The Squeezebox Makes the World A Smaller Place

Hello, I am Robin Selden and I am the head of the Squeezebox Business Unit here at Logitech. When I am not listening to my Squeezebox, I am golfing (just got a new set of clubs), gardening
(knees are starting to feel the pain, but otherwise love it), and I play around with photography.

I was demonstrating our Squeezebox to a retailer while I was in France a few months ago, showing how you can easily pick up Internet radio stations from all over the world and he said something that really struck me. He smiled and said, “The Squeezebox makes the world a smaller place.” And it is so true. The fact that within seconds I can be listening to a Mumbai station and then switch to my local San Francisco station to hear the weather forecast never ceases to amaze me, and I know it sounds corny, but it makes me feel more connected to the rest of the world. And if you look at the Google trends stats on Squeezebox we really are being used all over the world – our number one language creating buzz online is Norwegian – Norwegian! I bet you wouldn’t have guessed that. But then you probably wouldn’t have picked our second language either – which is Danish.

Adding to this global theme for the Squeezebox is that it is designed by people all over the world, because we have an open development platform and because Logitech is truly a global company. We have a number of passionate open-source developers contributing to the product every day, and we have Logitech engineers all over from California to the UK to Minnesota to Switzerland … and they all have one thing in common: they love music (and they’re brilliant, but I’ll save that for another post).

Getting back to making the world a smaller place. We like to say in our marketing material that the Squeezebox introduces people to a world of music. What we should really be saying is the Squeezebox introduces music from around the world to people. There is something about music that creates a common bond no matter where you’re from. I like to think the Squeezebox is doing its small part in making our world a smaller place.

Author

Vice President and General Manager, Streaming Media Systems

9 comments

  • My boyfriend has a subscription to Sirius satellite radio that he listens to on a built in factory installed unit in his vehicle. I want to give him something that will allow him to listen to Sirius in a building behind our house. Is the Squeezbox the right product for that?

  • Yes, if you purchase the Sirius Internet Radio package for $2.99 (U.S.) per month for subscribers or $12.95 (U.S.) per month for non-subscribers, you can listen to Sirius Internet Radio with any of our Squeezebox Network Music Players.

    http://www.sirius.com/squeezebox

  • Hi,
    i´m about to order a squeezbox classic. I want to listen to the music on my PC. Does the PC need to run if i want to listen to the stored music ? Or do i need to use a MP3tunes account ?
    thanks! albert

    • Hi Albert,

      If you want to listen to music that is stored on your local computer, the computer needs to be on. If you like to keep your PC off, you can use a music locker, like MP3Tunes. You upload your music and then it is always available from your Squeezebox menu. Enjoy your Classic!

      -Robin

  • Hello,

    I’ve had my squeezebox for over a year and I still love it. Today I downloaded and installed the latest version of the slimserver (now renamed squeezecenter). It made me wonder why Logitech wants to destroy the squeezebox. After downloading and installing the server on my computer, I tried to access the web based server management console. I was thrown into a mess of Logitech account sign-up that I never made it through. This is my server running on my computer. I don’t need or want an account with Logitech to make it work. In the end I deleted the new server and reverted to the old one. Please stop trying to ruin the squeezebox.

    • Thank you for giving us your feedback, Ed. Our goal is to get all Squeezebox owners up and running and listening to music as quickly as possible without unnecessary set-up requirements.

      We have all types of Squeezebox owners and want to provide flexibility so that your player can be set up the way you like it. We are in the process of improving the setup experience, so we will take your input and apply it to our new design.

      Glad you love your Squeezebox. And have a happy holiday.
      -Robin

  • Robin,

    I respect you for not simply moderating away my previous comment. Since my comment was negative in tone, I’d like to present the positive side of my squeezebox experience. Until I got my squeezebox I had not listened to music in my home regularly in years. It was just to much trouble to dig out CDs and load the into the player. The squeezebox changed everything. Yes, it took a while to load my CDs into my Mac, but setting up the SlimServer to access all the music in my iTunes directory was easy. With all my music instantly available through my Squeezebox I started listening to music in my living room every evening. I stopped buying songs from iTunes because they wouldn’t play on the Squeezbox and I joined eMusic and began purchasing songs from Amazon to get new MP3s to play on it. The Squeezebox is at the center of my music listening.

    I listen to music, podcasts, and internet radio on my squeezebox and I’m planning to buy more Squeezboxes for other areas of the house. I really value the openness of the Squeezebox platform under Slim Devices and I would very much like to see Logitech continue their policies. If I see benefits to having an account with Logitech and connecting to your servers then I’ll do that. However, I want to continue to run my own server to stream my own music in my own house without having to sign up and get Logitech’s permission to do it. The Squeezebox is a wonderful, ground-breaking, game-changing device. Logitech can sell plenty of them and make money on add-on services as well without becoming controlling and heavy-handed like cable-TV or cell phone companies.

    – Ed

  • I’m having a bit of trouble navigating the maze of your Squeezebox products. I want to connect to stereos in different rooms. Besides the functionality of the remotes, what are the differences between the Squeezebox and the Duet? Having a configurator or comparison on your web site would be very helpful.

    • Hi Bill,

      Thank you for the suggestion on the product configurator or comparison chart. We will add that. In the meantime, the best way to get answers on which Squeezebox is right for your system is to contact 1-650-210-9400 (you can use Skype if you like), 9-5pm PST, and either Matt or Clay will help you.

      Regards, Robin

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