Everybody’s favorite connected audio solution got a little bit better this week. Heck, from where you’re sitting, the latest Sonos music service might even represent a dramatic upgrade… as I know XM Radio Online has been one of their most requested channels. While Sonos has streamed Sirius forever, XM Online just never made an appearance – as a solo entity or as part of the merged Sirius XM. So I’m glad to see my badgering finally paid off (and hopefully Slacker and Android are next in line).
As you can see from the screengrabs below, XM Sirius has updated their Account Management (center) and totally revamped their website (left). In fact, it appears they’ve finally merged the two brands/properties into one – no more separate and distinct sites for XM and Sirius. And these changes are more than skin deep… given what looks to be a single online streaming experience that covers both Sirius and XM accounts, in a new Flash player, along with the XM Sonos support – which is accessed via the existing Sonos “Sirius” music service entry.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like my XM account successfully completed its migration. So my enjoyment is still on hold. But I’ve opened a ticket with Sonos and am hopeful of receiving some Lithium real soon.
I usually enjoy your commentary, but why do you describe Sonos as “Everybody’s favorite connected audio solution”. Sounds suspicious, especially considering the high price of the systems, which I admit I’ve never heard of. $400? – what’s so special vs plugging any number of much cheaper internet audio devices into your stereo? Even a TiVo can play any internet radio station given a proper m3u file.
Eh, you can assume anything I write on a Friday night will be subpar. In fact, it’s been a killer two weeks of home projects (on top of work), compounded by bad weather and a mouse problem – I’m amazed anything is coming out coherent. So cut me some slack if the lede wasn’t entertaining as I’d hoped.
As a refresher, I wrote the (Engadget) guide on streaming satellite through TiVo. And I know several who’ve rolled their own whole-home Airport Express audio solutions. Basically, I’m well aware of alternatives – and our Sonos posts usually contain caveats regarding their expense. If all one needs is an iPhone speaker dock, this is the wrong solution. But there’s nothing more powerful and elegant for whole-home audio than Sonos in my experience.
Re: mouse problem. You need a cat!
And it’s not just Sonos that’s working w/ XM – the Squeezebox architecture now supports both Sirius and XM streaming as well.
Sweet, thanks for letting us know, Mark. Didn’t even think to loan my credentials to Mari for testing.