Sonos Radio update brings new free live stations to smart speakers, with guest presenters including Thom Yorke and David Byrne

(Sonos)

Sonos has launched a new radio service, allowing people to stream music for free.

It is the first time that Sonos has offered a music service of its own on its smart speakers, which until now have played music from other streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.

The new radio service sits alongside those streaming platforms, which will continue to work in the same way as before.

It is available now through a software update that can be installed using the Sonos app.

It integrates traditional radio programming on news, music and sport from other radio stations, taken from partners such as TuneIn. Sonos says there will be 60,000 of those radio stations available at launch, and more to come in the future.

But it also includes Sonos's original programming, which will include guest DJs from around the music industry as well as other music and "behind-the-scenes stories". They will come in the form of the main radio station – known as Sonos Sound System – as well as ad-free artist stations that will feature picks from musicians.

At launch, that includes a station from Thom Yorke. In the future, there will be stations from Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard, David Byrne from Talking Heads, and Third Man Records, with additional stations debuting "regularly", according to the company, and will appear on Wednesdays.

The original programming is produced from a new studio in Sonos' store in New York City, the company said, though that facility is understood not to be in use at the moment owing to the coronavirus lockdown.

Radio companies such as TuneIn have previously offered radio programming around the world through Sonos, though that has required the use of their separate platform. Sonos said it had worked with those platforms to build its new radio offering, and that they are now bundled together.

The internet radio stations will stilll be available for all customers worldwide. But the Sonos original programming is only available in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia for now.

The updates comes as Sonos is expected to launch a new operating system that it promises will bring new features but will also be unavailable on older hardware. The new Sonos Radio features will be available on both versions of the software.

That update has attracted criticism from users who argue that the new software could leave their older speakers useless.