A salesperson at one of my suppliers claims Spotify can be controlled inside the HEOS app just like it can inside of Sonos. 100% sure he says. Can anyone confirm? This would essentially make it a Sonos killer for me

Nope.

OTOH, sales people rarely have the knowledge they should.

I thought so. Too good to be true

Spotify Connect, not full Spotify. They want you in their app as much as possible. Sonos just happens to be “special”.

I still don't get what the real reason is that Spotify can't be in other apps. It all seems like speculation.

Analysts tell streaming services to 'own the customer experience' so they force end users to do everything through their app.
Sonos was effectively grandfathered in though, they have the most users.
BBC are now stopping everyone from accessing their radio stations through third party apps, apparently the except will be Sonos... see reason above.

How long this sort of arrangement lasts, well probably not forever, but for the moment Sonos will be pushing their advantage...

Each manufacturer/vendor is attempting to push their platform on to everyone else -- and each party has their own driving philosophy -- minimizing maintenance costs, monetization, data mining, "market power", etc. In my opinion all of these justifications are fragile and subject to change overnight. I make it very clear to customers that any of these Internet services are subject to being upset -- easy come, easy go.

Anyone who had been using Internet Radio on Yamaha receivers has recently had a bout with this. Some users can simply update their firmware, other users must start paying an annual fee. (depends on the model)

They're the 500 pound gorilla and they (Sonos) were there first, so Spotify likes them more.

I wonder how much Spotify gets from Sonos to let them be exclusive.

Does spotify connect allow streaming to multiple speakers now so that I won't have to go into Heos app to manage what rooms it plays into?

I know Airplay 2 can do that. I think it's a big advantage and I could almost use it as an alternative to Sonos in terms of easily sending music to room. I wish though that Airplay 2 speakers could stream directly from the Internet rather that from the device you're casting from

Does spotify connect allow streaming to multiple speakers now so that I won't have to go into Heos app to manage what rooms it plays into?

I know Airplay 2 can do that. I think it's a big advantage and I could almost use it as an alternative to Sonos in terms of easily sending music to room. I wish though that Airplay 2 speakers could stream directly from the Internet rather that from the device you're casting from

If you cast Spotify to HEOS or MusicCast, it works, but in the case of MusicCast, only the models with a check will stream without using another device.

[Link: usa.yamaha.com]

I miss Alan, and his references to Salespukes.