Sonos Radio represents the broadest and best selection of radio available around the world today. Exclusive content, curated genre-based stations, and more than 60,000 local radio stations now available to Sonos owners for free.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sonos (Nasdaq: SONO) today launches Sonos Radio, a free, ad-supported streaming radio service, exclusively available to customers in more than 10 million homes globally. Complementing the 100+ streaming options available on Sonos, the new service introduces a holistic and cohesive way to explore radio, bringing together more than 60,000 stations from multiple streaming partners alongside original programming from Sonos. Handpicked by a team of curators, DJs and artists, new Sonos Stations queue up diverse musical selections spanning customers’ favorite genres, inspired by both classics and current obsessions. Ad-free artist stations feature current influences and inspirations, starting with a personal station from Thom Yorke. In addition, Sonos Sound System, will feature new artists, stories and insights into today’s music. Customers can listen via the Sonos app starting today.

Today, nearly half of all listening time on Sonos is dedicated to customers’ favorite stations and DJs. In the age of streaming, radio continues to evolve, inspiring and complementing on-demand music services and podcasts, connecting global audiences eager to discover and engage in shared listening experiences.

“Sonos has always made it easy for customers to discover the riches of streaming music services by building premium products that sound great and by giving customers the freedom to use the services of their choice,” said Patrick Spence, Sonos CEO. “Sonos Radio brings together streaming radio services and a select set of curated radio stations in a simple, elegant way. This is just a beginning as we work to deliver services that provide our customers a better experience, and provide our music streaming service partners an opportunity to highlight their best content.”

Stream stations from around the world

Sonos Radio makes it easy to explore the world’s stations by integrating multiple internet radio services, including TuneIn and iHeartRadio, with more to come. Customers can listen to music, sports, news, and more from local stations based on zip code as well as access any station globally. Start the day with a local NPR station or enjoy favorites from around the world, including SomaFM in San Francisco or French radio station, RTL. Sonos Radio will be continually updated with new stations powered by partners, including integrations with Europe’s largest radio company, Global, and Radio.com for US listeners, both coming soon.

Tap into artist’s inspiration and explore new music on Sonos Sound System

Sonos Radio introduces original radio programming from Sonos featuring a range of music handpicked by DJs and artists. Sonos’ signature ad-free station, Sonos Sound System, is curated and hosted by the Sonos team, recorded in a newly built radio studio in Sonos’ flagship store in New York City. Listeners will enjoy a stream of new, well-known or rediscovered music, behind-the-scenes stories, as well as guest artist radio hours from the likes of Angel Olsen, JPEGMAFIA, Phoebe Bridgers, Jeff Parker (Tortoise), Vagabon, and more. Artist hosted radio hours, released every Wednesday, will start the stream of Sonos Sound System for a 60-minute radio show with music and commentary about inspiring artists, releases, and the host’s latest work.

Ad-free artist curated stations feature a regularly updated stream of hundreds of songs from artists inspired by their own influences and obsessions. Thom Yorke’s station, In the absence thereof..., launches today. In Thom’s words:

“Here in a new form is that ever rolling compilation / office chart habit of mine of putting together what I have found recently that fascinates or moves me, what obsesses me, challenges me, opens new doors, reminds me of what I might have forgotten, is insanely complex or elegantly simple, violent, funny, messy, heavy or light. Whatever has hit me over the head basically. It may be new or old or just dug up again. With all this time we have behind doors I hope this provides a welcome connection and escape…and perhaps stops the walls closing in quite so quick.” - Thom

Upcoming artist curated stations from Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes, David Byrne, and Third Man Records will debut in the coming weeks. New artist stations will launch regularly.

Sonos Stations, inspired by Sonos owner’s favorite genres, feature 30+ curated ad-supported stations. For a surprising mix of music handpicked by Sonos, enjoy stations including Concert Hall, Country Outlaws, Hip Hop Archive, Kids Rock, and more.

Sonos designed and developed custom programming and curation tools for Sonos Stations, delivering a regularly refreshed mix of new hand curated music. For the best listening experience across all Sonos Radio streams, Sonos partnered with Super Hi-Fi, a company delivering AI for digital music, for volume leveling across songs and ads, song blending, and seamlessly mixing in voice commentary.

Explore more of the 100+ services on Sonos

Sonos brought together long-time partners to deliver a great listening experience with Sonos Radio, from TuneIn and iHeartRadio, to Napster (formerly Rhapsody), the first-ever streaming service on Sonos. Rhapsody’s “Powered by Napster,” a complete music and audio platform service, is powering the catalog for Sonos Stations.

