Your hardware or ours. Elite commercial sound, every time.
Curator Now is hardware-agnostic. It works natively with Sonos, Q-SYS, Marshall, and Epicentre, and streams from any browser on any device if you'd rather not buy dedicated hardware. The music is great regardless of how you play it.
Start 14-day free trialWhy being hardware-agnostic is an advantage.
The service is the constant; the hardware is the variable. Start with a browser tab, add Sonos as you grow, move to Q-SYS when you expand.
Some business music services sell hardware as a package: subscribe, and you're required to use their proprietary player. That creates lock-in, switch services and your hardware is worthless; the hardware fails and you're sourcing a replacement from the same provider; and any quality speakers you already own go to waste.
Curator Now takes the opposite approach. Music and hardware are independent concerns. You choose the playback hardware that fits your space, budget, and infrastructure, Curator Now delivers music to it. Already have Sonos? It works perfectly. Hotel runs Q-SYS? Curator Now feeds it. Want to start with a browser tab on an old tablet? That works too.
Every way to play Curator Now.
Five playback options covering everything from a single-room coffee shop to a 200-room hotel with a multi-zone AV system.
How to set up Curator Now with Sonos.
Sonos is the most common hardware in small-to-mid business deployments. Here's the complete process from account creation to music playing in your space.
Make sure your Sonos speakers are set up on your business Wi-Fi using the Sonos app. Each speaker or group should have a name that makes sense for your space, “Dining Room”, “Bar”, “Patio”. This naming carries through to Curator Now.
Sign up at activaire.com. The 14-day free trial gives you full access to the Pro plan so you can test multi-zone Sonos integration at no cost. No credit card required to start.
Go to Settings → Integrations → Sonos and authorise the connection with your Sonos credentials. Curator Now discovers all Sonos speaker groups on your network.
Each discovered group appears in the zone setup wizard. Three Sonos groups, Dining Room, Bar, Patio, become three separate zones, each with its own scene and daypart schedule.
Browse the 1000+ curated scenes and assign one to each zone. Set your daypart schedule, preview the transitions, hit Play. Your commercial licensing (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR) is active the moment your subscription is live.
Music transitions automatically on your schedule. Change scenes, adjust volume, and skip tracks in any zone from any browser or mobile device, even off-site. The Sonos app is no longer needed for day-to-day music management.
What you don't need to use Curator Now.
The most common question from new customers: “What do I have to buy?” The honest answer, for most businesses, is nothing.
Starting from scratch with no audio hardware at all? You'll need speakers and something to plug them into, a hardware decision independent of Curator Now. We're happy to advise on choices that match your space and budget. Ask our team.
Integration specifications.
Details for the IT team, AV integrators, or anyone who needs specifics before committing.
Audio quality: AAC 256kbps (browser and Sonos); lossless options available on Epicentre. Network: 1–2Mbps per active zone. Sonos requires local network discovery (mDNS). Q-SYS integration requires Q-SYS OS 9.4.0 or higher.
All integrations included at no extra cost.
Every plan includes all five: Sonos, Q-SYS, Marshall, Epicentre, and browser. You pay for zones and locations, not for connection types.