Alexa Now Supports Apple Music in Australia and New Zealand on Echo, Sonos, and Fire TV Devices

[DevNull0]

Which Denon receiver did you get? Amazon has lots to choose from. Thanks.

I got the X1500H, mainly because it was fairly cheap for a current year model with Airplay2 support and multiple zones with enough channels which were my must have features.

For what it's capable of, the X1500H is an amazing deal, but depending on your price range and needs you may want something with more channels. For example, I can't use Atmos and Zone2 at the same time. A 9.2 receiver should be able to.

 

[nyfliiboy]

I really wish google would hurry up and support Apple Music

 

[Swift]

I love my HomePod but it’s just too expensive to put in every room. I would totally pick up a bunch of cheap Alexa devices to complement my HomePod if AppleMusic support on Echo came to Canada.

I got Alexa to play my Apple Music. It sounds like crap. I don't care how many rooms it's in. It's about the level of a table model transistor radio. Meh. Good for news shows and taking directions.

 

[rhcpsteve]

Is anyone else having issues getting this working? Alexa always says she can’t find xyz on Apple Music if I say “play xyz music on Apple Music.

If I don’t say “on Apple Music” it tries to play with iHeartRadio

Apple Music is set to my default.

 

[ipedro]

I got Alexa to play my Apple Music. It sounds like crap. I don't care how many rooms it's in. It's about the level of a table model transistor radio. Meh. Good for news shows and taking directions.

Good point though the places I’m thinking of debit an Alexa device, are places I don’t care about sound quality: bathroom, kitchen and the front hall. These are more places where I’m looking for an assistant, podcast playing and occasionally playing music which I’d like to have access to my Apple Music playlists. I have a HomePod I’m the living room and adding one to my bedroom next.

 

[MauiPa]

I can literally buy a pair of Sonos One speakers for the price of a single homepod. Sonos One is like a straight-up superior version of homepod in every way.

And the homepod is useless because I can't use it on my TV (non-Apple TV) and game console. A speaker is simple, plug it in (or pair it) and listen. Does homepod still need an iPhone to do anything useful? Does it still go into a more limited guest mode when the iPhone owner is out of the house?

Except it doesn't sound as good
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I got Alexa to play my Apple Music. It sounds like crap. I don't care how many rooms it's in. It's about the level of a table model transistor radio. Meh. Good for news shows and taking directions.

The echoes do suck.

 

[DevNull0]

Except it doesn't sound as good

Keep telling yourself that. Whatever you do, don't do any comparisons, the realization of how wrong you are might hurt your brain.

 

[citysnaps]

I can literally buy a pair of Sonos One speakers for the price of a single homepod. Sonos One is like a straight-up superior version of homepod in every way.

And the homepod is useless because I can't use it on my TV (non-Apple TV) and game console. A speaker is simple, plug it in (or pair it) and listen. Does homepod still need an iPhone to do anything useful? Does it still go into a more limited guest mode when the iPhone owner is out of the house?

I just bought a HomePod for $279. You can get a pair of Sonos speakers for that much?


"Does homepod still need an iPhone to do anything useful?"

You need an iPhone to do a one-time setup to your account. With respect to doing anything useful, if you mean playing music, yes, it does that. And it does that splendidly. Always on, waiting for a command, with no need to boot-up or engage another device. Apple Music costs $8.33/month - a bargain.

Of course you can AirPlay any audio from a Mac or iOS device if you need/want to. Or an Apple TV.
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Keep telling yourself that. Whatever you do, don't do any comparisons, the realization of how wrong you are might hurt your brain.

How long have you had your HomePod?

 

[Wellingtown]

If only Apple would allow Siri support for Sonos speakers also.

If only Apple would actually sell the Homepod in New Zealand!

Crazy that they add Apple Music support for competing devices yet ignore their own?

 

[Dodja]

I find the decision to open Apple Music in NZ strange, since HomePod is not available in NZ. Are Apple giving that whole market segment away?

 

[DevNull0]

I just bought a HomePod for $279. You can get a pair of Sonos speakers for that much?

Absolutely. I see the homepod for $279 at costco.com. I cant log on there to see the sonos price as I'm Canadian. But on Costco.ca, the homepod is $390 CDN which comes out to $290 USD. The Sonos 2-pack at costco.ca is $349 which comes out to $260 USD. $30 USD *cheaper* than the homepod. I can only imagine the US pricing on the sonos 2-pack is comparable and cheaper than the single homepod.

But the main take away, is I absolutely can buy a 2-pack of Sonos One speakers for $260 USD at a costco 10 minutes from my house, cheaper than your target price. I do see your $279 price, but I can't actually get a homepod for under $290 USD locally.

You need an iPhone to do a one-time setup to your account. With respect to doing anything useful, if you mean playing music, yes, it does that. And it does that splendidly. Always on, waiting for a command, with no need to boot-up or engage another device. Apple Music costs $8.33/month - a bargain.

I don't argue that $8.33/month is a bargain for people who want a music streaming service. I don't, at any price. I in no way criticize apple music here, the entire product category is just not for me. I have a personal library of about 2000 songs locally stored that I listen to maybe twice a month. Frankly, if Apple Music were free, I still wouldn't sign up. Music is not my thing. I do listen to a lot of audible audiobooks on my iPhone, but 99.99% of what I use my home sound system for is movies and video games, and the homepod is capable of neither.

