Sonos, a developer of wireless multi-room music systems, has released Sonos System Software 2.0, an update to its digital music system.

The update lets you schedule daily updates to your music library, which can be used to get Audible content or podcasts.

Sonos 2.0 also lets users connect directly to millions of songs and thousands of radio stations using Rhapsody Web Services, without any need to install an application or turn on a computer. The system opens the world of multi-room digital music to anyone with a broadband connection.

The software update includes plug-and-play support for RealNetworks’ Rhapsody online music service, alarm functionality, improved multi-national Internet radio, additional language support, and other feature enhancements.

Sonos and the Rhapsody music service now provide music lovers direct access to millions of songs from the palm of their hand via the wireless Sonos Controller.

The computer-free, direct-to-service architecture of Sonos 2.0 allows users to instantly browse and play music the moment they pick up the Controller. Sonos 2.0 users in the United States can access a free 30-day trial of the Rhapsody music service, which features millions of songs from hundreds of genres, more than 100 commercial-free, professionally-programmed radio stations, and the ability to play customized radio stations based on your favorite artists.

“If there is one thing we consistently hear from our customers, it is that they enjoy more music with Sonos than they ever have before,” said John MacFarlane, Chief Executive Officer, Sonos, Inc. “Together, Sonos and Rhapsody now allow music lovers with a broadband connection to instantly access millions of songs all over their house.”

“The time spent ripping and managing a digital music collection leaves a lot to be desired for many music lovers,” said Mike McGuire, Research Vice President, Mobile Devices and Consumer Services, Gartner Dataquest. “This is particularly true of those users who have huge music collections, but no interest in investing limited free time fiddling with technology to digitize their libraries.”

The new Sonos plug-and-play experience with Rhapsody offers music lovers a variety of industry-first features, including:

• Mac, Linux and PC users can now enjoy Rhapsody in every room. With Sonos 2.0, Mac, Linux and PC users alike will be able to access the world-class Rhapsody experience anywhere in the home.
• Discover new music with Rhapsody’s Artist Radio. Just pick your favorite artist and Rhapsody creates a radio station with music from that artist as well as similar artists — to play all over the house.
• Built-in music charts. Sonos 2.0 provides access to Rhapsody’s charts of the top 100 songs, artists and albums in hundreds of music genres, making it faster and easier to find and play great music — from the bedroom to the backyard.
• Create an instant music library. When you hear a song that you like in the Rhapsody Music Guide or on Rhapsody Radio, you can instantly add the song or entire album to your music library — right from the palm of your hand.

Other new features of Sonos System Software 2.0 include the following:

• Alarm feature turns every Sonos zone into a musical alarm — providing clock, snooze, sleep timer, and scheduling capabilities that allow you to wake up, fall asleep or work out to your favorite music or Internet radio station.
• Expanded Internet radio guide with more than 300 pre-programmed stations, organized by country.
• French, Italian and Spanish language support.
• Automatic indexing of your music library, allowing you to schedule updates on a daily basis — ideal for enjoying daily Audible.com content or podcasts.
• Improved scroll-wheel performance for selecting single items from ever larger lists of music.
• The maximum local library and queue size has been expanded to 50,000 tracks.
• Support for the album artist tag; plus, the Apple¬Æ iTunes compilation setting, making it easier to browse through your music library.
• Gapless MP3 playback (of files encoded with Lame).
• Gapless Ogg Vorbis playback.

Source: Sonos