Bose angers customers by ending cloud streaming for old SoundTouch speakers

By Chris Welch

 

Bose Corp announced this week that it will discontinue the cloud infrastructure for its “SoundTouch” line of audio speakers in February, rendering the devices unable to directly stream music from services like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music and others.  

Customers who still own and actively use the products, some of whom have invested thousands of dollars into Bose hardware, immediately voiced frustration with the company’s decision and framed it as another example of so-called “smart” consumer tech gadgets having an arbitrary expiration date.

 

“We had to make the difficult decision to retire the cloud infrastructure that supports our SoundTouch systems, originally introduced over a decade ago in 2013,” a Bose spokesperson told Bloomberg by email, mirroring a communication that was sent to SoundTouch customers on Thursday. 

 

“Technology has advanced considerably since then, and while SoundTouch has served our customers well, maintaining its aging platform at the level of performance and security that our customers expect — and we hold ourselves to — is no longer sustainable,” the spokesperson added. The company explained that third-party technologies used by popular music services also factored into the move.

 

Bose said any SoundTouch speakers with Bluetooth, auxiliary line-in connections, or an HDMI port will still be able to play audio from devices. But cloud support, which is vital for the products to communicate with streaming music services, will end on Feb. 18th.

 

“We recognize this change may take some adjustment and want to provide customers with the information they need for the transition,” the spokesperson said. “Looking ahead, we’re focused on building the next generation of connected listening experiences powered by modern technologies.”

 

Soon after being notified about the situation, customers took to Bose’s Reddit forum to share in their disapproval and anger over the pending shutdown.

 

Bloomberg reached out to one user, Richard Lomas, who said his aunt and uncle — both in their 80s — still use a SoundTouch speaker at their senior living home. They’ve grown accustomed to pressing the device’s preset buttons to easily play their favorite music stations, but soon those buttons will no longer be functional. 

 

“They don’t have cellphones anymore due to dementia,” Lomas said. “There will be no using aux or Bluetooth or AirPlay as were suggested to me by Bose. This is sad and infuriating all at once.” Lomas said he owns “well over” $1,000 worth of Bose equipment but will never purchase another item from the company if the decision to take SoundTouch offline stands. “This is a red line. You don’t treat customers like this,” he said.

 

Bose is offering affected customers a 25 per cent discount on future purchases. In follow-up replies to some users who contacted the company, Bose explained it is “actively evaluating trade-in and upgrade options that can provide a more meaningful path forward.”

 

The company offered an apology to Lomas by email, acknowledging that current products “may not replicate the exact SoundTouch experience you and your family have relied on for years.”

 

Other connected speaker makers have grappled with similar dilemmas. In 2020, Sonos Inc. announced it would leave its very earliest products behind on the company’s “S1” platform while upgrading newer hardware to a more modern “S2” software framework. 

 

Even after splitting its devices off in this way, Sonos maintained cloud support for those old products: They can still connect to and stream content from services like Spotify. Bose has opted to completely suspend cloud functionality for all SoundTouch products.