Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Plex for Sonos unlocks your music library’s full potential

By and
Plex for Sonos
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sonos has established a reputation as the preeminent wireless whole-home music system, and for good reason. Its combination of high-quality speakers, easy and intuitive app control, and support for nearly every streaming service on the planet makes for a very compelling product.

But one criticism of Sonos continues to dog the company, especially from audiophile circles: It has limited native support for audio formats, and cannot play any high-resolution files. For Sonos customers who have chosen to load up their music libraries with high sample rate, 24-bit lossless formats like FLAC or WAV, this has presented an unfortunate reality — transcode your high-quality music to a lower sample rate, 16-bit format, or don’t listen to them on Sonos at all.

Recommended Videos

Fortunately there’s now a workaround, thanks to Plex, the popular free media server known for its impressive digital video organization and streaming capabilities. Plex also possesses serious audio chops, with the ability to play many popular lossy, lossless, and high-res formats. What it can’t play directly, it can transcode on the fly, which means there are very few music files it can’t handle. In 2016, Plex launched beta support for Sonos as a client device, and after months of working out the bugs, it’s now available as a fully supported release.

Related

The result is an impressive expansion of what’s possible on a Sonos system. The biggest benefit is being able to play all of your tracks, regardless of the format you chose when you added them to your library. Plex can’t magically make Sonos compatible with your high-res audio files (we wish!), but it can let you listen to them, by transcoding them down to a 320kbps AAC format, in real time.

Another advantage: Your music library no longer has to be on the same network as your Sonos system, because the Plex Media Server can stream your tunes to any location that has an internet connection. For those of you lucky enough to own multiple homes with multiple Sonos systems, your library can stay put, while you access it from wherever you happen to be. A side benefit to this arrangement is that you can access a friend’s Plex music library just as easily (with their permission) as you can access your own.

If you’re new to Plex, it’s available as a free download and can run on a computer or a network attached storage device . The free version of the app will automatically organize your music collection via metadata, but Plex Pass subscribers get an extra bonus: audio fingerprinting — the same technology behind iTunes Match — will be used for even better automatic organization.

To get in on the Plex for Sonos action, make sure that Remote Access is enabled on your Plex server, then add the Plex service using either the Sonos Controller mobile app or the Sonos Desktop Controller app on your computer.

Once the service is set up, you’ll be able to browse your collection by artist or album, shuffle your entire library, or browse through your playlists. A Discover view also lets you see your most recent additions, most played songs of the month, and more.

For more information and to get started, visit the Plex website.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Kris Wouk
Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
How to move your Google Play library over to YouTube Music
youtube music pre installed android 10

YouTube Music will soon replace the Google Play Music streaming service, but you can easily transfer your musical library before the service fades out entirely. 

Google Play Music will end its nine-year reign to fully merge into YouTube Music, which debuted in 2015. 

Read more
How to stream free library audiobooks on your Sonos speakers
A mobile phone with the Sonos app open and showing the Libby audiobook source, in front of a Sonos speaker.

Thanks to new support for OverDrive's Libby app, Sonos speakers can now be used to listen to free audiobooks from your local library, providing a much-needed alternative to bingeing Netflix's entire catalog of shows.

Here's how to get going with free library audiobooks on your Sonos speakers:
Sign up for a library card if you don't already have one
If you've already got a valid library card from your local public library, you can skip this step. If you don't have one, the current situation may make it tricky to get one as most libraries require that you show up in-person with proof of your address to get a card. However, some libraries are now issuing temporary e-resource cards that can be used instead. Here's an example from the Portland Public Library's website.

Read more
Sonos takes aim at Apple Music and Spotify with ad-free, original radio stations
Sonos Speaker Logo

Sonos is a company best-known for its popular line of wireless home speakers, but today, with the global launch of Sonos Radio, it makes its first foray into creating the content that those speakers play. The new feature will be rolling out via a software update throughout the day.

Sonos Radio is a new music source within the Sonos app that acts as a central curation point for the company's original radio programming as well as many of the local radio stations that you'd normally access via TuneIn. Sonos' own content will be a mix of ad-free and ad-supported stations that appear to be designed to compete with both Apple Music and Spotify's biggest curated features.

Read more