I'm adding a playbar to an existing sonos system and the sonos app is asking for clients email and pw when trying to add a new player. Why? Never seen this before. Client is not here and not answering phone or email.

PW? I can see the normal crap of having to enter in the email address for marketing & software updates like I got this Am with 2ea connect Amps I installed, never a password.

Probably you touched "new system" rather than "existing" system. There could be a networking issue. I suggest that you abort the installation and start over using a wired network connection. You can go wireless later if necessary.

Did a quick web search. Might have something to do with Spotify. Seems that for the ability to control Spotify via the Spotify app you have to register your Sonos products to Spotify.

So if this was activated by the customer then installing a new playbar might auto trigger the need to register that device into the account thus requiring the need for the Spotify user name and password.

[Link: sonos.custhelp.com]

My read of the document is that integrators will run into this going forward. We'll need to cough up the registration email address and the Sonos account password for the system. This will make life miserable for me because customers are rarely present while I install and they wouldn't know their Sonos registration details in any case. Now, I'll need to suspend work until I can track down the customer and straighten this out or make a point of digging this information out in advance.

That could be it. They did have Spotify added to their system. This was definitely NOT an issue of trying to setup a new system. It was adding the playbar to an existing system.

See, that's what I was talking about when I wrote about Sonos not communicating with dealers. They need this channel. Is it really that hard to warn dealers that the change is coming, and here's why ...?

You have to create a Sonos account now. Its really a pain in the ass. You have to know the password to add a new component.

Looks like a lot of systems are going to be registered to the integrators moving forward. Counter intuitive. I can't believe what a swing in the polar opposite direction we are on the heels of (the big news) from just a few months back.

Unless there is a "duplicate" lockout.

They may not want to hear what we have to say when a problem arises. They showed that they don't care about us when they decided to sell directly to the public and when they offer a 30% discount on all of the the products at a time of year when we're busy anyway, add to our customer base with holiday sales and compete with other CI and retailers, we shouldn't be forced to compete with manufacturers, too. If time allows, I'll do jobs that are pure labor- I make money doing that but I won't make a habit of it unless I have some kind of medical episode that causes me to want to deal with different equipment on every job- we can't know the intricacies of every brand and model out there and nobody should try. Knowing the fine points of what we sell sets us apart from the big box stores and many other retailers and that allows us to do what's known as 'Custom'. They don't really cater to what we do- they want to push boxes and make setup easy, so we aren't needed by their customers.

They just keep nudging us towards the edge....

I guess we can just listen to the phone and if another dealer decides they don't want to install what was bought direct because of a manufacturer's sale, do it and make a new customer. I did this in December after I received a call from someone who had gotten a quote from a dealer and when she returned from their store, she had an e-mail from Sonos that offered all products at 30% off. She called the dealer and asked if she could buy the rest of the items in the quote and they could install the Sonos- he told her he wasn't interested, even though they charge over $90/hour fro labor. She then went to a neighborhood community website and asked for recommendations, getting two for me, so she called. No muss, no fuss install- added a network cable to the backside of the alcove where the Sun Room TV lives (very easy to go from the basement through the garage), installed a switch for the equipment, Play Bar & sub, made the WiFi work better and moved the microcell for the ATT cell phones (which had never been set up correctly). 7 hours plus parts that I wouldn't have billed for if he hadn't dug his heels in and I gained a happy customer.

If I have a choice between driving to pick up equipment that I'll sell at my cost to match a manufacturer's sale price and replacing another dealer who isn't interested, I'll install it every time, as long as I have time and I can make time for that. That saying "Once a customer leaves a store, there's no guarantee they'll ever return" is something I take seriously and I do almost everything through repeat business and referrals from existing customers.

Sonos is such a cheap little over-heating plastic POS - we talk smack about Sonos whenever a client brings that shit up. We refuse to install sonos and refer to geeksquat.

For customers who need a stand alone streaming player we use these :

[Link: usa.yamaha.com].

???
I have no love for the company. But their little boxes are very solid, one of the most reliable things in this industry.
Your comment sounds like something that was installed very wrong and no other experience with the product. Or just happen to get that 1 in a million box that was defective and no other experience with the product.