Users fear the Sonos app could require a subscription; company says no plans in hand

Growing concerns have been expressed that the Sonos app might in future require a subscription, as the company reported revenue down for the second year running – and a former employee has now added fuel to the fire.

Of particular concern is that all actions initiated in the app now go through a Sonos server, rather than being executed locally, giving the company complete control of everything users do …

Wired opens its admittedly speculative report by summarizing the company’s tough financial situation.

This is the second year in a row that Sonos has posted a YOY decline in revenue—down 5.5 percent in 2023, despite two rounds of layoffs. “Challenging” was the word CEO Patrick Spence used to describe that year too, and while keeping the momentum following two bumper years during Covid was never going to be easy, there may be something of a pattern emerging […]

In its FY24 earnings call, it was even remarked by investors that Sonos had only added 1 million new users this year—that might sound impressive, but it was said to be the lowest in the last “five to 10 years.” And while the overall speakers per household were up to 3.08 from 3.05 last year, with a slowing new user base, how can Sonos continue to make money in what is looking to be a saturated market?

We’ve of course seen a huge shift toward subscription models in tech, from apps to smart home devices, and Sonos owners are concerned that the audio company may be planning its own moves.

Take a brief glance at the community forums over on Reddit or even Sonos’ own website and you’ll see this is already a move that users are concerned could be in the works. And their suspicion isn’t just a baseless hunch either. The way the app works now is completely different to the one before, making a subscription play a technical possibility.

The differences between the app now and then were highlighted in a technical teardown posted by developer and self-proclaimed “Sonos fanboy/hacker” Andy Pennell. He explains that the app has shifted from controlling your devices over your local network to an app that controls your devices via its own cloud. And by diverting everything through Sonos’ servers, it ultimately gives the company more control over the things users can and can’t do with their devices. Such a huge move was a surprise.

An ex-Sonos developer laid off in the most recent round of layoffs has added fuel to the fire, suggesting that the huge sums invested in an app which generates no revenue didn’t appear to make sense unless a subscription was planned.

WIRED spoke with an ex-Sonos developer who was made redundant in the company’s most recent layoffs. He asked not to be named, to avoid any potential difficulties it might create in him finding another job in the industry. While his role was not directly involved with the app development, he worked alongside the team and helped with testing when things went wrong. He says the amount of money being spent on the app development raised questions for him.

“I was pretty skeptical of the resources we were putting into an app that we aren’t charging any money for—something that isn’t bringing in any revenue. But the only thing that I heard from the folks on the app team about why this was needed, and its value proposition was about the flexibility it offered, and that it opened the doors to things that we couldn’t do before,” he says. “It wouldn’t surprise me though, if there were some subscription model pieces somewhere in there.”

The report says Sonos has denied any current plans, but not gone as far as ruling out that it could happen in the future.

Sonos has sent WIRED a firm denial that a subscription model is in the works.

Customers were already deeply unimpressed with the mess created with the new app, and don’t seem to have much faith in the company’s promises to date.

Photo by Lukas Hellebrand on Unsplash