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HomePod Owners With an iTunes Match or Apple Music Subscription Can Access Their iCloud Music Library Using Siri

Here is my take after all this noise:
The HomePod is Apple's first (and for now, only) hands-free HomeKit Hub in existence. (hands-free underscored.)

For those vested on HomeKit automation, the HomePod will be a go-to device, and the quality of "multi-phonic sound" from those speakers will be just gravy.

[This, notwithstanding Siri's conversational skills, or lack thereof, as the sentential forms to turn on/off pre-configured scenes for the home are quite primitive, and easy for even Siri to master -- no conversational skills are requited of her.]
 
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As someone who had toyed with Sonos and has a Spotify (not Apple Music) account, where can I find a straight forward guide to porting my Spotify track favourites to Apple Music and hence use a HomePod set up?

As background, I tried Apple Music when first launched, but found the set-up interface so counter intuitive that I stayed with Spotify. HomePod would attract me back, but Apple, please think laterally and provide any easy way to port favourites from Spotify (or any similar competing service) to Apple Music + HomePod...
 
chagla said:
1. HomePod can't pair with Android phones.
2. HomePod doesn't recognize different people's voices.
3. HomePod can't check your calendar.
4. HomePod doesn't work well with other streaming services besides Apple Music. (Spotify, Tindal, and Pandora users won't be able to use Siri.)
5. HomePod can't hook up to another device using an auxiliary cord.
6. HomePod can't make calls on its own. (In order to make a call using HomePod, you have to dial the person's number on your iPhone, then manually select that the call play through HomePod.)
7. The HomePod version of Siri isn't prepared to answer random questions like Alexa and Google Assistant.
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1, yes it can over BT 5
2, GA and Alexa cant, why do you expect Apple to? it recognises anybody and nobody specific like every smart speaker
3, Since when? i am pretty sure apple listed this as a feature at WWDC, though maybe it has been put back
4, Oh how bad ! Apple providing exclusivity to its own brand! how terrible of them... next
5, Aux is dead
6, Again, non of the competition do this so why do you expect Apple? however Apple could be the first, hand off support can come in an update easy if theres demand for that feature
7, Nobody has asked homepod Siri **** yet, we don't know!
 
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I have been a subscriber to Match for 6 years and Apple Music since inception and I still can't understand why I need both given the "Match is included with Apple Music subscription". Apple has no problem charging me for both though. I have been reluctant to mess with it for $25 a year.
 
threesixty360 said:
That's weird. It's unlike Apple to make me pay twice for something I already have? (actually that statement sounds hilarious when I read it back...)

I think I'm going to cancel the damn thing. They should rebate me as well. Isn't it illegal or something to sell someone the same product twice? (when you know they dont need it).
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They don’t, because iTunes Match does one thing that Apple Music doesn’t: it matches your own ripped songs to the ones in the iTunes Store (slightly larger than Apple Music) and gives you a DRM free version of it. The ones provided by Apple Music have DRM, but they don’t replace your local file. iTunes Match can replace your local file if you let it.
 
gnipgnop said:
"With iTunes Match, Apple will match your older files that are 96 kbps or higher, and make them available in 256 kbit/s DRM-free AAC format.
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Had some music at 80 Kbit/sec. Used iTunes to convert it to 128KBit/sec, then iTunes Match matched it :)
 
cyanite said:
They don’t, because iTunes Match does one thing that Apple Music doesn’t: it matches your own ripped songs to the ones in the iTunes Store (slightly larger than Apple Music) and gives you a DRM free version of it. The ones provided by Apple Music have DRM, but they don’t replace your local file. iTunes Match can replace your local file if you let it.
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We've just been through this. Apple Music matched files don't have DRM.

Whether the files are matched against the Apple Music catalog or the iTunes catalog is not confirmed as far as I can see. Some online reports seem to suggest that the iTunes store files are used. However, I'm not convinced how much of a difference that makes anyway. I couldn't come up with a single track in my library which is in the iTunes Store but not Apple Music. I know there are a few artists still holding out, but it seems to be a fairly small proportion.
 
