He was the face of the company for eight years. Then, in a flash, he was gone.
The news that Sonos CEO Patrick Spence stepped down didn't exactly shock the people who had been screaming at their phone screens for months. You know the ones. The loyalists. The people who spent thousands of dollars on a multi-room audio system only to find out they couldn't even set an alarm or adjust the volume without the app crashing.
It was a mess. Honestly, "mess" might be too kind of a word.
When the board announced on January 13, 2025, that they "agreed" Spence would vacate the top spot, it felt like the inevitable end of a very long, very loud funeral. Patrick Spence didn't just resign; he was the primary casualty of a software strategy that valued a product launch calendar over the actual human beings using the products.
The App Update That Broke Everything
The trouble didn't start in 2025. It started in May 2024.
Sonos was about to launch the Sonos Ace, its first-ever pair of high-end headphones. It was supposed to be a triumphant moment. Instead, the company released a completely overhauled app that was, put simply, half-baked.
They cut core features. Things like:
- Local library searching (gone).
- Sleep timers (missing).
- Basic playlist management (broken).
- Volume responsiveness (laggy).
Basically, the "Passport" project—the internal codename for the app rewrite—was tied to the Ace headphones' release date. The software team had an immovable deadline. They were forced to ship a product that wasn't ready because the marketing for the hardware was already in motion.
Spence didn't apologize right away. In fact, he initially doubled down, calling the new app a "better experience" while customers were literally unable to play music in their own living rooms. That hubris? It cost him.
Why the Board Finally Moved On
By the time 2025 rolled around, the damage was visible in the numbers. Stock prices had taken a massive hit, dropping roughly 40% from their May highs at one point.
The company had to set aside $30 million just to fix the app. They even delayed two major hardware launches—reportedly a new streaming box—just to make sure they didn't break anything else. You can't run a premium hardware company when your software feels like a high school coding project.
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The board appointed Tom Conrad as the interim CEO, a role they eventually made permanent in July 2025. Conrad was an insider, a board member since 2017, and a guy with serious "product" DNA from his days at Pandora and Snap.
What the transition looked like
- The Severance: Spence didn't leave empty-handed. SEC filings showed a cash severance of around $1.875 million.
- The Advisory Role: He stayed on as a strategic advisor through June 30, 2025, earning $7,500 a month to help with the hand-off.
- The Bonus Wipeout: In a rare move for corporate accountability, the board decreed that no executives would get 2025 bonuses unless the app was fixed and trust was rebuilt.
Tom Conrad and the "Rebuilding" Era
Since taking over, Tom Conrad hasn't been shy about the mistakes made under the previous leadership. He publicly admitted the company "let far too many people down."
He didn't just talk, though. He reorganized the entire engineering department. Before, they were split into siloed product categories. Now, they are functional teams: hardware, software, design, and quality. It’s a move meant to stop "app-gate" from ever happening again.
And it's working, mostly. By the end of fiscal 2025, Sonos reported a 13% revenue growth in the fourth quarter. They beat the street’s expectations, and the stock started to breathe again. Conrad is focusing on "devices per household," trying to turn those single-speaker owners into the 4.5-product average households that keep the company profitable.
Is Sonos "Safe" Now?
A lot of people are still skeptical. The app is much better now than it was in the dark days of 2024, but the brand's reputation as "the one that just works" took a permanent scar.
Spence oversaw some great wins—the Arc, the Move, the Era 300. He took Sonos public. But his legacy is now inseparable from the month the music stopped.
If you're a Sonos user or an investor, the strategy is now clear: software first, hardware second. The company is trying to move from "rebuilding" to "imagining" again. They’ve cut about 200 jobs to lean out and are betting big on AI-integrated audio and that long-rumored video streaming player to diversify.
What you should do next
If you're still rocking a Sonos system and haven't updated your app in a while, it's finally safe to come out. The 2026 versions of the software have restored the majority of the "legacy" features that were stripped away.
For investors, keep a close eye on the Q1 2026 guidance. The company expects revenue between $510 million and $560 million. If they hit those numbers, it's a signal that the "post-Spence" era is officially on solid ground.
Check your firmware settings. Ensure your "Trueplay" is recalibrated if you're on the new app, as many users found their room tuning was wiped during the transition. If you're still seeing "missing speakers," a full factory reset of the app (not the speakers) usually clears the cache issues that have lingered since the 2024 debacle.