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

I really hope this doesn’t lead down a path where there’s no market for HomePod.

HomePod is a fantastic device, and I’m a lot more comfortable having Apple devices listening than those from Amazon or Google (at best, Apple stand by their privacy policy and there’s no data collection; at worst, adding HomePod to an Apple-device home limits any access to one company instead of multiple e.g. if you had a Echo/Home alongside iOS/macOS computers).
 
neuropsychguy said:
I have 5 (2 Google and 3 Amazon). I received them all for free through various promos (okay, I paid $1 for a 3 month Spotify plan that also included a Google Home Mini). They are useful for checking news, setting timers, controlling IOT devices, and getting quick answers to various questions.
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Yeah. I find my Alexa products to do much better in controlling my home automation better than Siri. And if those same Alexa products can also play back Apple Music. That’s a def plus.
 
mattopotamus said:
Personally, I do not care if it listens to my conversations. I am not doing anything illegal.
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That's far from the only concern. Have you heard about the Chinese government's push for a "social credit score". That system will aggregate data from just about everywhere, traffic cameras, internet usage, social media comments, retail purchases to give people an overall score which will dramatically influence their lives. Conversations around smart speakers will almost certainly be included. People with poor scores already pay more for things and in some cases are banned from travel--and they did nothing illegal.

While there is no talk of the government doing something similar in the U.S.--does it really have to? The credit rating companies like Transunion and Equifax could expand their business in that direction and become a resource that employers check before they hire you.

Setting aside my fears of doom and gloom, I think iTunes on Amazon speakers is amazing and I'm gonna upgrade my old echo. :)
 
gforce216 said:
Overall, great move for Apple Music as a service being on more devices. From a hardware perspective, bad news for HomePod.
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Not a fan of streaming services but glad to see both companies working together instead of doing everything in their power to wall each other out.

HomePod puzzles me immensely. They market it as a high end sound system but don’t support high end sound data. And I don’t know why they want into the audiophile market at all. It’s a small market filled with people looking for perfection at any price. Most people reach a price point and say that’s good enough. The HomePod price is higher than that price point for most people. People are saying that a $30 speaker sounds good enough to them so why pay $350? Mention sound quality and most say that the cheaper unit is just fine for their needs. You will never get those people to see value in paying 2 to 10 times more and with the limitations on file formats and artificial band width limitations audiophiles aren’t going to flock to it either.

Remove the file limitations so HomePod can accept CD quality streaming and you would probably get more audiophile acceptance but so what? It’s a small niche market. You aren’t going to make lots of money selling to it. People are happy with cheesy cheap speakers.
 
Maybe this speaks to HomePod and the Echo devices not having much buyer overlap? Echo people want the assistant and are OK with mediocre sound for background tunes. HomePod folks are all about the sound and tolerate the assistant. Personally, I have neither.
 
Steve121178 said:
Still amazes me that people are happy to have these 'smart' speakers in their homes. Who really trusts the likes of Amazon & particularly Google with your data & privacy? Not me.
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This is coming from someone who uses a smart phone. What’s the difference ? Nothing/
 
Here's hoping they bring Photos to Windows next. Going by sales numbers of Macs vs iPhones it is reasonable to assume most iOS users are Windows users. They'd have very little competition. Since there aren't any major competitors for desktop connected cloud picture managers on Windows after Google dropped Picasa. Adobe would probably be the biggest.
 
curtvaughan said:
I can bring up Amazon Music with a voice command to my Echo. I'm trying to figure out what advantage Apple Music would have with an Echo.
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That's easy. Apple wants to grow services. Increasing the potential services audience beyond the garden is key. It's the same reason AM is available on Android. Echo's also lower the cost of entry for smart speakers. Imo, Apple is looking at long term reoccurring services revenue vs tying the expansion of AM to the HomePod. Amazon is looking to get another hook into a customer base that is willing to spend. Both companies are looking long term and high level.
 
I know every generation thinks their generation grew up with the best music, but I thought I was a good 20 or 30 years away from me saying that. Anytime I see a name mentioned in an ad like this, I know to run in the other direction. Alexa, banish Bebe Rexha from my music.
 
LogicalVue said:
Maybe this speaks to HomePod and the Echo devices not having much buyer overlap? Echo people want the assistant and are OK with mediocre sound for background tunes. HomePod folks are all about the sound and tolerate the assistant. Personally, I have neither.
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You aren't relegated to mediocre sound with Echo devices. They can be connected to higher quality speakers.
 
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