Bluetooth and quick-to-music features like Spotify Tap are the future of sound at Ikea now that the Sonos partnership has fizzled. It’s an approach that Ikea’s David Granath says will make sound more affordable and easier to use for more people.
”Our aim is to make sound accessible, functional, and enjoyable — without adding complexity,” said Granath, Ikea Range Manager for lighting and home electronics. “That’s what sets us apart, and that’s what we’ll keep building on as we shape the next chapter of what sound can be in the home.”
The revised strategy was announced alongside Ikea’s plan to go all in on the Matter smart home protocol, accompanied by a new Blomprakt Bluetooth speaker with an integrated LED light bulb. The speaker lamp is scheduled to arrive on Big Blue shelves in October for a price that should be less than €100 (under $120). It joins the colorful $49.99 Nattbad Bluetooth speaker announced last month. Both cost much less than the Ikea x Sonos offerings: the $179.99 Symfonisk Wi-Fi bookshelf speaker currently sells for almost double the price it debuted at in 2019, while the speaker lamps start at $269.99.
Both of the new Bluetooth speakers feature the dedicated Spotify Tap button that first appeared on Ikea’s $89.99 Vappeby outdoor Bluetooth speaker lamp back in 2022 (and is still available to buy). Give that button a press to start playing Spotify from where you left off, or press it again to play another track tailored to your interests. Ikea tells me that the feature requires a Spotify account, but it doesn’t require a paid subscription tier.
Ikea’s new speakers also leverage Bluetooth 5.3 to offer a multi-speaker setup. That means you can drop a few speakers into a room and quickly pair them together with a button tap. The sound will be mono, without stereo separation or multi-channel home theater audio, but it’ll surely fill the room. The speakers can also be shared between two simultaneously connected devices.
When asked about the dissolution of the Sonos partnership announced in May, Granath told The Verge that it ended without drama. “We had achieved what we set out to do and we both had our strategies and plans going forward. It wasn’t more dramatic than that.” But reading between the lines, the price and comparable complexity of those Symfonisk products seemed to factor into the decision.
“When you have to sell a speaker for over €200, you exclude a lot of people,” said Granath. “In January, we’ll probably have up to ten speakers coming in one go.” At least some of those will the be the result of an ongoing partnership with designer Tekla Evelina Severin — aka, Teklan. All the new Bluetooth speakers are expected to cost less than €100, according to Granath, in support of Ikea’s strategy to serve “the many people.”
Importantly, Ikea says it learned a lot from its eight-year Sonos partnership, including lessons in product development and supply chain. Now Granath says he’s focused on applying those lessons to reach more people with its own-branded speakers, make them easier to use and more affordable, and “trying a lot of new ways of fitting into home furnishing.”
To illustrate that point, Granath showed The Verge an unannounced battery-powered Bluetooth speaker with a flat circular design. It hovers on a stand above a small tray that looks like it could be used for keys, wallet, and a phone, or even some mixed nuts if you prefer. It’s these types of dual-use smart home integrations — speakers inside lamps and shelves, air purifiers and wireless chargers built into tables — that I particularly enjoy from Ikea.
For the many people willing to pay for higher-quality whole-home audio over Wi-Fi… well, you’ll just have to wait. Ikea is part of the Connectivity Standards Alliance working group that is trying to standardize speakers as a product type within Matter, but that’s still a long ways off.
When pressed on whether Ikea is doing any in-house R&D on the emerging LegatoXP speaker platform, Granath responded with a smile, “Let me pass on that.”
