Bose Angers Customers by Ending Cloud Streaming for Old Speakers

Bose Corp. announced this week that it will discontinue the cloud infrastructure for its “SoundTouch” line of audio speakers in February, rendering the devices unable to directly stream music from services like Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music and others.

Customers who still own and actively use the products, some of whom have invested thousands of dollars into Bose hardware, immediately voiced frustration with the company's decision and framed it as another example of so-called “smart” consumer tech gadgets having an arbitrary expiration date.