If you’ve ever wanted to listen to podcasts on your Sonos speakers, then there are actually several ways to stream them, be it from the Internet, your computer, or from a mobile device such as a phone or tablet.
The Sonos system has a lot of versatility and functionality. Setting it up is a virtual cinch and from there, you can do a number of cool things with including adding streaming music services and using it as a sleep timer or alarm. Podcasts are no different.
Stream Podcasts Directly from the Internet
If you want to stream podcasts from the Internet, then look no further than the Sonos software.
First, click on the “Radio by TuneIn” in the music sources.
Select “Talk” from resulting list, and then “Podcasts”.
You can add choose any podcast available from the selections, then click on the little arrow to the right of your selection and then you can play it, add it to your favorites, as well as check out any information and options available on it.
The number of podcasts out there is relatively vast, and there’s a chance you may not see your favorite podcast in the TuneIn selections. In such a case, you can try Stitcher or Spreaker, which are streaming services you can add. Note that you may have to create accounts for these streaming services in order to use them.
If these options really don’t appeal to you, then you can also stream podcasts from your computer.
Stream Podcasts from Your Computer
If you prefer to download the podcast files to your computer, using a program like iTunes or MediaMonkey, then you’ll have to share the folder to where you save your podcasts. To do this, open the Sonos desktop app on your computer. Click “Manage”, and then “Music Library Settings”.
On the Preferences screen, you will need to add the location to where you want to save your podcasts. On a Mac, click the “+” symbol or on a PC, click “Add”.
If your podcasts reside in your default music folder, then leave this option as is. If they’re saved in another location, then browse to it and select that location.
Your podcasts will be listed in the app under Music Library > Artist. Depending on whether a podcast supplies any metadata, you may also see them under Music Library > Genre > Podcasts.
Unfortunately, every time you add new podcasts, you will need to re-index your music library. To do this, click “Manage” and then “Update Music Library Now”.
Stream Podcasts from Your Phone or Tablet
If you want to stream podcasts from your mobile device, you can do that too.
On iOS
Your iPhone or iPad come preinstalled with a Podcast app, so when you subscribe to and download new episodes, they will be available in the Sonos app automatically. Simply tap open the music menu, then “On this IPhone”.
Now tap open “Podcasts”.
All your downloaded podcasts will be available here so you can easily stream them to your Sonos player or players.
Finally, let’s turn to Android and show you how to do this from that platform.
On Android
On Android, you will need to download podcasts to the “Podcasts” folder of your root directory. How do you do this? It’s pretty easy, but not altogether convenient. Let’s show you how.
On most Android devices, anything you download is automatically saved to the Downloads location, which means you have to copy or move any podcasts from that folder to the Podcasts folder (if they aren’t saved to it already).
One way to do this is to use a file management tool (there are many available from the Play Store). In this case we’re using the popular app Astro. We’ll select our podcast, which we’ve just downloaded, and move it.
Here, you see the Podcasts directory in the root location of our Android device’s storage system to where we’ll move our podcast files.
Once moved there (you should probably download and move all your podcasts at once, rather than one at a time), you can now find them on your Sonos app.
Open the Music menu and select “On this Mobile Device”.
Then select “Podcasts” from the choices.
And, you should now be able to see and play any podcasts on your Android device.
It’s not as easy as on the iPhone or iPad, but once you get the hang of it, you should have no troubles.
RELATED: How to Add Streaming Services to Your Sonos Player
There are of course, other simpler ways to listen to podcasts on your Android device, but in order to send that audio to your Sonos player, you’ll have to jump through some hoops. Overall however, the simplest way is to listen to them directly from the Sonos app itself.
