Along with the announcement, the company has also shared a unique study it undertook to learn about the positive effects of listening to music out loud in the home — that is, without those little white buds stuffed into your ears. The study, which was helmed by This Is Your Brain on Music author Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, revealed some pretty interesting data.
The experiment took place in January of this year. After conducting a 30,000 person survey, the company outfitted 30 families worldwide with Sonos systems, Apple Watches to monitor heart rate, movement, and calories burned, and iPhones to capture and log the data — as well as to control music playback. Families were first logged during a week without music out loud in the home, then for a week while music played out loud frequently.
According to the data collected, music listening as a group makes relationships stronger and brings people together. Families who listened to music regularly during the study spent a claimed 67 percent more time together in close proximity than previously, eating an average of one more meal together per week. And, in a more literal sense, couples in the study reported having twice as much sex when listening to music out loud together frequently.
In addition, the study concluded that listening in the home also made people 12 percent less “jittery,” 24 percent less irritable, and 25 percent more inspired.
“For years, Sonos owners have been telling us amazing stories about how music has transformed their houses into homes,” said Sonos’ CEO John MacFarlane of the study, “We’ve never been able to put that magic into words, but this research illustrates the real impact of listening to music out loud together — and that makes the Sonos effect easier to understand.”
By integrating its multiroom speaker system with Apple Music, the company looks to help families the world over live better lives — and to use that positive data to move more of their speakers onto the marketplace. The cheapest standalone Sonos speaker, the Play:1, currently sells for $200, and the cost of outfitting each room can get pricey pretty quickly.
However, Sonos and other multiroom audio systems make it extremely convenient to fire up music in the home wherever you are right from your phone. The company is hoping its new data will prove that convenience doesn’t just make it easier to jam out to your favorite tunes, it makes for a better overall living environment.
Whether or not Sonos’ data would hold up under any scientific scrutiny is definitely up for debate, but it’s certainly an interesting point to make in the age of personal media devices that make users more and more engaged in their own micro-environments: When we all engage in music together, we’re all better off for it.
For a rapidly growing company looking to be your total in-home sound solution, Apple Music integration is an important new feature, and one that will give Apple fans another reason to consider going all in with Sonos over other brands. That’s especially true if you believe the data from the new study.
After all, if the simple act of listening to more music together could make you happier, healthier, and more sexually fulfilled, who wouldn’t consider a multiroom sound solution?
Sonos believes music is just that powerful — and the company, of course, wants to be sure you consider the Sonos way for your life-changing solution.
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