There are all sorts of things you can fault Sonos for its Summer Software Meltdown. That it happened at all in the first place. That it was slow to publicly acknowledge the major issues plaguing customers after a May update went awry. But give CEO Patrick Spence a little credit for appearing in a Reddit Q&A on August 20, in the August Office Hours thread hosted by Sonos Community Manager (and aptly handled) KeithFromSonos. “You’ve been asking, I’ve been asking, and he’s been asking,” KeithFromSonos wrote. “Time to face the music.”
“I should have been here sooner,” Spence said in response to a chippy post early in the thread, and before the Q&A part went live. “I’m here now and you can expect to see me around here again.”
That’s a good thing — and I have zero problem saying that while also having recently said that Sonos needs a new CEO once all this is said and done. Spence in his CEO capacity first acknowledged the major software issues in a blog post in late July, nearly two months after the botched software update was pushed. That was followed up by more details from Spence in the company’s August 7 earnings call, in which he took the blame and said his “push for speed” backfired. The software update, which Spence has said was needed for future products, was pushed just before the announcement and launch of the Sonos Ace headphones. Spence also announced on the earnings call that two new products — ready for release no later than the end of October — would be delayed indefinitely until the software was fixed.
Some highlights from the thread, with some additional thoughts on our end:
- On the possibility of re-releasing the S2 app: “Everything has been on the table,” Spence wrote. “After doing extensive testing we’ve reluctantly concluded that re-releasing S2 would make the problems worse, not better.” That’s something we’d suspected, too. And it’s hard not to snort at the “after doing extensive testing” bit. Supposedly that was done before the May update pushed.
- On Sonos shifting from local playback to cloud-based services: “When we launched Sonos the dominant use case was local music libraries/servers running on your local network,” Spence wrote. “Since then, we’ve seen the number of customers using cloud-based music services explode.” Can’t argue with that. Spence later said in response to a question about the EU that the mobile app continues to talk directly to your speakers over your network.
- On the possibility of adding two-factor authentication and other security features: “We redesigned the new software to incorporate a modern identity provider to better protect your system,” he wrote. “We’re absolutely thinking about how we evolve the security from here, and 2FA is a possibility once we get the issues some customers are having with the core experience addressed.” Good. Two-factor should be mandatory in 2024.
- On the Sonos app not being integrated with the iOS lock screen and Dynamic Island: This one was from Keith, not Patrick: “Honestly, we love the idea of using the Dynamic Island. All of these avenues for control on iOS require a sort of collaboration with Apple to make this a reality. For example, we haven’t been able to convince them that Sonos control on the Lock Screen would be good for iPhone users.” Really? That’s not just an API thing? (I’m no developer, of course.)
- On KeithFromSonos keeping Reddit abreast of all the changes and fixes: “I’m fortunate to work with a lot of people like Keith across Sonos,” Spence wrote. “Keith has set a great example here on Reddit. We’re all learning from him and the way he engages with all of you.”
One final bit from Spence is worth including here, from that last post about Keith: “Part of the hard truth of the last few months is that you’re having experiences with our products that are hard to reproduce in our labs. The feedback you’ve been providing here is helping to make our products better. To be clear, this isn’t your job, but I’m incredibly grateful that you’re providing your feedback — it shows how much you care.”
All that is true. But it also doesn’t change how all those Reddit users and Sonos customers got here in the first place.