11/20 Update: TuneIn/internet radio information

[Gert Hoskens]

As Many, I also performed the (mandatory) update and now have less! functionality than when I bought the soundtouch 20 two years ago. I did buy it for the free internet radio.

While this forum is means to express the worries, it might be more powerful to comment on online retail websites / webshops / testing sites / radio station forums etc. and describe the restrictions that recently have been introduced like only internet radio channels through TuneIn and 15min delays on certain channels. This way we help and prevent more disappointing users.

“Black” Friday came early this year. Did not expect this from a quality brand as Bose. 

Another happy user that just became unhappy. 

[RAMSESII]

I have chosen BOSE Soundtouch instead of SONOS because of the sound quality.

Now, except with a NAS or pushing the radio from a smartphone through Bluetooth, my Bose is voiceless.

Tip for black friday: have a look at this: http://www.cabasse.com/en/multi-room-ecosystem/

I have listen to at a retailer: top quality. And with... V-tuner !

[Scottomatic]

End user dissatisfaction over the recent changes to Soundtouch's operating software is extremely high. Soundtouch's differentiating features, the preset buttons and no need for a wifi bridge, are negated by this change. As it is no longer possible to stream high definition content from the app, users must either attach a different streaming device such as chromecast or a computer to the aux port or use AirPlay (if user has older product with Apple AirPlay license), rendering the device significantly less valuable than competiting products that do not require such ungainly accomodations.

When Soundtouch added vTuner amd removed the ability to stream directly from content producers a few years ago, the reason given was DRM. This is suspect; computer operating systems and competing wifi home speakers are able to stream .pls. There is either no DRM liability or it is so trivial that competitors in the wifi speaker market have made the decision to accept it in order to satisfy their users. 

The timing on this change is attrocious, coming as it does before the holiday sales period. 

I encourage Soundtouch developers to add the ability to stream .pls -- which is a trivial enhancement to the software -- as soon as feasible, if it is at all possible under the agreement they have made with TuneIn. If that is circumscribed by the agreement, I should encourage them to modify or end the agreement. Sustained inaction may result in business failure. 

Until this recent change, I loved this product and encouraged others to buy them. Whomever advocated for this should be shown the door. (S)he's an idiot and does not belong on your team. 

[bart1000]

The missing stations for the UK, coiuld be related to enforcing geo-block rules.  So technically the stream works outside the UK, but the content providers does not want it displayed outside the UK.  Tunein may have also applied the rule incorrectly which may be the case for Absolute Radio.

If Bose used the Tunein API to integrate Tunein, and there are stream choices available, it seems that Bose is choosing the lowest bit-rate, or they are in a car mode option which gives them the lowest bit-rate.   This should be easy to fix.

[Osullik]

Looking for Swedish hit radio which no longer exists now internet radio has gone

[paudux]

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@neil51 wrote:

Here’s my list Bose:

The Breeze Wellington, New Zealand
More FM Wellington, New Zealand
Radio Active Wellington, New Zealand
Absolute 80’s UK
Radio 1 UK

No radio streams anymore, just get the “Hmm, We can’t play that right now’ error. I used to be able to walk up to the speaker, hit the preset and away it went. Now nothing. Did ‘Tune in’ give you a better licensing rate? Give use software updates to use an appliance we paid good money for that work. Now I need to use separate radio apps to stream to it.

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You can add to this:

Newstalk ZB New Zealand most listened to station

Sports Talk

It seems Talk back, sport and News (apart from Government controlled stations) have been removed by the Actions of Bose. Strategically not a smart idea, as I imagine it's the listeners to these stations that would invest in Soundtouch, the rest will be listening on headphones to iheart or spotify.

[tchervenov]

I am in Sofia, Bulgaria & I can not faind my Favorit radio FM+ http://fmplus.net/  on TunIn, also radio Melody and radio Classic FM and radio Nova are not playng,  gives me error 3103 on the Sountouch app, while they are playing on TunIn app !!!

Waiting for your help !!!

[Donelio]

Radio Frequenza Appennino (Italy)

[Mvitha711]

My station is not there. This is terrible 

shame on you bose for this 

[Sheffman]

In the UK, cannot connect to Premier Christian radio or UBC2, although it appears they are on Tunein, since if I open tunein outside of the soundtouch app, it plays. The way this has been handled is unnacceptable, and the result is an unhappy customer base, universally unhappy. Please reinstate the internet radio option.