Sonos names Tom Conrad permanent CEO after 6 months as interim, as app issues persist
Jul 23, 2025
Key Points
- Sonos names Tom Conrad permanent CEO after six months as interim leader, tasking him with fixing a critical app performance regression that has slowed load times from 10 seconds to 90 seconds.
- The company shipped 5 million hardware units globally in 2024 despite the software problems, maintaining scale across voice-enabled speakers integrated with Alexa and Google Assistant.
- Conrad, who spent a decade as VP of product at Pandora, inherits a codebase that needs diagnosis and repair without losing new features that caused the slowdown.
Summary
Sonos named Tom Conrad permanent CEO after six months as interim leader. Conrad joined Sonos from Pandora, where he spent a decade as executive vice president of product, and previously held product leadership roles at Snapchat and Quibli.
The appointment arrives as Sonos grapples with software problems that have frustrated users despite strong hardware. The Sonos app now takes roughly 90 seconds to open and adjust volume, compared to 10-second load times before the company added new functionality. The problematic update remains in place, and the company has not explained the performance gap.
Conrad acknowledged criticism during his interim tenure, saying he is "grateful for the perspectives and critiques that many of you have shared these last six months." His stated priority is fixing the software experience by identifying what changed in the codebase and restoring performance without losing the new features that caused the slowdown.
Sonos shipped 5 million units globally in 2024, down from the prior year, but maintains meaningful scale in consumer homes. Several models including the One and Era 100 include built-in microphones and integrate with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Sonos's own voice control. That feature set has fueled speculation about acquisition interest from AI companies like OpenAI or Perplexity, particularly given Sonos's $1.3 billion market cap and distribution through retailers like Best Buy.
Conrad's experience managing product and platform scaling at Pandora through rapid music streaming growth suggests exposure to managing both performance and feature complexity. The immediate test is whether he can diagnose and resolve the app bottleneck that has degraded the user experience.