Sonos Radio was built to provide a source for customers to not only discover new music, but also the other services on Sonos. As a platform, Sonos Radio will continue to feature and celebrate new stations and featured programming from the 100+ services available on Sonos.
 

Start listening

Sonos Radio gives customers a great music experience from the moment they set-up, now pre-loaded in the browse menu of the Sonos app with today’s software update.

Global internet radio stations will be available for all customers worldwide. Sonos’ original programming will be available in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia to start. Support for additional countries will follow.
 

About Sonos

Sonos (Nasdaq: SONO) is one of the world’s leading sound experience brands. As the inventor of multi-room wireless home audio, Sonos innovation helps the world listen better by giving people access to the content they love and allowing them to control it however and wherever they choose. Known for delivering an unparalleled sound experience, thoughtful design aesthetic, simplicity of use, and an open platform, Sonos makes the breadth of audio content available to anyone. Sonos is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California. Learn more at www.sonos.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200421005148/en/

Media Contact
Tom Lodge
PR@sonos.com

LOS ANGELES (June 16, 2020) — Super Hi-Fi, the AI-powered audio platform that creates engaging digital music listening experiences, announced today that it has signed an agreement with Octave Group, a leading provider of music and branded entertainment experiences in retail, bars, and restaurants. The agreement will enable Octave Group, including PlayNetwork and TouchTunes, to offer selected Super Hi-Fi music technology in a fully integrated solution.
 

“Octave Group’s focus on creating meaningful, emotional connections with music for brands strongly aligns with our mission to build next generation listening experiences,” said Zack Zalon, co-founder and chief executive officer at Super Hi-Fi. “We are excited for the relationship with Octave Group and the opportunity it presents us to help significantly improve the overall retail music experience.”
 

In addition, Super Hi-Fi offers a wide range of capabilities including perfect song transitions, dynamic insertion of audio ads and promotional content, sonic branding, interstitials, audio news and podcast snippets, all perfectly stitched together for a high quality, fully produced result.
 

“Our singular purpose at Super Hi-Fi is to help digital music providers deliver better experiences to their customers,” says Zalon. “We are truly looking forward to working together with Octave Group and collectively delivering on that purpose.”
 

For more information about Super Hi-Fi’s services and technology, please visit superhifi.com/.


About Super Hi-Fi

Super Hi-Fi uses artificial intelligence to improve the digital listening experience by transforming gaps between songs into relevant and personalized content. The company’s patented technology is capable of understanding the infinite nuances within music with the expertise of a human DJ to improve transitions between content and create better extensions of digital brands. The result is perfectly transitioned streams of music, podcasts, interviews, news, weather, branding, advertisements, and other audio content. Based in Los Angeles, California, Super Hi-Fi is integrated by digital brands like Sonos, iHeart Radio, Peloton, and Napster, and has partnerships with such companies as TargetSpot, Universal Music Group, and The Associated Press.
 

Media Contact:

Ali Scott

rock paper scissors, inc.

(317) 507-9572

ali@rockpaperscissors.biz
 

About Octave Group

At Octave Group, we believe in the power of music and media to inspire emotional connections in shared spaces, enhancing the way people interact with each other and with their surroundings.  Our offerings include TouchTunes, the pioneer in crowd-sourced music and entertainment featured in bars, restaurants and other shared spaces, and PlayNetwork, the leader in helping brands create emotional connections with their customers through music and media, in-store and beyond. ​

We reach more than 100 million consumers globally every day through 450+ brands, 185,000 locations and 2,500 local partners. Octave Group has offices in New York, Montreal, Chicago, Seattle, London, Columbus, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Santiago, and Sydney.​

Visit us at www.theoctavegroup.com and follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/octave-group​

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SUPER HI-FI WINS 2020 MIDEMLAB STARTUP COMPETITION
Super Hi-Fi’s Mission to Differentiate the Music Listening Experience by
 “Powering the Space Between the Songs” Receives International Accolade
 

Midem, the venerable global music industry conference based in Cannes, France, has named Super Hi-Fi, the AI-powered audio experience company, as the winner of the 2020 Midemlab competition for music tech startups in the Music Distribution and Discovery category. Facing the most competitive cohort since the competition’s founding, Super Hi-Fi was selected from amongst literally hundreds of companies from around the world.
 

“We’re extremely excited to be recognized by Midem and honored by the choice of the jury,” says Zack Zalon, co-founder and CEO of Super Hi-Fi. “We believe that differentiation will be the primary driver of growth for the streaming music industry in the coming years, and this award is an excellent proof point that our vision is starting to break through.”
 

