Sonos has announced a new venture that goes beyond its traditional high-end home audio hardware and includes a new product category: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Sonos Pro, a subscription-based model, is aimed at business users who already use Sonos and other compatible hardware to help them play audio more efficiently across their businesses, including multiple locations simultaneously.
Central to this is an online dashboard for managing commercially licensed music across more than one site, although the US is the only market to receive support from day one.
Sonos Pro for business
Patrick Spence, the company’s CEO, describes the growth of Sonos products in commercial spaces and paints a picture of companies returning to normal and trying to provide customers with an immersive in-store sensory experience.
Spence says, “Having tested various features at hundreds of store locations to better understand business needs and the complexities of commercial audio, we’re proud to deliver a simple solution designed from the ground up to… it meets the needs of this target group.”
The online dashboard’s remote management capabilities support things like playlist queues, as well as managing permissions for specific team members to take control. Subscribers also get access to Sonos Backgrounds for hassle-free selection of ear-friendly tunes.
The SaaS works with Sonos S2-compatible devices, including a range of One and Era devices, as well as the Port or Amp for connecting to your own hardware that wouldn’t otherwise be compatible.
US customers can expect to pay $35 per month for each location for the platform in addition to the hardware, and the company plans to expand Pro to more countries after that, although the company didn’t immediately respond Tech Radar Pro‘s request for more information on the global rollout.
