Sonos Launches New Sonos PLAY:1 Blue Note Edition Wireless Speaker

Sonos is one of the most popular and successful makers of wireless speakers, and the company’s success has led to several similar product lines from other speaker companies (including BlueSound, Samsung Shape, Polk Omni and Denon Heos). Still, Sonos hasn’t launched a new speaker since the 2013 PLAY:1. Today that changed, and the newest edition to the Sonos lineup is… another PLAY:1. Meet the special Blue Note edition.

The limited edition Play:1 Blue Note speaker is being produced to honor the 75 years of Blue Note Records, an iconic brand in the history of jazz and blues music. While the new speaker is essentially identical to the original Sonos PLAY:1 (read our Sonos PLAY:1 review here), there are a few features that will appeal to Blue Note fans. First, this version of the PLAY:1 is custom painted (using robots, says Sonos!) in a vertical fade from dark navy to cerulean blue “reflecting the deep bass to the richly detail highs that people know and love about the PLAY:1,” says the Sonos press release.

The most important difference between the Blue Note PLAY:1 and the original is that the limited edition speaker comes with a Blue Note radio station that’s not available to the other speakers in the Sonos system. Blue Note PLAY:1 owners get a year of free access to that station that features handpicked selections from greats like Robert Glasper, Jose James, Terence Blanchard, Ambrose Akinmusire, Lionel Loueke, and Blue Note president Don Was, who has curated 125 of his personal favorites. If you already have Sonos speakers and add the Blue Note speaker, the exclusive Blue Note station will play on all your speakers, not just the new one.

There are also two Blue Note stations, Born in Blue and Blue Note 101, available to all Sonos users now and found in the TuneIn radio service.

As noted, the Blue Note edition of the PLAY:1 wireless speaker is a limited release—Sonos only made a little more than 4,000 of them. The speaker goes on sale March 5 only on the Sonos web site for $250, which is $50 more than the standard PLAY:1. You can’t get this one on Amazon or in a retail store.