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SONOS

Music Makes It Home

“…probably one of the most unique studies involving iBeacons, music, and sex anyone has ever done.”

– TechCrunch (US)

People in today’s homes often share four walls, but little else. Even the one thing designed to bring us together socially – music – is usually trapped in our smartphones and earbuds.

“Surely, there must be a way to bring us back together. Would you believe… more technology? Music, to be more specific.”

– FastCompany (US)

So when Sonos added Apple Music as a streaming partner — which meant 14 million Apple Music subscribers could now play their tunes on Sonos’ hi-def wireless speakers — we saw an opportunity to shed light on something science has spent little time exploring:

Can music out loud change how we connect at home?

“It could be a real boon to science and research.”

– Forbes (US)

In the groundbreaking study “Music Makes It Home,” we conducted a live beta test to measure people’s physical and social well-being with and without music. We deployed biometric trackers, motion-sensing cameras, Apple Watches with a custom-built app, and iBeacons in 30 homes around the globe. And we surveyed 30,000 people worldwide about their music and relationship habits.

“If this [study] has inspired you to get the music flowing through your home and you’re in the market for a brilliant new speaker, check out our tried and tested results.”

– Good Housekeeping (UK)

All our results were verified with leading scientists, including Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, Ph.D., neuroscientist, musician and author.

In the end, we packed our findings — including 11,000 hours of video and 151 million individual data points — into a global newsroom that generated more than 500 original articles. A number of outlets sent journalists to participate in the experiment, including TIME magazine, VICE Sweden and UK Express.

“This is the worst-paying column I’ve ever written, since I’m buying all eight speakers Sonos lent me. Because I’m pretty sure we now spend more time eating, doing dishes, dancing and not talking about how my taste in music sucks.

– Joel Stein, TIME magazine

Better than the coverage, though, the campaign made the Sonos/Apple partnership a win for both sides. Activations of Apple Music on Sonos were 18 times greater than other streaming service launches. Apple couldn’t hide their excitement:

Thanks to an adventurous client, a bit of experimenting, and a persistent hunch that we’d really rather experience life together, millions of readers and customers learned that to to really make your house a home, you need to let the music out. Loud.

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