Spotify and Apple in Talks to Let Siri Play Spotify Content

[MadeTheSwitch]

Then switch to Android, Apple isn’t about a choice but making iOS simple for everyone to use. Apple will never let users default to other apps that isn’t their own

You know how many times we have heard “Apple will never do ____________ “ Only to have them eventually do it? Apple will never make a phone. They made a phone. Apple will mever make a bigger phone. They made a bigger phone. Apple will never make a wearable...they made a wearable. Apple won’t open things up to 3rd parties, they started opening things up. Apple will never give users a dark mode...Apple is giving a dark mode. Apple won’t do streaming music, they’ll just sell music...Apple does streaming music. Apple won’t do TV, apple is now doing their own streaming TV network. Apple won’t get into gaming...Apple is launching a gaming service.

On and on it goes. Never say never.

Sure. Whatever you say. I'll stick with Apple's track record of adding Siri features every year for the past 4 years instead of believing in conspiracies. Further, the EU investigation didn't even start until just before WWDC 2019. Are you going to claim that Apple added in these frameworks at the last minute just because of Spotify? That's beyond ridiculous.

It’s not last minute. Spotify has been complaining about this for quite some time. Long before the EU investigation started. A company can see the handwriting on the wall.

Spotify is trash because it doesn't pay artists. That is the single most important thing that a music service has to do, and it fails horrifically.

Isn’t that the artists and record companies fault for not negotiating a better deal?

 

[iGeek2019]

Bought a HomePod and returned it when I realized it couldn't do Spotify. As soon as Spotify is back, I'll buy another one.

Appreciate it’s not the same but you could have used Airplay to stream Spotify to your former HomePod.

 

[TheShadowKnows!]

The reality, Pedro, is that none of these "Smart Assistants" measure up -- not Google, not Alexa, and not Siri.

Why?
The requests are expected to be one-shot, sentential forms, and none can manage contextual conversation beyond the single command:

<Attention> <verb> <noun> <predicate phrase>​

Some assistants have better parsing than others, all highly dependent on your intonation, proximity, and their underlying hardware.

But none merit to be intelligent. ​

[And, sorry dude, although you want to pump-up anything branded Apple, the painful reality is that none of these assistants merit to be pumped up.]

 

[Abazigal]

Well it is easier for Apple to pay more when they have pricy hardware sales able to fund it. What’s sad is pretty soon evething will be owned by big companies because smaller companies can’t compete.

Well, Spotify has had years to build up its foundation before Apple jumped into the music streaming industry. That it still can’t turn a profit even after all these years just speaks volumes about its unsustainable business model. Not sure if all the fault should be placed squarely on Apple’s shoulders, but if Spotify is a sick dog that needs to be put down, would that be so bad?

 

[BWhaler]

Everything else ok in your life?

Well done.

 

[Rob_2811]

Well, Spotify has had years to build up its foundation before Apple jumped into the music streaming industry. That it still can’t turn a profit even after all these years just speaks volumes about its unsustainable business model. Not sure if all the fault should be placed squarely on Apple’s shoulders, but if Spotify is a sick dog that needs to be put down, would that be so bad?

Yes.

Most people don't cheerlead for multi billion dollar tech firms and don't want them to own everything because they can afford to lose money on it. Particularly when their offerings are inferior.

You don't actuality believe that Apple Music is anymore profitable than Spotify do you?

 

[19callum93]

Hallelujah! The second this happens I’ll be saying bye bye to Apple Music and hello again to Spotify. Only went to Apple Music because of HomePod. Only thing that could keep me with Apple Music is if Apple added crossfade. Really miss this Spotify feature.

 

[realtuner]

It’s not last minute. Spotify has been complaining about this for quite some time. Long before the EU investigation started. A company can see the handwriting on the wall.

My comment was directed to those who think Apple is ONLY doing this because they're worried about what the EU investigation might do.

Common sense would dictate that Apple has thought about this for some time (and from developer feedback) and finally added this to Siri for iOS 13. Just like they did for other features in iOS 12, iOS 11 and iOS 10.

 

[jhtrico1850]

The reality, Pedro, is that none of these "Smart Assistants" measure up -- not Google, not Alexa, and not Siri.

Why?
The requests are expected to be one-shot, sentential forms, and none can manage contextual conversation beyond the single command:

<Attention> <verb> <noun> <predicate phrase>​

Some assistants have better parsing than others, all highly dependent on your intonation, proximity, and their underlying hardware.

But none merit to be intelligent. ​

[And, sorry dude, although you want to pump-up anything branded Apple, the painful reality is that none of these assistants merit to be pumped up.]

I talk to my Google multiple ways, with multiple step commands, and it does a really good job at handling request. I can say "Hey Google, turn off the lights and start vacuuming", and it will act appropriately. Google is really good at natural language processing to be able to process commands that can be given multiple ways. Siri on the other hand, you have to train it to respond to a specific phrase as you mentioned.

 

[anzio]

I don’t see anything wrong with adding a default app for Siri requests. I will never use Spotify (tried it, but the feature set is just too small for my liking), but I don’t see anything wrong with competition. Once they catch up to Apple Music, I’d probably take another look. However, they’d have to do something incredible to take me out of that ecosystem.

