Jordan O'BrienSonos and IKEA are getting together to reimagine how users experience audio in the home, with the two hoping to come up with new sound experiences ideal for the residential market. It’s not yet known what the two companies are planning, but both have huge pedigrees. Sonos is the largest manufacturer of multi-room audio systems, while IKEA is the world’s biggest furniture retailer.
IKEA has been trying to inch in on the high-tech markets that have begun trickling down to the DIY market, and this is just the third step in that plan. Forming part of the IKEA Home Smart initiative, which originally began with wireless charging and moved onto smart lighting, the partnership will explore how to enable many more people to create atmosphere at home with great design, music, and sound.
Research has shown that people who live together and listen to music together spend more time together at home (three hours more per week than people who don’t listen to music together). When listening to music together people feel more inspired (25%) and they feel more loved (14%), and in addition to this 65% of all Millennials play music to make a place feel like home, further building the importance of music in the home.
“When we asked people what sound they associate with their homes many people mentioned that it is music that makes a home,” says Björn Block, business leader, IKEA Home Smart at IKEA of Sweden.
IKEA and Sonos will together strive to make it even easier for people to play any song, anywhere in the home, without interrupting the flow of daily life. Enabling people to create the right atmosphere in their home with great design, music and sound.
“Together with Sonos we want to democratise music and sound in the home, and we want to create products designed for how people listen together at home. By teaming up with Sonos we want to combine IKEA home furnishing knowledge with Sonos’ expertise within great home sound,” says Björn.
“At Sonos we understand the transformational power of music in the home,” says Patrick Spence, CEO at Sonos. “We believe that sound should be a considered element of home design, and together we will work with IKEA to create products and experiences that make people’s home look and sound more amazing.”
The IKEA and Sonos collaboration will be launched in store during 2019.