't, and it hasn't for a long time, so I've been back in the market.
I'm not exactly sure what the problem is. The new app has gotten a lot of the blame for Sonos' problems, but to me, the bigger issue has been how unreliable the system at large has become. And that doesn't seem like it's just an app issue. Probably more of a firmware problem. But whatever it is, it's been driving me crazy.
When you want to listen to some music at dinner, you want play to mean PLAY RIGHT NOW. Not "won't connect". Not "try restarting the app". Just play. But Sonos hasn't been like that. It's been an exercise in frustration instead.
I sympathize with their situation, though. Software is hard! Especially when you've been around as long as Sonos has, and have a back catalog of a million different devices, as well as a road map with tons of new stuff coming out. It can't be easy to juggle all that.
The second thing that's clearly hard is wireless synchronization. Sonos has a huge patent portfolio for making sure the music is always in sync across multiple rooms and devices, even when it's running over a wireless connection. Google lost in court when they tried to steal that tech. It's a formidable fortress.
But I don't need wireless. All my gear is hardwired with ethernet. And that's why the problems I've had have been extra infuriating. When the music drops out. Or it won't start. Or you can't connect to the devices. That just shouldn't happen when it's on a hardwired connection, but it does.
And it's not like we haven't tried to figure this out. It's literally been months of debugging. The AV outfit I'm using has been working with Sonos support. They've been replacing Amps with newer hardware. Lots of experimentation. But nothing has made the system reliable or enjoyable to use. Certainly not through the Sonos app.
So last week I finally threw in the towel and got back into the market. Turns out there are quite a few competitors out there now. I decided to try two: Bluesound and WiiM. They offer a comparable streaming amp that I can hook up to my in-ceiling Klipsch speakers, and they both connect via ethernet, and they both support Spotify Connect. WiiM in particular has been wowing hifi aficionados with their incredible price/performance ratio.
Instantly it was revelation. Music to either amp would start immediately when I selected a song in Spotify. I'd been boiled by the Sonos problems for so long that I didn't even remember what instant does for enjoyment. It does a lot!
And now that I've been pushed back into the market, I've realized that the historic Sonos app advantage just doesn't matter nearly as much as it used to. The Spotify app is a superior way to browse music, and both WiiM and Bluesound make it easy to group speakers. In the past, those two points served as the Sonos moat. That's over, it seems.
Further more, the WiiM Amp is just $299! That's half the price of the Sonos Amp (and the Bluesound). And for the kind of in-ceiling, background music I'm using it for, it's more than plenty. And despite the low price, the software is actually the best of all three options. It's incredibly easy and quick to set up. You're playing music five minutes after you've unpacked the device.
I'm telling you all of this because there are a lot of lessons for business owners of all types in this Sonos predicament. Like, if you've managed to win over a customer, the last thing you want to do is get them back into the market to sample the competition. If you can keep them content with what they got, they aren't interested in whatever anyone else is offering.
That's why it's worth going the extra effort not to fuck with existing customers. That's why we run three different versions of Basecamp. Including one that hasn't seen any feature updates for 14 years! A version that still has thousands of happy customers generating millions in revenue every year. They signed up for a system they liked in the mid-to-late 2000s, and they're not in the market for a change. THAT'S JUST FINE BY US!
Again, it isn't free to do this. But Sonos eventually got it right the last time they faced this dilemma. When they wanted to push the last new Sonos app, and couldn't make their plans work with the old hardware. The first approach would have essentially bricked them all. But they came around, split the apps, and I still use the Sonos S1 setup with an installation that's over a decade old.
And I'm sure we've gotten it wrong at 37signals many times over the years too. Accidentally changed something that we thought would be better, or at least more attractive to new customers, and ended up pushing happy buyers back into the market. Some of that is unavoidable, but a lot of it is not. A lot of it is a choice.
Don't make that choice. Don't push customers back into the market. They might just find that Spotify Connect is pretty awesome, and that amps half the price can do the job. Keep current customers happy, then go chasing new ones.