Super Hi-Fi creates unique audio experiences by weaving together discrete audio elements and music into perfectly-produced, highly engaging listening experiences. Like radio before it, Super Hi-Fi shapes digital streams to their contexts, be they related to premium audio (Sonos); broadcast (iHeart); fitness (Peloton); or even news (Associated Press), audio ads (TargetSpot), and artist content (Universal Music Group). These “moments of magic” won the strong support of Midemlab’s jury of leading VCs, journalists, and music executives.
 

“We have the honor every year of hearing from the most innovative music tech startups in the world, and this year proved again that innovation has no limit in the music sector,” comments Xavier Tumminello, Director of Midemlab. “Super Hi-Fi stood out to the jury of their category, who felt their service has great potential to fuel a new wave of listening innovation and to add overall value to the music business."

Past Midemlab winners include Soundcloud, Kickstarter, The Echo Nest, NextBigSound, and Asaii (acquired by Apple). Traditionally announced as part of Midem in Cannes, France, this year’s Midemlab competition was incorporated into the Midem Digital Edition and hosted online.

 

About Super Hi-Fi

Super Hi-Fi uses artificial intelligence to improve the digital listening experience. Super Hi-Fi transforms gaps between songs into relevant and personalized content. The company's patented technology is capable of understanding the infinite nuances within music with the expertise of a human DJ to improve transitions between content and create better extensions of digital brands. The result is perfectly transitioned streams of music, podcasts, interviews, news, weather, advertisements, and other audio content. Based in Los Angeles, California, Super Hi-Fi is integrated by digital brands like Sonos Radio, iHeart Radio, Peloton, Napster, Universal Music Group, TargetSpot, Elevated Music, and The Associated Press.
 

About Midemlab

Midemlab is the leading competition for innovative startups in the music industry and entertainment business. Previous participants have raised millions of dollars in funding following their appearance at Midemlab. Others have been acquired by major players and many are now well-established in the music ecosystem.
 

Midemlab would not be possible without the inspiring contribution & collaboration of its partners: Abbey Road Red, Music Ally, Plus 8 Equity, The Lynk, IAEL, Kuack Media, Rock Paper Scissors, 2112, Cap Digital,  Digital Lab Africa, East West Digital News, France Digitale, Les Echos, Lincc, Maddyness, Music Norway, Music Press Asia, Music Tech France, Music Tech Germany, Music WorX, Mustach, Silicon Luxembourg, STHLM Music City, Tech in Asia, Wallifornia Musictech, Wework Labs.

Los Angeles, CA -- May 5, 2020 --- Super Hi-Fi today announced it has surpassed 1 billion monthly music transitions, tripling volume from its last report in January 2020. Each transition reflects a unique AI calculation driving perfect song segues, sonic logos, personalities, audio advertisements, and other audio elements for commercial streaming music services. From its growing customer base, Super Hi-Fi’s unique AI audio stitching and dynamic presentation technology platform now services millions of music listeners around the world, every day.
 

“The future of streaming music is more than just playlists of songs with long gaps of silence,” says Co-Founder and CEO, Zack Zalon. “We’re using advanced technology to create very human experiences... tapestries of emotional listening that drives engagement, loyalty, and love. Our goal is to delight our customers and their listeners, and this milestone certainly indicates that we’re on the right track.”
 

Super Hi-Fi is a suite of AI technologies designed for digital music and audio experience providers across a variety of use-cases including music, sonic branding, artist content, audio advertising, news & podcast snippets, or virtually any other kind of audio content a service may want. The technology perfectly blends and dynamically delivers this content directly into streaming music experiences, all in real time. The results are highly personalized, scalable listening experiences which have been almost inconceivable until now.
 

The B2B solutions-provider services industries such as on-demand music streaming; broadcast and internet radio; business and retail music providers; and digital fitness music platforms. Super Hi-Fi transforms and customizes its audio products at the individual listener level by dynamically creating rich, personalized audio segments based on listener or brand preferences and instantly inserts them between songs mid-stream. Super Hi-Fi currently fuels enhanced experiences for Sonos Radio, iHeartMedia, Peloton, and Napster and has partnerships with Universal Music Group, The Associated Press, and TargetSpot.

 

About Super Hi-Fi

Super Hi-Fi uses artificial intelligence to improve the digital listening experience. Super Hi-Fi transforms gaps between songs into relevant and personalized content. The company's patented technology is capable of understanding the infinite nuances within music with the expertise of a human DJ to improve transitions between content and create better extensions of digital brands. The result is perfectly transitioned streams of music, podcasts, interviews, news, weather, advertisements, and other audio content. Based in Los Angeles, California, Super Hi-Fi is integrated by digital brands like Sonos Radio, iHeart Radio, Peloton, Napster, Universal Music Group, TargetSpot, Elevated Music, and The Associated Press.
 

