How to Add an Internet Radio Station to Sonos by Its Stream URL

Published 16 October 2026

The Sonos app finds a great many stations through the radio services you add to it, but not every station is listed, and sometimes you want one particular stream of a station. For those, Sonos adds a station by its address, its stream URL, and it does that through TuneIn. This guide covers that route step by step, what to check when the station does not show up, and the ways to play a station on Sonos without TuneIn.

What you need

• The station's stream address. This is the direct link to the live audio, not the station's website. The radio stream URL finder gives you the address the open Radio Browser directory lists for any station in it: type the station's name and copy it.
• A stream in a format Sonos plays. Sonos's help page says the stream has to be MP3, AAC or WMA. When a station is listed more than once, pick a direct MP3 or AAC address over a playlist file (.m3u or .pls) or an HLS address ending in .m3u8.
• A TuneIn account and the TuneIn app on an iPhone or Android phone. TuneIn's help page does not ask for a paid plan.
• TuneIn added in the Sonos app, signed in with the same TuneIn account you use in the TuneIn app.

Step 1: save the address in the TuneIn app

1. Open the TuneIn app and check that you are signed in with the account you use on Sonos.
2. Go to Library and tap customURL.
3. Paste the stream address and let it start playing.
4. While it plays, tap the heart on the Now Playing screen, choose Favorite station and give the stream a name.
5. Check that the station now appears under Library, then Favorites. Sonos says a custom station has to be listed there to show up in the Sonos app.

Step 2: play it on Sonos

• Sonos app (iPhone, Android or the web app): from Home, open Your services, then TuneIn, then Favorites, and choose the station.
• Sonos S1 Controller on a phone: open Browse, then TuneIn, then Favorites.
• Sonos S1 Controller on a Mac or PC: in the Select a Music Source pane, choose TuneIn, then Favorites.

If the station does not show up or will not play

• It is not in TuneIn's Favorites. Go back to the TuneIn app and check Library, then Favorites. If the station is not there, Sonos cannot see it. Owners on the Sonos community have reported that tapping the heart sometimes did not save a custom stream; play the address in the TuneIn app first and try again.
• Two different TuneIn accounts. The TuneIn app and the Sonos app have to be signed in to the same one.
• The format. If the stream will not play, try another entry for the same station in the stream URL finder; many stations are listed with several addresses in different formats.
• The station moved its stream. Stations change their addresses from time to time. Look the station up again and save the new address.
• It plays in the TuneIn app but not elsewhere. Some stations limit their stream to listeners in their own country, and a stream that plays at home may not play abroad.

Other ways to play a station on Sonos

AirPlay from an iPhone, iPad or Mac

On Sonos speakers that support AirPlay 2, play the station on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, in any radio app or in the browser on 72FM, and choose the Sonos speaker from the AirPlay menu. Nothing has to be saved anywhere, so this is the quickest way to try a station.

A cable into a line-in

Sonos products with a line-in, such as the Five, Amp and Port, can play whatever a phone, laptop or small streamer plays into that input, and many streamers accept your own station addresses.

Home Assistant (for the technically minded)

Home Assistant's Sonos integration can send a speaker a direct link to audio. Its documentation says the speaker must be able to reach the address and that format support varies, so test the stations you want. Internet radio in Home Assistant covers the Home Assistant side.

Which way to choose

• A station you will play often: the TuneIn custom URL, so it sits in your favourites in the Sonos app.
• Trying a station tonight: AirPlay from an iPhone, iPad or Mac.
• A radio that does not depend on any service: a streamer on a line-in, or Home Assistant if you already run it.

For the wider picture of radio on Sonos and what else is around, see Sonos Radio alternatives.