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July 10, 2014

Shutting Down SoundCloud on Sonos

Projects rarely end cleanly. It’s tough to shut the door on something you’ve put yourself into, so more often than not, you set it aside, tell yourself you’ll pick it up again someday, and it ends up ignored and eventually forgotten. The slow death of software, I’m as guilty of it as anyone else, but in the case of SoundCloud on Sonos, I’m happy to say I won’t be. SoundCloud released an official service for Sonos today, so I’m shutting mine down. I started the project almost two years ago to solve a need that a lot of people had, and now that an official service is available, there’s not a lot of sense in keeping mine around. (If you need help setting up the official version, check the setup instructions. You can find uninstall instructions for my service here.)

Metrics

Overall, I’d say the project was successful. The service had roughly 10,000 unique households registered, playing around 22,000 tracks each day, and making 2 million requests to the server a week, all off word-of-mouth and one free Heroku instance. That’s a lot of houses filled with great music!

Mixpanel Metrics

New Relic Metrics

Goodwill

Metrics are one thing, but what really made me proud was all the kind e-mails and tweets. During the lower points, it felt good knowing that someone out there was a little happier because of something I made. If you’re using software you like, take a moment to write the creator(s) an e-mail, it’ll help more than you think.

glitch-mob-tweet

sarah-tweet

thank-you-email

thanks-email

Other Integrations and Source Code

Outside of support questions, the two most frequently asked questions I got from people were “could you do something similar for Mixcloud and 8tracks” and “can I have the source code?” With the service shutting down today, I imagine that’ll be on people’s minds now more than ever. Unfortunately, the answer to both of those questions is no, because I currently work at Beats Music, and doing either would probably be seen as helping out a competitor. (I started SoundCloud on Sonos before I joined Beats Music.) However, if you’re a developer, you might be interested in SoCo, an opensource library to control Sonos speakers I put out a while back. (For similar reasons, it’s now managed by a group of very active and very friendly developers.)

What’s Next

For non-compete reasons, I’ve got no immediate plans to do any new Sonos apps, nor any SoundCloud integrations, but my love for connected devices (what initially drew me to Sonos) is still strong and I’ll be exploring that with other devices as they catch my eye. You can always reach me at rsonawalla@gmail.com or @rahims.

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Comments

  1. Christoffer on July 10, 2014

    Thank you for your unofficial app for so long it lasted! :) Good there is still ppl like you on zeh internetz


  2. alex on July 10, 2014

    thanks you very much for your effort and idea for this project.

    Good luck!


  3. James Spratt on July 10, 2014

    Thanks again Rahim, only got my Sonos system the past couple of months but without Soundcloud and your hook up, it wouldn’t have been the same.
    Thank you.
    Go well.
    James


  4. SoundCloud für’s Sonos on July 10, 2014

    […] kam die E-Mail, dass der Workaround von Rahim Sonawalla nicht mehr notwendig ist (und dementsprechend auch abgeschaltet wurde) und SoundCloud ab sofort […]


  5. Paul Osman on July 10, 2014

    Amazing work Rahim.


  6. Thomas Windisch on July 10, 2014

    Thank you so much for your service that i used daily to listen to Soundcloud


  7. Stuart Whipps on July 10, 2014

    Your app made my Sonos twice as good – so thankyou!!


  8. Michael on July 10, 2014

    music is such a great thing and you gave some greater access – thanks for your setup!


  9. Svend on July 10, 2014

    Just found your integration a few days ago, but it gave me access to artists I couldn’t find elsewhere.

    Thank you very much for your work, and all the best for your future!


  10. Diego B on July 10, 2014

    Thank You!

    i’m new to Sonos but i’ve enjoyed the hack for real :D

    don’t be shy put a PAYPAL OFFER button.. you deserve it! :D


  11. Rahim Sonawalla on July 10, 2014

    Thanks, guys!

    Diego, my Paypal/Venmo address is rsonawalla@gmail.com. Tips are always welcome :)


  12. Mo on July 10, 2014

    Thanks for this unbelievable project. I bought 2 sonos systems and did not use them because I didn’t have any good music to listen to. I thought to myself a couple of months ago: how great would it be if I could listen to my soundcloud music on my sonos? And that’s how I found this jack.
    Thank you for creating this!


  13. Shem on July 10, 2014

    Once again, thank you very much for all your effort on this project.
    I could claim many of those daily track plays, because once I found your service I was able to ignore my old dull music collection and start playing new music from soundcloud.
    And for any record companies reading these posts, yes I then went on to buy some music.
    Thank you Rahim


  14. Jens on July 10, 2014

    Awesome project, you rock!


  15. Anon on July 11, 2014

    Another word of thanks — really enjoyed this plugin.


  16. T on July 11, 2014

    Thanks so much brother! 1000Dank!
    Your app was a life safer for me!!!
    So grateful!!!!!!!


