“Our mission is to fill every home with music. I start every day by asking myself how we can do that better, and how we can serve our music lovers better”

CEO of Sonos, trailblazers in wireless speaker systems, John MacFarlane has written about the future of their speakers in “an industry of transition”. In particular MacFarlane expressed interest in developing voice activated tech for their systems in a similar vein to Amazon Echo speakers’ AI – Alexa.

In the blog post MacFarlane applauded Amazon’s originality in using voice recognition with a speaker, saying: “The Echo found a sweet spot in the home and will impact how we navigate music, weather, and many, many other things as developers bring new ideas and more content to the Alexa platform.”

Voice recognition has become synonymous with smartphones and computers but the market for voice controlled speakers is currently occupied by Amazon alone. Sonos can see the possibilities of the technology and how impactful the technology could be on people. We live in an increasingly efficient society where improvement often means convenience and the ability to just tell your speaker “Play so-and-so” would be a happy upgrade for many.

MacFarlane said: “Sonos is taking the long view in how best to bring voice-enabled music experiences into the home. Voice is a big change for us, so we’ll invest what’s required to bring it to market in a wonderful way. Our mission is to fill every home with music. I start every day by asking myself how we can do that better, and how we can serve our music lovers better now and over the long haul. We know the future is one where paid streaming and voice control play significant roles, and we’re committed to running a sustainable, profitable business so that we can fund innovation in these and other areas for decades to come.”

“Now that music fans can finally play anything anywhere, we’re going to focus on building incredibly rich experiences that were all but unimaginable when we started the company”

He also spoke about the rise of music streaming and how the industry is changing, and how that means Sonos needs to adapt. Speaking on streaming’s ever-increasing popularity, he said: “This shift is irreversibly started, and everyone in the ecosystem is adjusting to a world of streaming services. The Beatles library, now available on all the streaming services, is a perfect example of how labels are leaning into streaming.”

He continued, saying: “The path forward for the music industry is crystal clear, so too is our path at Sonos. We’re doubling down on our long-held conviction that streaming music is the dominant form of consumption now and in the future. Now that music fans can finally play anything anywhere, we’re going to focus on building incredibly rich experiences that were all but unimaginable when we started the company, and will be the vanguard of what it means to listen to music at home.”