A Letter from John MacFarlane - Sonos Founder
The Next Generation of Sonos Leadership - John MacFarlane hands over the baton to Patrick Spence.
Here in his own words he describes the transition of SONOS.
As the founder and CEO of Sonos, I am always trying to find leaders who are capable of taking Sonos to the next level, part of that means assessing my own role. With Sonos now poised for a new phase of growth, I am excited to pass the role of Chief Executive Officer to a well-prepared Patrick Spence. Patrick demonstrated his leadership most recently with Sonos’ success during the holiday period, but more importantly, there isn't a person who better embodies Sonos’ values and culture.
Patrick's leadership comes at a magical moment for Sonos. Music has made the transition to streaming. It took longer than we expected but it's fully here now, leading with a handful of paid subscription services: Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, Google Play Music, QQ Music, Amazon Music, SoundCloud, Tidal, etc. There will be many more options for music lovers as the music labels learn to make a start-up friendly ecosystem and the paid subscription services build platforms. Today, a Sonos owner can play almost everything ever made, and tomorrow we will certainly be able to do that with all manner of preferences, niches, themes, and mixes. Music is a wonderfully unique and developing thing, making our mission and brand promise the most motivational in the world. It's never been a better time for connecting music lovers in their homes to music creators.
Add to that the advent of useful experiences with voice assistants in the home to complement the smartphone, tablet, watch and laptop in finding the right music, at any given time of your day. Here at Sonos, we all came to this epiphany differently and at different moments, but the work we’re doing now will deliver meaningful experiences for music listening at home.
Other elements around our home ecosystem are maturing as well, home Wi-Fi is becoming mission critical, the reason we developed our mesh network and Boost, as reflected in the growing diversity and depth in the consumer Wi-Fi market. The smart home is on the cusp of becoming an experience beyond early tech adoption.
The pivot that Sonos started at this time last year to best address these changes is complete, now it's about acceleration and leading. I can look ahead and see the role of Sonos, with the right experiences, partners, and focus, with a healthy future. In short, the future of the home music experience, and the opportunity for Sonos has never been better. Never.
There are no typical transitions of leadership, especially for founder-led companies where the strength lies in a central interpretation of the culture that is essential for the formation and development of a new company in a complex and rapidly changing environment. However, the culture must move beyond the founder, and that's a unique path for every company. It is that moment for Sonos and I trust Patrick and the team with this growth.
Moving forward, I will remain as a Sonos employee, with a mission to help and advise. In addition to mentoring Sonos leaders, I will be focusing on two areas that I am most passionate about. First, I’ll help to center and potentially expand Sonos’ commitment to STEM education. Second, I’ll continue to work within the music and tech industries to help create a start-up friendly ecosystem.
It's been a pleasure and honor working toward a mission of filling every home with music. The fifteen-year journey has been filled with fantastic adventures, hard learnings, and everything in between, and I look forward to our next chapter.
Sincerely,
John
http://press-us.sonos.com/141425-the-next-generation-of-sonos-leadership
Sonos has a new CEO
Wireless audio company Sonos have promoted a new CEO from within the company to take over from founder John MacFarlane.
The billion dollar a year company is expecting further growth after growing sales 20% in 2016. Sonos is now 15 years old as a company and its wireless music systems are among the most well known, especially within the multi room audio market.
Former Blackberry manager Patrick Spence will take over as chief executive.
Former CEO (and founder) John MacFarlane
New CEO Patrick Spence
The change comes as Sonos readies itself to work alongside the growing number of voice assistants and connected SMart Home technologies such as Amazon's Alexa and Google's Home.
2017 should see the Sonos music system be able to play music simply by calling out requests for an artist, album or track.
5 Questions to ask yourself before buying your Sonos Music System.
Five very basic questions you should ask yourself before buying your Sonos Music system. Everyone is different, we all like different music, want to listen in different areas and at different volumes. Here are five simple questions to ask yourself before you buy your first Sonos system.
A Tribe called Quest Sonos Play:5 special
Sonos have just released their limited edition A Tribe Called Quest speaker this month.
Just a few weeks ago, iconic rap group A Tribe Called Quest announced they'd be releasing one last album. And on Friday, November 11th, We Got It From Here, Thank You for Your Service, was released to great excitement from all sides of the music industry. And it seems, the excitement is coming beyond just within the music industry too, and from the audio industry as well, as wireless speaker innovators Sonos got involved with the release too.
Sonos and A Tribe Called Quest partnered up to make 50 custom designed PLAY:5 speakers in honor of their new album. Designed with red, black and green color blocking associated with the group, the speaker also has custom artwork of the album title from artist Richard Prince.,
There is also a special mural in the Sonos New York City store, which was hand painted by Prince himself as well.
The Sonos Sub is now available in White
The amazingly cool Sonos Sub is at last available in White.
Everything sounds better with SUB. But does a White Sub sound even better? Well No, but it looks great.
When you pair a SUB with any Sonos speaker, you’ll hear parts of your music that you wouldn’t hear otherwise. SUB does all the heavy lifting required to deliver the low, low frequencies, letting your other speakers focus on perfecting the mid and high-range frequencies. You won’t just hear the difference. You’ll feel it.
The Sonos SUB integrates into existing Sonos systems seamlessly, and adds oodles of delicious bass, transforming a good audio setup into a great one. To learn more about Sonos contact H3 Digital on www.h3-digital.com/sonos
