My favorite home audio receiver Sonos is reportedly about to release version 2.2 with Pandora support. I’m looking forward to this in a big way. Now if only XM would do a deal with Sonos, I would be a very, very happy camper. Until then, I continue my Media Center->Xbox->Sonos workaround for listening to Flight 26 from my home theater.
Update: Version 2.2 has now been released. Unfortunately with it comes the cryptic news: Pandora (a free, ad-supported service on PC) comes with a subscription requirement after 30 days for Sonos. This is a little disappointing as the only value you seem to get for your $36/year. That’s not much, but the only value offered is 100% free of advertising? How about being able to play a specific song when I create a station based on it? I’ll probably still drop my Rhapsody subscription in favor of this cheaper alternative. Sonos- if you want to talk to XM, give me a call 😉
2 responses to “Sonos to support Pandora”
I don’t know Sonos well, but I imagine it has no way to display the ads which Pandora uses to support itself. If this being the case then those using the Sonos product would have to pay more directly for the service, especially in light of the recent changes to fees relating to Internet Radio. Unless of course Sonos themselves is paying some fee for all its users to use the Pandora service?
They could display the ads on the Sonos display though I agree this would be a less than optimal experience. $3/month would be fine, if Pandora really played the song I wanted to listen to in the first place 🙂