Contact About This News

Ali Scott, rock paper scissors, ali@rockpaperscissors.biz

Five seconds. That’s the usual span of silence you encounter between tracks on a streaming audio service.

That flash of time is all that separates a bunch of random audio content from a branded, highly differentiated listening experience. It’s the deciding moment when you can lose interest and go do something else. Super Hi-Fi is using artfully calibrated, sophisticated AI to close these gaps. The approach echoes the distilled expertise of decades of broadcast radio, promising to dynamically personalize audio, but with the scale of AI.

“So far, the streaming services have virtually become commodities,” explains Super Hi-Fi founder and CEO Zack Zalon. “You can’t tell them apart. They all sound the same. AI audio techniques can change this and create long-term relationships between a service and their customers. There is a lot that can happen in the space between the songs. Today that space is a missed opportunity, and we aim to change that.”

Brands like Peloton, ad platforms like TargetSpot, media like the Associated Press, and music companies like UMG, iHeartRadio and Napster have grasped the opportunity. All have tapped Super Hi-Fi to tackle that five seconds and craft custom listening experiences on top of their existing offerings.

Super Hi-Fi’s AI can automatically deploy a range of techniques to transform silence into sonic engagement. It can be as simple as volume leveling or song-to-song transitions that keep the energy high; to a tapestry of sonic branding, interstitials, artist interviews, song/artist IDs, news, weather, and sports updates that turn once-dead air into insightful moments. These elements can be subtle or bold, yet they all work to make sonically diverse tracks into a cohesive experience.

“Our technology can calculate the ‘right’ transition between any two songs because it’s doing it in real time, even if these songs don’t seem like they’d work together at all,” notes Zalon. “We’ve found you can take, say, a hit by a 90s pop artist and make it sound great segueing into a 50s bebop track. Normally, that would be a pretty jarring experience, but because our technology knows what to do with it, it sounds amazing. The result effectively reconnects the presentation techniques of radio with the modern availability and quality of streaming, two formats that developed independently without exchanging ideas enough.”

The Super Hi-Fi team developed this tech over the course of several years, combining intensive research into AI and machine learning with a deep understanding of how radio stations and online personalities shape the listening experience and create audio brands that listeners instantly recognize. “We can create unlimited combinations and approaches built from customized components. Our system is extremely flexible and can sound radically different, but every use-case utilizes the same AI,” explains Zalon. One key aspect of this recipe: “It should sound like a human produced it and sound distinct when it comes out of the speakers.”

This is more than a cool tech trick. It adds value by differentiating services, creating brand identities, and increasing listening times. As an example, Super Hi-Fi and a commercial partner tested this approach on approximately 400K listeners and discovered that their AI song transitions alone increased listening time by 10%, a notable jump in engagement and revenue potential for thin-margin music services.

Executing this is no mean feat: Super Hi-Fi already handles more than 300 million real-time transitions a month and is prepared for far more. But building complex, large-scale tech products came second nature for the startup’s seasoned tech and product experts. The Super Hi-Fi team previously built and operated Muve Music, Cricket Mobile’s music service, which had 3.5 mil subscribers at its peak. They designed and launched CBS Radio’s consumer music streaming platform as well as AOL Radio, Yahoo Launchcast, and ran Virgin’s global music streaming platform for Sir Richard Branson. Additionally, members of the founding team had key roles at Deezer, TIDAL, Flipagram, and TikTok rounding out a diverse set of music industry experiences.

Thanks to this background, the team at Super Hi-Fi understands how to tailor the near-infinite possibilities of its tech to what services, brands, or other customers need. “Each one of our customers has used our technology in a different way,” Zalon notes, with new uses cropping up regularly, including in retail and dining environments and via branded curation applications. Yet no matter the use, they all eliminate the gaps between songs and help customers find their own distinctive sound for an enhanced, exciting listening experience.

About Super Hi-Fi

Super Hi-Fi uses artificial intelligence to improve the digital listening experience by transforming gaps between songs into relevant and personalized content. The company’s patented technology is capable of understanding the infinite nuances within music with the expertise of a human DJ to improve transitions between content and create better extensions of digital brands. The result is perfectly transitioned streams of music, podcasts, interviews, news, weather, branding, advertisements, and other audio content. Based in Los Angeles, California, Super Hi-Fi is integrated by digital brands like Universal Music Group, Associated Press, Peloton, Napster, and iHeartRadio.