Sonos and Pandora Announce "Musical Love Child"

On May 23, Sonos announced the release of Sonos Software v 2.2, which adds Pandora's personalized Internet radio service to Sonos' wireless multi-room music systems.

Pandora, which bills itself as "radio from the Music Genome Project," analyzes songs based on 400 musical attributes (such as melody, harmony, rhythm, form, composition, and lyrics—but not genre) and then creates a "radio station" consisting of other songs that the MGP suggests share attributes. Pandora is a fee-based Internet service, so Sonos' new linking capability includes a 30-day trial membership to introduce Sonos households to the site. After the trial, Pandora costs $36 per year.

Houses with multiple Sonos-equipped rooms can stream the same station throughout the household or stream up to 32 separate Pandora stations (users can create up to 100 stations).

The new software upgrade also adds better musical services support, additional alarm clock functions, improved Internet radio reliability, and FLAC album art support.

In other news, Sonos has introduced the $999 Sonos Bundle 130, which offers two-room music streaming system. Sonos' Thomas Meyer said that surveys showed consumers wanted a bundled "starter" system to get into multi-room streaming right off the bat. The BU130 includes one ZonePlayer 80, one ZonePlayer 100, and one Controller 100. The bundle can also be purchased with a pair of Sonos Loudspeaker 100s for $1149. John Atkinson enthusiastically reviewed the ZP80 and ZP100 for Stereophile in October 2006.

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