I find it distracting trying to listen to two songs at the same time. So this doesn't impact me. Guess I'm just lucky.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
HomePod Now Counts Toward Apple Music Device Streaming Limits for Single Memberships, Apple Encouraging Family Upgrades
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yeah I didn’t realize that. Now I know. It was just kind of careless for them to permit it in the first place. That’s pretty sloppy.
Well this if flipping dandy, I bought the HomePod on the basis that my family could listen to Apple Music while I wasn’t there, I was very careful to make sure that was the case before I bought it, I might even drop my subscription now and go with Amazon.
Eh that’s nothing. I used to have a cat who liked to listen to German opera records on a victrola. I’m not kidding. Pets are strange and they require us owners to allow some odd things to keep them from tearing up the place. A lot of people leave the radio on for pets when they are at work. Especially for dogs with separation anxiety.
Amazon Music behaves exactly the same as AM in this situation. One individual account = 1 stream, family plan = 6 simultaneous streams (on any # of accounts).
Unless you mean the fact that you can both use the same Amazon Music account on 2 devices - which, yeah I guess but it's just a byproduct of using a different company's service.
I'd love to get to know these individuals that are able to listen to 2 Apple music streams simultaneously without going insane.
Pay up and get the family account for your family. Yes, your dog counts as a 2nd person.
Pay up and get the family account for your family. Yes, your dog counts as a 2nd person.
streaming music is how they make constant money for songs you dont even get to keep, so your stuck in a subscription forever if you want to keep them. and now they limit how many of your own devices that your allowed to play your song on ?! enjoy paying for something you cant even keep, ill stick to good old mp3's, several hundred thousands and growing everyday.
This.
This is just so unnecessary, and makes them look like greedy *******s. It's so clear, especially when they've taken away a feature from months ago, and are now charging $5 to reinstate it. Ridiculous.
Heck, when my nephew called me on FaceTime via an iPad, I jokingly asked his Echo to order a case of wine. It responded like I was in the room with it. Siri is so hit and miss on my iPhone, iPad, iMac, and Apple Watch. Haven't Apple had time to catch up by now?
Oohh, I’m so relieved that the Walled Gardeneers closed some of their internal walls that I was so uncomfortable with. I hope that Tim will find a way to penalize all misuse in hindsight.
Those streaming thieves deserve a free morning of gut-wrenching Beats 1 (before that becomes the default HomePod source)
Those streaming thieves deserve a free morning of gut-wrenching Beats 1 (before that becomes the default HomePod source)
Last edited:
Not often, but it happens. They could allow infrequent simultaneous playback on different device types. For example when I have something playing in the background (HomePod) and just briefly want to check out something else on my phone.
Wow. What an absolute petty and pathetic thing to do. The amount of $$$$ I've spent on iPhone X, HomePod, and Apple Music plan should easily allow me to have both playing at the same time. Apple should've at least introduced the ability for HomePod to detect different voices/users to determine which person's Apple Music plan to use before they started applying this garbage policy to it.
You’re paying for a single stream. Why would you assume you can do more than one stream at the same time from a single user account?
From a bookkeeper’s perspective it is indeed unfair.
At the same time, revenue missed from a single account using 2 streams is very limited (= difference between single and family Music account) and shouldn’t weigh up against the lost goodwill of penny crunching.
Especially when people realize that they paid for Bluetooth 5.0 on their HomePods, which is artifically degraded to prevent music playback. The overall reaction could be expected to be “suck•••”
This is why HomePod sells pretty bad - which is a far more costly problem that Apple should handle instead of this nitpicking
Last edited:
I don’t think people will realize anything about BT 5.0. I had forgotten it was even there until people brought it up, and I would like to think I’m slightly in the know. I also have to question whether Apple has some sort of licensing agreement with music companies regarding the single vs family accounts.
OK. But even without knowing that, for the grand public this device is too expensive for what it is. And as soon as they start checking features, they’ll know or sales people will inform them. And clever licensing by Apple will only make the delta between family and individual even smaller (and penny pinching less useful)
How many streams of music do you think a single user account should be able to do? Let’s start there.
Hey Tim, how about you fix Siri on HomePods pathetic performance before attempting to chisel more money out of your customers? Seriously, I've given up asking Siri to play music - it only works reliably when music is Airplayed from my iPhone.
yes. it is classic bait and switch.
the Home Pod, when it first came out, was a crippled device. it was basically only a speaker+
with this new policy of treating the Home Pod as a full fledged device, apple is trying to make the Home Pod into something more than a computer/device peripheral.
at the same time, its not by coincidence that this comes on the backs of apple allowing incorporation of AirPlay 2 into other companies' devices. its related.
apple needs to create a much more compelling software array for this to be anything more than a voice aware speaker.
it hasn't done that yet.