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Apple Music Now Playable on Amazon Echo Speakers via Alexa in United States

Okay I figured out where the pairing very hard to find but Apple Music is not showing up I can pair Spotify which I don't have.

Update it showed up but does not say Apple Music but the logo apple with Music which is why I was hard to find. Logged into the service and set it up as the default.

Great who news Amazon Music Limited anymore.
 
Is apple basically saying the homepod will not compete with Amazon / Google.

I don't get Cooks strategy for apple, seems to be throw everying at the wall that makes a profit and see what sticks.

You don't protect your brand by just chasing profits . While I'm happy with his news as an Alexa owner, I'm disappointed
 
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Paring instructions.
You have to go into the terrible Alexa app hidden in the handburger menu is settings at the bottom.
Click Music and then link new service. Not clear it does not say Apple Music it says music and shows the apple logo very easy to list. Mine was the first option at least it is alphabetized.
Then click Enable to use it will open your web browser, log in like normal.

Apple Music needs Chromecast support next. Not so much as the Chromecast drains the battery as much as bluetooth but the better audio quality, no notification interruptions or phone calls stopping the music.
 
Shiro_Simba said:
Is apple basically saying the homepod will not compete with Amazon / Google.

I don't get Cooks strategy for apple, seems to be throw everying at the wall that makes a profit and see what sticks.

You don't protect your brand by just chasing profits . While I'm happy with his news as an Alexa owner, I'm disappointed
Click to expand...

Apple never competes in the "Commodity" market. That's why there's no "cheap" iPhone or laptops. All the hardware they sell is premium / up-market. Releasing a low-cost speaker wouldn't win against amazon. This is the same reason they don't sell displays or airports anymore... the "pack" is now good enough that it's hard to compete on value-added.

Also, they will make way more money on Apple Music subscriptions than they would selling HomePods because if they get you on Apple Music they basically have you at $10/month in perpetuity. So it's in their interest to make Apple Music available everywhere they can.

If you own an iPhone, AppleMusic via Siri is still the only way to play music without unlocking the phone. Believe it or not, this was the one and only reason I never bought Spotify/Google/Pandora - I couldn't use siri to request songs while running.
 
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works great simple to set up nice to have Apple Music all over the house
[doublepost=1544829714][/doublepost]AM sounds nice on the devices, i find AM has a bit better Sound quality than Amazon , amazon's encoding varies so much between different releases, AM maintains a decent SQ thru out. The home pod is a fantastic sounding device, but i basically got 6 echoes and 1 dot for what i paid for one HomePod . The 2nd gen echoes sound pretty nice i have a couple sets in stereo mode in a few of my rooms, i might add one of their subs in the room i listen the most.
 
kgkuntryluvr said:
Right? I no longer see a reason for an Amazon Unlimited sub with this move. It may be cheaper, but Apple Music is well worth the cost difference (especially if you have an iPhone). Maybe this was a behind-the-scenes trade for allowing Prime Video on Apple TV.
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Amazon and Amazon prime video are both available on AppleTV 4K! All they need now is Amazon Music unlimited on AppleTV 4K
mxmgodin said:
Can anybody in the US with access to this confirm if this now enables Alexa to control Apple Music on Sonos speakers? Or is it Echo-exclusive?
Click to expand...
 
wigby said:
Sonos has a decade lead on HomePod so that makes sense but Spotify also had a giant lead on Apple Music but not anymore. I think Sonos will die or more likely be acquired by a big tech company in a few years.
Click to expand...

Siri is terrible. Apple needs to give up on it.
 
So no iTunes match or whatever it is currently called? I have tonnes of music uploaded which isn't available on iTunes or Amazon Music so I don't know how I can stream.
 
Awesome! Now I definitely want to go buy some Echos because the Sonos One has been catching my eye, when I played with one at the AirBNB we stayed at.
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blehpunk1 said:
So no iTunes match or whatever it is currently called? I have tonnes of music uploaded which isn't available on iTunes or Amazon Music so I don't know how I can stream.
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If you turned on your iCloud music library, and uploaded your songs to Apple Music, they're all there and completely playable. I have Cambodian music on my Apple Music and it works just fine through things like HomePod....Just good luck pronouncing them for Siri to pick it up.
 
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ChrisMoBro said:
Sonos is just too successful. Maybe in a decade things might change for the near future they’re not going anywhere. The HomePod could turn out to be such a flop Apple end up quitting the market
Click to expand...

Ha, now that's a real hoot.

No, Apple had just scratched the surface with HomePod v1.0 and its underlying technology. Really looking forward to the next version.

In the mean time, I'm still stoked with mine and use it 3-4 hours a day.
 
Far too little and far too late. Apple Music has just lost anyone outside the US completely, with its god awful buffering, its absolutely awful iOS app and crummy iTunes integration, and taking so damn long to integrate into the most popular smart speaker - and it's still not available in Europe - Amazon Echo's biggest market.

I really do wonder who's actually running the show at Apple Music, as they sure as hell aren't listening to the users. You put Spotify and Apple Music side by side in Europe and Apple Music looks like someones little play toy, its just so damn lackluster and lagging behind that it's not even funny anymore.
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citysnaps said:
Ha, now that's a real hoot.

No, Apple had just scratched the surface with HomePod v1.0 and its underlying technology. Really looking forward to the next version.

In the mean time, I'm still stoked with mine and use it 3-4 hours a day.
Click to expand...


Realistically the only way Homepod v2 could be made any better (the speaker is already amazing) would be by removing Siri - which is never going to get better with the way they have developed it - we're now coming up to 9 years since Apple introduced it, and its still utterly awful compared to every single other major voice assistant.
 
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Not mentioned in this article is that the Amazon Alexa App (at least on the iPhone), now becomes a 'link' to the regular iTunes app:
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ChrisMoBro said:
Sonos is just too successful. Maybe in a decade things might change for the near future they’re not going anywhere. The HomePod could turn out to be such a flop Apple end up quitting the market
Click to expand...

Sonos is in danger for every day that they don’t have their own music streaming service or smart assistant.

We have already seen this play out with the smartphone market. Apple dominates the high end, google gets the market share by giving out their services for free, while the hardware OEMs end up being like crabs in a bucket as they lack an effective means of differentiating their products from the rest of the competition.

I am willing to bet that Sonos ends up being to the HomePod what the Fitbit is to the Apple Watch.
 
I can't get Alexa to play a "Smart" playlist, such as my continually updating "Recently added" playlist. SO disappointed... has anyone else been able to get this working?
 
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This could explain the current $250 pricing on the HomePod. Clearance of warehouse stock to make way for either: (1) an updated HomePod or (2) discontinuation.

(1) Seems unlikely now that a cheap amazon device can be plugged into any old set of speakers lying around to give similar functionality. It's a pity because the HomePod I had sounded incredible. Apple really sunk it by making it a sealed (Apple Music only) system, tying it to a single user's iCloud account and then pricing it too high.
 
Wait wouldn’t it be able to play from the start? What other steaming apps don’t play on any speaker? How ridiculous. If i pay for a speaker it should play whatever I want it to play. Smh.
 
This is awesome. I actually turned the mic back on so I could listen to Apple Music. I just haven't been using Alexa lately. Now I will.
 
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