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Sonos Loses CEO As MacFarlane Steps Down

Sonos cofounder John MacFarlane has stepped down from his role as CEO after fourteen years.

Former president and chief commercial officer Patrick Spence will take over as CEO.

Writing about it on the company’s blog, Macfarlane says that he’s “excited to pass the role of Chief Executive Officer to a well-prepared Patrick Spence. Patrick demonstrated his leadership most recently with Sonos’ success during the holiday period, but more importantly, there isn’t a person who better embodies Sonos’ values and culture.”

He says that the company’s transition in leadership comes at a “magical time”.

“Music has made the transition to streaming. It took longer than we expected but it’s fully here now, leading with a handful of paid subscription services: Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, Google Play Music, QQ Music, Amazon Music, SoundCloud, Tidal, etc. There will be many more options for music lovers as the music labels learn to make a start-up friendly ecosystem and the paid subscription services build platforms.”

“Today, a Sonos owner can play almost everything ever made, and tomorrow we will certainly be able to do that with all manner of preferences, niches, themes, and mixes. Music is a wonderfully unique and developing thing, making our mission the most motivational in the world. It’s never been a better time for connecting music lovers in their homes to music creators,” Macfarlane said.

Though no longer on the company’s board of directors, Macfarlane is expected to continue to work with the company in some capacity.

He says “moving forward, I will remain as a Sonos employee, with a mission to help and advise. In addition to mentoring Sonos leaders, I will be focusing on two areas that I am most passionate about. First, I’ll help to center and potentially expand Sonos’ commitment to STEM education. Second, I’ll continue to work within the music and tech industries to help create a start-up friendly ecosystem.”



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