Apple Music to Launch on Amazon's Echo Devices the Week of December 17

[Scarpad]

i previously owned a bunch h of dots and echoes, but have been weeding them out as i've gone exclusively with apple music, plus they all started talking for no apparent reason so i just bought a home pod that sounds great. I wonder how that second gen echo sounds, i can't afford Homepods for every room
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YES!!!! I have a number of Alexa devices, and refuse to pay Apple's ridiculous price for HomePod, but I find Prime Music to be lacking (I'm an Apple Music subscriber). This is awesome!

i find Apple music just sounds better than an amazon music

 

[DotCom2]

So I wonder if you can buy a Sonos One and then use Alexa to play Apple Music...food for thought if you can.

I received an interesting reply from Sonos regarding this on Twitter.

"Hello. While we don’t have any news to share today, when a new music service is available through Alexa, we’ll look to bring support on Sonos soon after. Stay tuned for updates."

Sounds promising!

 

[WatchFromAfar]

i find Apple music just sounds better than an amazon music

An audio file is an audio file. If the recording/encoding is the same you get the same result. You are quite clearly baised to Apple and believing them to be giving a better product.

 

[HacKage]

OK, but your original premise was running macOS on that. What price tag are you envisioning? Windows 10 Pro is $199, and I don't see macOS being any cheaper than that.

Well with the way it is at the moment, any repair to my laptop will not be with Apple now, so they will not be making money from me for that. Their pricing of the MBP range has priced me out, so no money from that. I am happy to work with Windows if it means saving £950. As it stands, Apple will not be making any money from me for computing products. If I could pay £200 for MacOS to work on any machine of my choice, Apple are still making £200 that they won't otherwise. And I know for a fact that I'm not the only person who likes MacOS, but is looking at cheaper, Windows based alternatives with equal or better performance.

 

[Scarpad]

How would you feel when Amazon listens in, determines whether not your house is a "republican house" or "democrat house," then uses that data to serve up a different version of the Washington Post online to you or to everyone in a particular geo in order to influence political results? Because this is literally possible with today's technology.

If you only have one source for news then it’s your fault
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Amazon music just isn’t that good. I had prime music through my prime membership and I got a free 3 month trial to the full music service. However even with the full u limited service there are songs it doesn’t have that you can find on Apple Music, Spotify and google play music.

Sound quality is better on apple music

 

[tromboneaholic]

An audio file is an audio file. If the recording/encoding is the same you get the same result. You are quite clearly baised to Apple and believing them to be giving a better product.

There could be some differences in the codecs.

As far as I can tell:
Apple Music tracks stream at 256kbps AAC
Amazon Music streams 256kbps MP3 and AAC

AAC is less "lossy" than MP3, so it's possible some tracks on Amazon Music could suffer more from MP3 compression that the same AAC tracks on Apple Music.

I haven't done any A/B tests myself. Just sharing the difference in possible codecs being used.

 

[Scarpad]

decided to return my HomePod now that this has come to light it did sound great but even at $250 i just bought 6 2nd gen echos for 2 for $99 on QVC, they sound decent for the money and i can set up my whole house for sound instead of just the kitchen.
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There could be some differences in the codecs.

As far as I can tell:
Apple Music tracks stream at 256kbps AAC
Amazon Music streams 256kbps MP3 and AAC

AAC is less "lossy" than MP3, so it's possible some tracks on Amazon Music could suffer more from MP3 compression that the same AAC tracks on Apple Music.

I haven't done any A/B tests myself. Just sharing the difference in possible codecs being used.

i have Amazon music is the worst of the best, the best being in my ears, Apple Music, Google Music, spotify.

 

[apolloa]

Mercedes does with Ferrari though.

Hahahahahahaha I was wondering what reply you would post..... they’ve been going on about the new aero’s for 2019, a bit different, hopefully for better overtaking.

Sorry for going OT..

