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Sonos partners with Audi on in-car hi-fi

Sonos partners with Audi on in-car hi-fi

A photo shared by Audi today featured a small Sonos logo on the in-car speaker.

Courtesy of Audi

Smart speaker maker Sonos has teamed up with Audi to add its connected audio technology to the company's upcoming 2022 Q4 e-tron model. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence officially confirmed the partnership during an investor event Tuesday afternoon. "We love to be getting started with Audi, they are very innovative on this front and willing to experiment," Spence said.

Rumors about a potential partnership between the two companies first broke Tuesday after Audi released photos of the Q4 e-tron's interior, which showed speakers donning the Sonos logo.

The news comes just as Sonos introduced its latest speaker, the $169 Sonos Roam, which is the company's first fully portable Bluetooth speaker that doubles as a full-fledged member of a Sonos system when within reach of a home Wi-fi network.

 Janko Roettgers

Janko Roettgers (Twitter, Mastodon) used to be a senior reporter at Protocol, reporting on the shifting power dynamics between tech, media, and entertainment, including the impact of new technologies. Previously, Janko was Variety's first-ever technology writer in San Francisco, where he covered big tech and emerging technologies. He has reported for Gigaom, Frankfurter Rundschau, Berliner Zeitung, and ORF, among others. He has written three books on consumer cord-cutting and online music and co-edited an anthology on internet subcultures. He lives with his family in Oakland.
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