I'm not exactly sure what the problem is. The new app has gotten a lot of the blame for Sonos' problems, but to me, the bigger issue has been how unreliable the system at large has become. And that doesn't seem like it's just an app issue. Probably more of a firmware problem. But whatever it is, it's been driving me crazy.
When you want to listen to some music at dinner, you want play to mean PLAY RIGHT NOW. Not "won't connect". Not "try restarting the app". Just play. But Sonos hasn't been like that. It's been an exercise in frustration instead.
I sympathize with their situation, though. Software is hard! Especially when you've been around as long as Sonos has, and have a back catalog of a million different devices, as well as a road map with tons of new stuff coming out. It can't be easy to juggle all that.
The second thing that's clearly hard is wireless synchronization. Sonos has a huge patent portfolio for making sure the music is always in sync across multiple rooms and devices, even when it's running over a wireless connection. Google lost in court when they tried to steal that tech. It's a formidable fortress.
But I don't need wireless. All my gear is hardwired with ethernet. And that's why the problems I've had have been extra infuriating. When the music drops out. Or it won't start. Or you can't connect to the devices. That just shouldn't happen when it's on a hardwired connection, but it does.
And it's not like we haven't tried to figure this out. It's literally been months of debugging. The AV outfit I'm using has been working with Sonos support. They've been replacing Amps with newer hardware. Lots of experimentation. But nothing has made the system reliable or enjoyable to use. Certainly not through the Sonos app.
So last week I finally threw in the towel and got back into the market. Turns out there are quite a few competitors out there now. I decided to try two: Bluesound and WiiM. They offer a comparable streaming amp that I can hook up to my in-ceiling Klipsch speakers, and they both connect via ethernet, and they both support Spotify Connect. WiiM in particular has been wowing hifi aficionados with their incredible price/performance ratio.
Instantly it was revelation. Music to either amp would start immediately when I selected a song in Spotify. I'd been boiled by the Sonos problems for so long that I didn't even remember what instant does for enjoyment. It does a lot!
And now that I've been pushed back into the market, I've realized that the historic Sonos app advantage just doesn't matter nearly as much as it used to. The Spotify app is a superior way to browse music, and both WiiM and Bluesound make it easy to group speakers. In the past, those two points served as the Sonos moat. That's over, it seems.
Further more, the WiiM Amp is just $299! That's half the price of the Sonos Amp (and the Bluesound). And for the kind of in-ceiling, background music I'm using it for, it's more than plenty. And despite the low price, the software is actually the best of all three options. It's incredibly easy and quick to set up. You're playing music five minutes after you've unpacked the device.
I'm telling you all of this because there are a lot of lessons for business owners of all types in this Sonos predicament. Like, if you've managed to win over a customer, the last thing you want to do is get them back into the market to sample the competition. If you can keep them content with what they got, they aren't interested in whatever anyone else is offering.
That's why it's worth going the extra effort not to fuck with existing customers. That's why we run three different versions of Basecamp. Including one that hasn't seen any feature updates for 14 years! A version that still has thousands of happy customers generating millions in revenue every year. They signed up for a system they liked in the mid-to-late 2000s, and they're not in the market for a change. THAT'S JUST FINE BY US!
Again, it isn't free to do this. But Sonos eventually got it right the last time they faced this dilemma. When they wanted to push the last new Sonos app, and couldn't make their plans work with the old hardware. The first approach would have essentially bricked them all. But they came around, split the apps, and I still use the Sonos S1 setup with an installation that's over a decade old.
And I'm sure we've gotten it wrong at 37signals many times over the years too. Accidentally changed something that we thought would be better, or at least more attractive to new customers, and ended up pushing happy buyers back into the market. Some of that is unavoidable, but a lot of it is not. A lot of it is a choice.
Don't make that choice. Don't push customers back into the market. They might just find that Spotify Connect is pretty awesome, and that amps half the price can do the job. Keep current customers happy, then go chasing new ones.