 

[Glideslope]

Hahahahahahaha I was wondering what reply you would post..... they’ve been going on about the new aero’s for 2019, a bit different, hopefully for better overtaking.

Sorry for going OT..

LOL, no apology necessary. Have a safe Holiday.

 

[Blakjack]

Sooo I have sonos speakers in the living room. Been wanting to some for the office and bedroom. Now I can just buy echo speakers.

Hope this means support for Apple TV is coming soon

 

[lordofthereef]

And I'm over here wishing we could have other music services in Apple Watch over Lte. Only choice we have is Apple Music.

 

[mdellepi]

Can someone understand if this thing is coming to all Echo devices worldwide or just in US?

It's quite important, because in Italy they still don't have HomePod, but Amazon launched Echo a few weeks ago. If this thing is worldwide, it means that Echo devices would be the only speakers officially supporting Apple Music with voice controls in Italy. If confirmed, I could think about buying an Echo Plus as a Christmas present for my Italian boyfriend, who is an Apple Music user.

 

[alexhardaker]

If it's like Spotify, his Alexa device will need to be set up with his own Amazon account, and then the Apple Music skill will be installed and signed to his Apple ID on his Amazon account through the Alexa app. This will let him use his own Apple Music account.

The echo will use the Apple Music library with the Apple ID that's signed into to the Amazon account the Echo is active on.

So does that mean he needs his own AM subscription?

 

[tromboneaholic]

So does that mean he needs his own AM subscription?

He needs his own Apple ID, which will keep everything separate from you, and it will be paid with your Family subscription.

Family Sharing - Applehttps://www.apple.com/family-sharing/

 

[MrGIS]

So how long before Sonos can or will piggy back on this?

 

[DotCom2]

So how long before Sonos can or will piggy back on this?

Rolling my fingers.

 

[Uofmtiger]

First up I was not comparing the sound quality of the built in speakers of the HomePods to any of the Echos, obviously the Homepod wins in that department, and clearly it will probably beat an Echo wired to a $100 speaker, but if you reread what I posted you would see I wasn’t talking about that.

A lot of people already have speakers and amps in their homes which are capable of miles better sound than any of the smart speakers available including the HomePod, which again I have to emphasis doesn’t actually sound that good even though it’s better than the competition.

But even if they had to buy a separate speaker for use with an Echo, a speaker or set of speakers that costs $300 - $325 to bring the bundle up to the price of a HomePod would sound noticeably better than the HomePod, especially because the HomePod has its array of small speakers shooting its sound through a plastic shell which is exactly what it sounds like, that’s bad design, if it wasn’t for the fact my family gets to use my Apple Music subscription while I’m not home I would have asked Apple for a refund.

Now with a few Echos and the Apple Music skill I can add one to my bedroom amp and one to the living room amp and get much much better audio than the HomePod is capable of and add a individual speaker to another Echo for just as good or better audio for less money than a HomePod too.

This is fantastic news as far as I’m concerned, the only issue is how long till Apple and Amazon fall out again and they drop support.

The issue with the Dot connected to a stereo setup is that the mics on it aren't good enough to hear over the music you are playing, especially if you use Aux out. You end up screaming or having to pause music to tell it to change songs or play something different. It improves if you use Bluetooth since you can put the Dot next to your favorite listening spot, but then you have Bluetooth compression that makes it sound worse on a resolving system.

The HomePod + AppleTV with Airplay 2 is just a better solution for sound quality, though it costs a lot more money. You get a speaker that stands alone that sounds very good without needing to turn on a separate system with speakers. If you combine it with Airplay 2, you can send audio to compatible AppleTVs, receivers, and Airport Express units. They all take the digital signal and send it through much better DACs than you get in that sub $50 Dot.

I use both Dots/Spots and a HomePod in my home, but the HomePod has better sound on its own and Airplay 2 is a better solution for sound quality vs Bluetooth. Also, the mics are superior and it isn't even close in that respect.

An audio file is an audio file. If the recording/encoding is the same you get the same result. You are quite clearly baised to Apple and believing them to be giving a better product.

