Sonos Launches Paid Lossless Radio Service ‘Radio HD’

Sonos on Thursday launched its own paid radio service called Radio HD.

The service includes more than 45 genre and artist-curated stations in lossless FLAC (16-bit/44.1 kHz), and it is in addition to the existing free Sonos Radio.

Sonos Radio HD will offer artist-curated stations that not only deliver playlists but interviews and commentary, with the first station being Dolly Parton’s Storyteller Radio and the first show being Songteller Special.

The company said the station will continually evolve with Parton’s hits, favourite artists, and commentary on songs and moments throughout her career. There are five other artist-curated stations lined up for early 2021.

The Radio HD subscription service — which will be available on the Sonos S2 app and offer a free 30-day trial — will also come with other original stations to promote mindfulness, productivity and relaxation including The Inner Now, Chill Beats and Mellow Morning.

There will also be deeper explorations into genres and music scenes, as well as sleep sounds with six dedicated sleep stations including White Noise, Brown Noise, Pink Noise, Rain, Rainforest and Piano. You’ll be able to set these sleep stations to repeat, as well as set a timer to turn them off.

The Sonos Radio HD service will launch in the UK and the US initially before expanding to other countries. It will cost $7.99 USD per month in the US and £7.99 per month in the UK after the 30-day trial ends. There’s still now word as to when the service will be launching in Canada.