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In 2017, IKEA announced what was sure to be the collaboration of the year: a partnership with Sonos that’s guaranteed to change the way we listen to music. While no specifics were revealed at the time, we now have updated imagery that reveals what this highly anticipated collaboration will look like, and it turns out, it’ll look a whole lot like furniture. According to a recent IKEA announcement, the soon-to-be-released Symfonisk speaker doubles as a shelf, making it the perfect solution for small space–living music lovers. The speaker will officially be hitting shelves (no pun intended) this coming August.
As we discovered at last year’s Democratic Design Days event, prototypes for the collab look like a sleek series of speakers that features brackets, thus allowing the speaker to be used as a shelf itself or even as a sleek nightstand accoutrement. The line will work with all existing Wi-Fi-enabled speakers from Sonos and IKEA’s own smart lighting, thereby bolstering the brand’s foray into home automation and smart tech.
Although IKEA has already been working to expand its home tech offerings, the Sonos collaboration addresses the two biggest problems with getting into the home-automation game: cost and complexity.
“At IKEA, we strive to make solutions for life at home by integrating technology into our home furnishing offer that is easy to use and affordable, thereby making smart home technology accessible to many people,” said Björn Block of IKEA’s smart home division. “Together with Sonos, we want to democratize music and sound in the home and we want to create products designed for how people listen together at home. By teaming up with Sonos, we want to combine IKEA home furnishing knowledge with Sonos’s expertise with great home sound.”
Though we’ll have to wait until August to find out exactly which other exciting home decor technology advances we have to look forward to, IKEA made it a point to stress that its partnership is not just a one-off with Sonos but a long-term relationship—so the Symfonisk speakers may be the first of many sound-focused products to hit stores this year.
Can’t wait until then? Here’s an idea: IKEA has also created its very own Eneby speaker, which is available for purchase now.
See more cool home technology: The New Google Home Is Small, Pink, and Actually Affordable Amazon’s Alexa Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smarter How Williams-Sonoma Plans to Change the Way You Decorate