Apple has a lot of albums from the Mastered For iTunes (MFit) program. It is one reason that a lot of albums on Apple Music sound better. Its the old "Garbage in, Garbage out" situation for some of the albums that were produced for the "loudness wars".

 

[JOBS-3:16]

Can I have your AppleID login details please? You won't mind me snooping around, after all, you've done nothing illegal.

If you were good at hacking, like the government is, you'd already have this information Bottom line, if Big Brother wants anything on you that they don't currently have, they will get it...so I say, listen in all you want! It will be quite boring for the listener, at my house anyway. There is no escaping this anymore. Go ahead, live completely off the grid. They have listening devices that can hear you from great distances, and they can record your every move with GPS and satellite surveillance. But please, keep telling yourself that you are impervious to spying.

 

[Karma*Police]

The regular echo sounds ok. Granted the dot sounds poor and needs to be connected to an external speaker. However the regular echo and echo plus have adequate sound to be used as a standalone device.

That depends on the listener. I know people who are fine with dot sound quality. I wasn't ok with the Echo, but I can see how some people might be.
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Seems quite a few people forget that the echo has outputs so you can wire it to most speakers and amps, including much better quality speakers than the HomePod, which isn’t that difficult considering the HomePod doesn’t sound anywhere near as good as a lot of people think on here, I know, I have one. Most people haven’t a clue what good audio sounds like.

I’ll be doing just that, picked up some half price echo’s and will wire them to a couple of amps with miles better speakers than my HomePod.

Sure, if you already have an amp and expensive speakers, connect it to a dot. But try controlling it with your voice when blasting your music... Most frustrating experience ever. You're better off getting an AirPlay 2 compatible receiver and controlling it from your iPhone.

If you want a smart speaker with great audio quality that you can actually control with your voice, Homepod is hard to beat. Pair 2 HomePods, and you'll be hard pressed to find any system that sounds as good for $700, rivaling much more expensive systems. And let's not forget, it auto-optimizes based on surroundings and pumps out 360 degree sound... features you only find in very high end (ie, very expensive) systems.

 

[Shanghaichica]

That depends on the listener. I know people who are fine with dot sound quality. I wasn't ok with the Echo, but I can see how some people might be.
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Sure, if you already have an amp and expensive speakers, connect it to a dot. But try controlling it with your voice when blasting your music... Most frustrating experience ever. You're better off getting an AirPlay 2 compatible receiver and controlling it from your iPhone.

If you want a smart speaker with great audio quality that you can actually control with your voice, Homepod is hard to beat. Pair 2 HomePods, and you'll be hard pressed to find any system that sounds as good for $700, rivaling much more expensive systems. And let's not forget, it auto-optimizes based on surroundings and pumps out 360 degree sound... features you only find in very high end (ie, very expensive) systems.

Now I have 2 HomePods paired together as my main music system but I find the regular echo adequate for my kitchen and diving room. They are secondary rooms.

 

[alexhardaker]

He needs his own Apple ID, which will keep everything separate from you, and it will be paid with your Family subscription.

Family Sharing - Applehttps://www.apple.com/family-sharing/

Thanks!

 

[MsQueen]

I hope you can say "Alexa play X" instead of "Alexa play X on Apple Music".

Google Home allows you to set a default music player so you don't have to add "on X music service" to your query. So if the Echo has a default music service, maybe it will be the same.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Google Home allows you to set a default music player so you don't have to add "on X music service" to your query. So if the Echo has a default music service, maybe it will be the same.

You can set a default on the echo. If you set it as Spotify you can say Alexa play x song and it will respond and say now playing song x on Spotify. Once you’ve set your default you only need to request the song and it automatically plays from your default.

 

[Steve121178]

This is coming from someone who uses a smart phone. What’s the difference ? Nothing/

I can choose what I want to share on my iPhone. iOS is very good like that, unlike Android's privacy model.