Of course you can AirPlay any audio from a Mac or iOS device if you need/want to. Or an Apple TV.

Does it connect to my TV's audio return channel? Does it connect to my xbox one or 4k bluray player? No?? Then it is 100% useless.

How long have you had your HomePod?

As I said, it doesn't actually connect to anything I care to play on a speaker, to me its a $280 doorstop. But do you mean to say you can't actually hear an audio product without owning it? I'm in no way an audiophile or audio snob, but I listened to a heck of a lot of speakers before choosing my home theatre setup. Homepod is comparable to any $200-300ish soundbar type setup or sonos one.

 

[biting-mammal]

Is anyone else having issues getting this working? Alexa always says she can’t find xyz on Apple Music if I say “play xyz music on Apple Music.

If I don’t say “on Apple Music” it tries to play with iHeartRadio

Apple Music is set to my default.

I have the exact same issue!

 

[TheBody]

I have the exact same issue!

Yep, same here. What an anticlimax. Bought an Echo in December after the announcement then discovered no Aussie support, conveniently left out of just about every press release .. long wait and finally “out” and doesn’t work properly. Nice work Apple/ Amazon. Did play my personalised radio station when I asked it to play “anything” on Apple Music so I’d guess the search integration is buggered. Maybe I just need to sound more American...

 

[Winni]

Now what we need is Apple Music support on Google Home devices. That will further eat into Spotify's market share.

Be careful what you wish for. That kind of monopoly would be awesome for Apple -- and YOU would be paying the bill for it.

 

[whatgift]

I cannot for the life of me get my Echo Dot to play my custom Apple Music playlists, I get a response for all of them along the lines of: "I could not find that in Apple Music". I've tried combinations and ordering of words and it says the same thing for all of them. Has no problem playing the curated Apple Music playlists though.
I've heard some people have this problem and some don't, is there something I'm missing?

 

[P_Devil]

Now if only they could get shuffle to actually work instead of the current mess and add support for other speakers like the UE Blast/Megablast and various other Alexa-enabled speakers.

 

[57004]

Why the hell does Amazon regionalise this kind of feature I'm still waiting for the Skype integration that the US got about a year ago but is still "Coming soon" for Spain.. For music services I could imagine some kind of contractual deals holding things up but for Skype this is total BS

I suppose I could simply switch my Alexa account to US and be done with it (I use my Echos in English anyway as I hardly speak Spanish) but it's just stupid that I have to.

 

[NJC]

Alexa now supports Apple Music in Australia and New Zealand on Amazon Echo and Amazon Fire TV devices, and compatible Sonos speakers, as reflected in a recently updated Apple support document.

This means Apple Music subscribers who own one of those devices in those countries can now ask Alexa to play songs, artists, playlists, and more from Apple Music. This functionality first launched in the United States in December before expanding to the United Kingdom and Ireland last month.

Read our guide on how to set up Apple Music in the Alexa app, including how to make it the default music service so that you don't have to say "on Apple Music" each time you ask Alexa to play something.

(Thanks, Brad!)

Article Link: Alexa Now Supports Apple Music in Australia and New Zealand on Echo, Sonos, and Fire TV Devices

Can anyone actually see the link to connect the service in Australia. I can see other choices but not Apple Music. The recent update didn't seem to enable it.

 

[nexusrule]

Keep telling yourself that. Whatever you do, don't do any comparisons, the realization of how wrong you are might hurt your brain.

I own Sonos one so definitely not biased, but objectively like 90% of trustworthy reviews agrees HomePod has a better sound quality. Quite normal I would add considered the difference in internal audio components.

 

[actcyclist]

I have a Sonos One with Alexa and added Apple Music. It announces the music I ask it to play but dead silence follows.
This isn't the first frustration with Alexa on Sonos, but quite frankly it's very unreliable compared to the HomePod.
Advice to everyone, don't buy a Sonos One unless you are prepared to spend hours sorting out techical problems. If you want reliability, just get the HomePod.

 

[moooooooo]

It not in Canada still. Wonder why?

I was wondering aboooooot it too.

 

[Amuthan]

I just connected my Alexa with Apple Music (From Australia). Alexa is not good as Siri and Google Assistant in terms of finding tracks quickly. I bought Alexa as it has an output socket so that I could connect it to my bluetooth speaker. Unfortunately Alexa is not so smart like Siri and Google. I think Apple TV is the best solution for this.

 

[Shanghaichica]

No the echo doesn’t sound as good as a HomePod but I think the regular echo certainly doesn’t sound like garbage. Even the third gen echo echo dot is somewhat decent for its size.
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I just connected my Alexa with Apple Music (From Australia). Alexa is not good as Siri and Google Assistant in terms of finding tracks quickly. I bought Alexa as it has an output socket so that I could connect it to my bluetooth speaker. Unfortunately Alexa is not so smart like Siri and Google. I think Apple TV is the best solution for this.

I don’t really use my google home minis that much for music but I agree the HomePod is the best for music playback. Not only in terms of finding tracks but also putting together playlists if you ask it to ‘play some music’.

I love the HomePods selection of tracks when I ask it to randomly play music. The echo even now that Apple Music is set as the default tends to infuriate me when I ask it to randomly play music.