  17. Jayden Tan on July 11, 2014

    I only got to use your SoundCloud app for 3 weeks before the official app was released but words can’t describe just how awesome your app was! Thanks a bunch!

    Jayden.


  18. Sebastian on July 12, 2014

    A simple: Thank you.
    Wish you the best


  19. James on July 12, 2014

    Hey man, thanks for all your great work with the Sonos app. It would be very mediocre without it. Very much appreciated, good luck with future projects, I hope they’re all just as well implemented and explained!


  20. Mauricio on July 12, 2014

    Great job Rahim!!! You totally made me validate my sonos purchase. Thanks so much for the hard work you put into this!!
    Good luck


  21. Cathy on July 12, 2014

    Thanks for all your hard work, you made our Sonos system the best and I please that Sonos has recognised the need for the app, but wish you could have got the credit.


  22. Jwlanky on July 12, 2014

    thank for your hardwork. It is really appreciated!


  23. Nic on July 13, 2014

    This service you set up was pretty much the only reason I use a Sonos. I don’t fully understand how you set it up, but I am really grateful that you did.

    Thank you!


  24. Anette on July 14, 2014

    Thank you Rahim!
    I would never have bought Sonos without your work!
    Really appreciated and grateful!
    Best wishes to you


  25. Sam Cranwell on July 15, 2014

    Your SoundCloud app for Sonos sure did fill the gaping musical void. It was an essential oversight on Sonos’ part for quite some time. Thank you for making it happen while Sonos got their act together.

    People like you make the internet go round.


  26. Olivier on July 15, 2014

    On my Sonos system I used almost only your Soundcloud `hack`, so many many thanks for setting up the service and explaining us how to connect to it!!


  27. Jake on July 15, 2014

    Was so excited to find your app, it made my Sonos useful. I’m almost sad to use the official one… doesn’t feel as special. :) Thanks for 14 months (for me) of jamming!


  28. John Thomas on July 17, 2014

    Ah, shame. Pressure from Sonos probably or Beats. It is always a blow when an independent developer gets bought out or loses his bottle. Coin is king I guess. But thanks for your input over the years, just a real shame it never turned into anything tangible.


  29. Guido Bouman on July 17, 2014

    Thanks for the all the work. Your service was a great enrichment for Sonos to lots of music lovers out there. Myself included.


  30. rob basford on July 17, 2014

    Thanks mate my lifes complete thanks to soundcloud sonos integration you did the world proud!


  31. Chris P on July 18, 2014

    Just wanted to pass on huge thanks for the Soundcloud hack you made – it made my Sonos 10x more used and useful before Sonos finally released an unofficial version. I really appreciate the work you put in!


  32. Manu on July 19, 2014

    THANK YOU!


  33. Heiko on July 20, 2014

    Thanks for your Soundcloud hack!! Looks like, you made Sonos to make it an official thing. So, what about a MixCloud hack next ? ;-)


  34. Andrew on July 21, 2014

    Thank you for delivering such an awesome tool in the meantime. Is there any way to port or transform the Sonos playlists using music from your service to point to the new SoundCloud service?


  35. Rahim Sonawalla on July 22, 2014

    Andrew, unfortunately there isn’t any easy way to move them over since those Sonos playlists are stored somewhere on your local Sonos system rather than on my service.


  36. Ferdy on July 24, 2014

    Thanks for all your effort!!


  37. Fraserhead on July 25, 2014

    Thank you!!!


  38. Phil on July 27, 2014

    Great hack! It worked like a charm! Thanks.


  39. William on July 29, 2014

    Many thanks from Sweden!
    The work you do is ground breaking and inevitable development.

    br

    William


  40. Steven on July 30, 2014

    Incredible work rahim, I was very honored that I was able to use soundcloud application so for in advance!!!! Do you think it will be possible to make a youtube plugin as well??


  41. Rahim Sonawalla on July 31, 2014

    Steven, it would be possible, but not something I would build (because of non-compete reasons).


  42. strANGELov3 on August 2, 2014

    Muchas gracias por todo! Keep it up!


  43. Trevor on August 3, 2014

    Thanks a lot for everything mate. Really enjoyed it while it lasted. Thanks again


  44. Iain Tait on August 18, 2014

    Thank you for the good times. Your work was appreciated by many!


  45. David on August 21, 2014

    Thank you for letting me enjoy it on my sonos before! #grateful


  46. Christopher on August 26, 2015

    You single handedly improved sonos for me and no doubt forced a official API integration.

    thank you!


  47. Sanjeev on June 18, 2016

    You filled such an important need for us! Thank you!!

    With the recent hypem changes, I wonder if you’re open to helping the songs community once again?


  48. Rahim Sonawalla on June 28, 2016

    @Sanjeev Glad you found it useful! Unfortunately, I’m still staying away from music-related projects.


  49. Francis on December 19, 2016

    This was great but now I am considering moving away from sonos as I can’t use my hypem account anymore (SoundCloud based) – does anyone know a way around this?


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