KeithJenner said:
I agree totally with that. When Apple launched Apple Music there was DRM attached to matched files. Absolutely correct. You will notice where you quoted me that I said that they are now DRM free, not that they always were.
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I never noticed any DRM on matched files. Definitely not on the computer that contained the music that got matched. When iTunes Match was released, Apple didn't have any DRM anywhere.
 
gnasher729 said:
I never noticed any DRM on matched files. Definitely not on the computer that contained the music that got matched. When iTunes Match was released, Apple didn't have any DRM anywhere.
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iTunes Match has never had DRM on matched files. If you re-read what I wrote, I was talking about Apple Music. When that was first launched matched files had DRM. It was well documented and was a reason for people keeping up their iTunes Match subscriptions.
 
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KeithJenner said:
Whether the files are matched against the Apple Music catalog or the iTunes catalog is not confirmed as far as I can see.
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If you use Apple Music, the matching would be through the Apple Music catalog. iTunes catalog is larger and not all songs are licensed for use in Apple Music.
 
gnipgnop said:
If you use Apple Music, the matching would be through the Apple Music catalog. iTunes catalog is larger and not all songs are licensed for use in Apple Music.
Click to expand...

You may well be right, but I've not seen it confirmed, and a few bits I read online suggest otherwise.

If I could find a track that was on one but not the other then I would check, but I can't find one. When Neil Young removed his catalog from Apple Music my files stayed as being matched, but that in itself doesn't prove anything, as they were already in the library. The fact that I can't find anything to test it with does suggest that this is a fairly minor issue anyway.

I'm far from an expert on licensing issues, but it doesn't seem too unlikely that licensing may allow matching by both iTunes Match and Apple Music, but not making those songs available for general listening on Apple Music.
 
A good-to-very-good quality speaker with Airplay combined with a HomeKit Hub, and knowing that Airplay2 is on the way, well, no brainer for me. Not interested in the Siri/Alexa wars.
 
Sony has joined the party with a familiar looking smart speaker: https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/29/sony-lf-s50g-review-google-assistant-speaker/

sony-lf-s50g-223032.png
 
BvizioN said:
I always wondered why do we have to say "Hey" instead of just saying Siri! I can't imagine many of us have family members named Siri, to confuse Siri assistant.
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Because then you can't even talk about Siri in a conversation without it randomly listening. Also, "Siri" is probably too short of a trigger phase, one syllable. For comparison "Alexa" is three, even though it's similar gramatically.
 
the future said:
So? You can still play all your itunes stuff via airplay. And HomePod is absolutely, undeniably better integrated into the Apple ecosystem than all other smart speakers.
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Right now I can play all my music, including my own music on my Mac server, using an airport express connected to a real stereo system. I don’t see how HomePod is any easier, since I would have to use airplay for that, too.
 
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Okay, while the majority seem to understand DM this and DM that, because it seems you have this and that subscription, I don't.

So maybe not just for me, but others also, can someone clarify:

I have music in my iTunes library, but because I don't have a subscription then HomePod won't access it?
 
Brandhouse said:
Okay, while the majority seem to understand DM this and DM that, because it seems you have this and that subscription, I don't.

So maybe not just for me, but others also, can someone clarify:

I have music in my iTunes library, but because I don't have a subscription then HomePod won't access it?
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No, unless you have iTunes library stored in the cloud via ITunes Match.
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iPhonefan200 said:
1, yes it can over BT 5
2, GA and Alexa cant, why do you expect Apple to? it recognises anybody and nobody specific like every smart speaker
3, Since when? i am pretty sure apple listed this as a feature at WWDC, though maybe it has been put back
4, Oh how bad ! Apple providing exclusivity to its own brand! how terrible of them... next
5, Aux is dead
6, Again, non of the competition do this so why do you expect Apple? however Apple could be the first, hand off support can come in an update easy if theres demand for that feature
7, Nobody has asked homepod Siri **** yet, we don't know!
Click to expand...

I have a Google Home Mini and it does indeed recognize different voices. I am as big of an Apple fanboy as they come, but Siri (and maps) is definitely one place where Apple has dropped the ball. I have an Amazon Echo as well and both Alexa and Google blow Siri out of the water and it’s not even close.
 
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