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Owners of the Sonos digital music system can access music directly from personalized radio service pandora.com, or jukebox-style online service napster.com.
Slideshow
View SlideshowPay attention to the compatibility features of the server, too. Manufacturers will often embed special middleware software into their servers to streamline the download process with certain digital music stores. Servers from ReQuest, for example, are designed to support iTunes and Amazon. “You can still download music from other stores, but it’ll take a little computer experience to do it,” says Bill McKiegan, ReQuest vice president of sales and marketing.
Web Streaming
Buying songs online is convenient, but like shopping for anything on the web, it’ll take time to wade through your choices. By contrast, subscription-based services like Rhapsody and Napster provide unlimited access to a library of millions of songs for a monthly fee. This is a great way to discover new music and artists without having to pay for every album and track you listen to. To sweeten the deal, manufacturers like Sonos and Control4 are offering owners of their digital music systems free 30-day trials to these jukebox services.
Even more effortless are Internet radio services that let you create your own personal playlists by simply choosing the songs you want to hear. By going onto Finetune or Pandora, you can type in the name of a particular artist or style of music, and the service will instantly play the songs that match your criteria. When you hear a song you don’t like, you can skip it and go on to the next. Based on your preferences, the service continually grooms your music. “Through services like these, music listening can become a more social experience,” says Cullen. “You can tell a friend about a new tune you just heard, and they can go right to the service and hear it without having to pay for it.”
As digital music services continue to evolve, manufacturers of servers and streaming devices will redefine their products, adding new features and functions to keep their products fresh and appealing to all types of consumers. “With the proliferation of jukebox and Internet radio services, digital music has become something you don’t have to be a techie to enjoy,” says Cullen. Anyone with a home that has a broadband connection can have access to a wide selection of music without having to rip their CDs onto a hard drive or boot up their PCs to download tracks.
sonos sucks.
freezes up all the time,
and it cant hop on your existing wifi network
the way to go is itunes based solutions, since everyone already uses itunes.
iMac or mac mini to host all music on itunes (wiht external hard drives)
Apple TV’s in rooms with TV’s
airport express for zones without tv’s
iPhone or iPod Touch on wifi accessing in home imac/mac mini running software like remote buddy or Signal (gives you complete control of all your zones - lets you choose which rooms are on or off, and lets you control itunes with album art and everything. even lets you choose itunes radio stations).
way cheaper, way more fun, way better.
sonos is for chumps!!
I have a Logitech SQUEEZEBOX CLASSIC and DUET and I have all the music from my PC harddrive and Internet music streamed to them. Better yet, they work over my standard 802.11g network, and are a breeze to setup… I can also control them over the Internet (SqueezeNetwork) and get my family out of bed with my booming playlists while on the other side of the country. BTW, the Duet is have the size, half the weight and have the price of Sonos’ solution - and with a better UI, in my opinion. The Duet’s Controller is a fine piece of engineering and controls all my various model’s of Squeezeboxes. I just love it and brag a lot about it - so thanks for letting me yap! Have a great day, and GO, FREE YOUR MUSIC!
Video Master, while it’s true that you can now buy DRM-free content from the iTunes store, anything previously purchased that does have apples DRM will not be playable on the 3rd party devices, like the Sonos (yes, there are hacks, but often shortlived). Before you freak, i too own several macs, airport express and yes the AppleTV, and still crave the Sonos as it does things the apple stuff cannot. Now, if Apple would develop a remote like Sonos’s or Logitech’s new Duet, (maybe the Touch?) that would certainly help your arguement. btw, have you ever tried any of the media servers from the big boys like ReQuest? they’re nothing to sneeze at and offer an excellent, well-supported solution. lastly, check out the slideshow on this article, it has a couple of the Apple products shown, to appease the Jobs masses no doubt ;)
Learn to read before you start to criticize:
Some songs purchased from iTunes…
See that word “some” in there? I know I have a slew of music purchased from iTunes that still has DRM on it.
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besides the fact that the apple tv also streams movies tv shows photos you tube flickr and music videos , all from the same server all with itunes. all for cheaper then a sonos zone.