Still waiting for Apple Music integration here in the UK.
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Amazon Confirms More Alexa-Enabled Speakers Will Eventually Support Apple Music
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When did Apple open up iPod? Porting iTunes to Windows was all about selling more iPods (and more music on iTunes). Apple knew most people weren’t going to buy a Mac just so they could use an iPod or buy music. I’m not arguing that Apple Music should be confined to HomePod. I’m arguing that Siri should be opened up instead of Apple promoting Alexa. Let Sonos natively use Apple Music...with Siri. Oh and make a cheaper HomePod (like they did with iPod nano). How does Siri get better if Apple says go ahead and use our services with other people’s voice assistants? Are they really not opening up Siri because that might mean Spotify would work with Siri? That’s ridiculous.
The sooner You move, the better. Apps are forced to Abos.
And apple mainly sells no innovative overpriced crap nowadays
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Because HomePod just starts selling here in Europe. They wanna milk the people first
I don't think this is related to HomePod at all. It's likely more related to their desire to increase revenues in the service side of things despite estimates that physical device volume is predicted to stagnate.
it's what apple HAS to do to keep revenue growth up given that most of the physical products they're currently selling are in mature markets where large growth is stopping.
this is a good move
I would love to see an Alexa enabled HomePod, that would be a hard to beat smart speaker on the market. Siri is just horrible in a lot of ways, I cant stand it and I just disabled Hery Siri on my iPhone. My HomePod stays in the bedroom just for my personal use that thing sounds really good, and my Echo Plus 2 (actually sounds pretty good too) stays in the livingroom for everything and controls a couple Hue color light bulbs and general inquiries for the whole family.
So they talk about other devices, we presume still ONLY in the US seeing as they have failed to mention any other country getting this feature? People will just continue with the competition then..
I use Siri with Car Play and my 2 Homepods (stereo) and love them—the sound, and they generally do enough for me including some Homekit things, calls, add to lists, weather, podcasts, etc. I just bought an Echo for our BR because of cost and because it can now stream Apple Music. It does 80-90% of what I can do with Apple Music with Homepod but the sound is just adequate—but adequate enough for some music while reading in bed (and Sleep timer) and alarm when needed. It did very easily and quickly open CNN on TuneIn though—which Homepod can’t. Horses for courses (& I did not allow the Echo to have access to contacts, phone number, etc because of the privacy I do have with my Homepods). I don’t consider having Apple Music on the Echoes as admitting Siri is a failure—but it does need expanded and improved.
Do we know how much Apple makes off Apple Music subscriptions? Is it a money making business?
Agree—the mics are exceptional and the sound with 2 Homepods is terrific—and I do have concerns about Echo ‘spying’ but it won’t get much in the BR while I read at night LOL.
Diane are 2 HomePods worth it if I was to listen at 50% volume max and I was chilling in different parts of the room and not directly in front of HomePods? HomePods would be at desk
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Also I hope they do listen in on my bedroom activities at night while I bring random women over. I can just see Tim Cook with headphones on, listening in to the crazy things I say during playtime.
Going by that logic then Apple should be bringing it to Google Home devices too. I am curious though how many people not already in Apple’s ecosystem (or not already Apple Music subscribers) are going to subscribe to Apple Music because it’s now available on non-Apple hardware. Is that a huge demographic? Also why does Apple want its customers using Alexa instead of Siri?
[doublepost=1545244891][/doublepost]I have a Zolo Halo at work and echo dot at home. I can play my playlists to my Zolo at work today. I did leave my echo on when I left for work so my dogs would have some background noise. I wonder if that is how my playlists are working on my Halo.
Amazon has confirmed that Apple Music will eventually be supported on additional Alexa-enabled speakers, according to a tweet from Mashable's Raymond Wong spotted by AppleInsider. Amazon didn't provide a timeframe for the rollout.
A variety of third-party Alexa speakers and devices are available from brands such as Sonos, JBL, Ultimate Ears, and First Alert.
Apple Music went live on Amazon's line of Echo speakers last Friday in the United States. This allows users to link Apple Music with their Amazon account in the Alexa app for iOS and use Alexa voice commands to control playback of Apple Music songs and playlists and Beats 1 radio on Echo speakers.
To access this feature, simply use a voice command such as "Alexa, play music by Ed Sheeran on Apple Music" or "Alexa, play today's hits on Apple Music." Apple Music can also be set as the default music service in the Alexa app so that "Apple Music" does not need to be specified each time.
Apple and Amazon announced this new partnership in late November, with Amazon saying it is "committed to offering great music providers to our customers," and referring to Apple Music as "one of the most popular music services."
Article Link: Amazon Confirms More Alexa-Enabled Speakers Will Eventually Support Apple Music
It would be a great move for Apple to open up more of their services cross platform. but there's the trade off apple would have to consider, that if certain services are usable on Android for example, why spend the money on an iPhone?
it's a bit of balancing act. you want enough of your services available to other users. it acts as a sales method for your own devices, but also lets you grow your service business outside of your own "walled garden". But at the same time, if you tear down too many of those walls, why bother buying an Apple device?
As their device sales slow (already happening), they will need to figure out which services work well being cross platform and which do not.
Moving Apple music to completely cross platform would be a great service to do so. if a user is on Android for example, having access to Apple music might sell them on Apple Music. But it's very unlikely someone on an Android device is going to switch to an iPhone exclusively to try out and use Apple music.
I wonder which will come first: Apple Music on other Amazon devices or Apple Music on any Amazon device outside of the US...
One quirk: before setting that up, I could say "Alexa, play WCBM", and it would play that talk radio station* via TuneIn (I think). After setting that up, it would play "W.C.I.B.M by Amber Ais, from Apple Music."
I could still say "Alexa, play radio station WCBM", and that worked as desired.
(I have set Apple Music as default music library, but Amazon Music as default station.)
For what it's worth, I kind of like the song it was finding by accident, although it's not something I would normally have picked to listen to.
*Siri is very weak playing real radio stations, aside from NPR and a few others; and an Echo Dot is tolerable for talk radio, even if not nearly as good as a HomePod for music, unless an external speaker is used.
I could still say "Alexa, play radio station WCBM", and that worked as desired.
(I have set Apple Music as default music library, but Amazon Music as default station.)
For what it's worth, I kind of like the song it was finding by accident, although it's not something I would normally have picked to listen to.
*Siri is very weak playing real radio stations, aside from NPR and a few others; and an Echo Dot is tolerable for talk radio, even if not nearly as good as a HomePod for music, unless an external speaker is used.
Damned if you do and damned if you don't in MR land. They go and give greater access since people were complaining about the price of their own product, and this is the result.
For all of you saying this means the HomePod is dead, does that mean the iPhone is dead too since they allow Apple Music on Android phones?
I'm sure this is just Apple treating Apple Music more like an independent company. They want that division to maximize profits, and one way to do that is to get more subscribers. Adding the service to more devices gets them access to more subscribers. A person with and Android phone may have been on the fence about Apple Music because they couldn't use it other than on their phone unless they used bluetooth. Now they are going to be able to use their phone and Echo, and more in the future. This may get them over the fence and convince them to subscribe.
Or maybe a user has iPhones and iPads, but no HomePods just Echos, so they went with Spotify. Now they may drop Spotify and get Apple Music.
I'm sure this is just Apple treating Apple Music more like an independent company. They want that division to maximize profits, and one way to do that is to get more subscribers. Adding the service to more devices gets them access to more subscribers. A person with and Android phone may have been on the fence about Apple Music because they couldn't use it other than on their phone unless they used bluetooth. Now they are going to be able to use their phone and Echo, and more in the future. This may get them over the fence and convince them to subscribe.
Or maybe a user has iPhones and iPads, but no HomePods just Echos, so they went with Spotify. Now they may drop Spotify and get Apple Music.
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