 

[Bonte]

Hallelujah! The second this happens I’ll be saying bye bye to Apple Music and hello again to Spotify. Only went to Apple Music because of HomePod. Only thing that could keep me with Apple Music is if Apple added crossfade. Really miss this Spotify feature.

Yeah, but when Apple brings crossfade it will be a smart with AI.

 

[8281]

Apple should tell them to drop dead.

Why? I don’t understand this attitude among consumers.

 

[Tech198]

What about that "fight a good fight" over revenue and Apple Store policies Spotify is "not getting" or is Apple just wanting to sneak in the backdoor?

"We willl make it worth your while... Since we can't come to an agreement over revenue, how about we give you siri instead?"

Kind of gamey. Keep it up Apple.. your doing good lol.

 

[kirky29]

I too am deeply unhappy about how Apple handles this.

It was time for Apple to introduce default apps years ago.

 

[AdonisSMU]

NFC is a very bad example for this. Apple has been under investigation for locking down NFC to shut out competing payment solutions in several European countries. Only that forced them to open things up. The same thing is likely happening with Spotify as well and is already happening for the App Store.

Apple has to create an api around the technology for third parties to access the device stuff in a secure way. What is the company who makes TV or Microwave obligated to add special support for whatever people want to do with it? Good grief. People can already install what they want on their own devices. Apples just not going to finance repairs when things go wrong. I dont see what the big deal is with them securing the device if thats what they want to do. People arent entitled to use evrrything on the device. Thats why there are other products on the market for people to choose from.

Apple has always maintained that they would eventually be opening up NFC. People think Apple is supposed to accommodate every whim a developer has. Developers are just looking to steal peoples personal information off the damn device by getting around the security.

 

[Nikiaf]

This thread was honestly embarrassing to read. There are too many people here who are weirdly opposed to Spotify, as if its mere existence is a threat to the world order. At what point did having competing offers become a bad thing? You people are nuts...

I see no downside to this, other than the "on Spotify" part. At some people Apple needs to drop the shtick and let people set default apps. They already do it on MacOS, why not iOS? How are they even allowed to get away with this? Microsoft has been sued for billions over way less egregious attempts to encourage people to use their apps.

 

[BGPL]

Anyone who ever says Apple cares about the customer is wrong. This is proof - if they really cared, they would support the music provider that the phone user chooses. But it's all about money and competition is everything.

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

Once they catch up to Apple Music,

Curious. Most people’s comments reflect the opposite, so now you have got me wondering what features Spotify needs to catch up to Apple on?

 

[Uofmtiger]

Not interested in Spotify, but if they can make all the stuff work with a default service of choice, I would take another look at Tidal.

 

[Abazigal]

Yes.

Most people don't cheerlead for multi billion dollar tech firms and don't want them to own everything because they can afford to lose money on it. Particularly when their offerings are inferior.

You don't actuality believe that Apple Music is anymore profitable than Spotify do you?

Amazon wasn’t profitable for the longest time other; Jeff Bezos bankrolled it using profits from his AWS cloud offerings.

i don’t expect Disney’s video streaming service to be profitable either, but Disney clearly has other ways of monetising this, from merchandise to their own theme parks. In other words, they are fine with it being a loss leader.

The point is - Spotify seems to have effectively poisoned the well by pricing their service at the level it did back in 2008. Now, everyone else is following suit, even companies like Apple whom I acknowledge have deep enough pockets that they don’t need Apple Music to ever be profitable. Especially when one can argue that Apple Music serves double duty by tying people more closely to the Apple ecosystem.

Spotify is still making a loss, though they have managed to reduce the extent in recent years. Which begs the eternal question - do you really expect said service to stay around forever?

 

[Rogifan]

Well, Spotify has had years to build up its foundation before Apple jumped into the music streaming industry. That it still can’t turn a profit even after all these years just speaks volumes about its unsustainable business model. Not sure if all the fault should be placed squarely on Apple’s shoulders, but if Spotify is a sick dog that needs to be put down, would that be so bad?

Yes. Competition is good. Having all services in the hands of a few mega corporations isn’t good for consumers. When you refer to Spotify is unsustainable business model what are you referring to? That they have an ad-supported free tier? Again apple doesn’t have to be in the ad business because they make their money selling you pricy hardware. But not everyone can be in the business of selling pricey hardware.

 

[SSDGUY]

Siri integration is certainly welcome. Apple Music would be more tempting for me if the app hadn't severely digressed over the years. The UI just became frustratingly convolutued for me. Not sure I wanna dig into that mess. I've got gobs of shared Spotify playlists with various musical groups I work with, so it just seems a better platform for sharing with non/anti-Apple folks.

 

[DeepIn2U]

I've no doubt Apple will drag the talks out as Spotify's market share continues to decrease...

Simple solution(s) Apple:
1. Enable Spotify to be default player per end user request in Siri (& Shortcuts).
2. Enable iOS Settings > General > Reset > Reset Audio Settings (to default) to restore Siri + Apple Music as default amongst other audio settings back to factory calibration.
3. KICK Eddie Cue to finally allow highest Apple Music bitrates over Bluetooth (equal to Sony’s Hi-Res Audio LDAC)!

Then watch Apple Music soar not because of minutes exclusion but inclusion.

Siri is a service not a product Apple. Make it so.

 

[kmagleby]

Instead of focusing on something pointless like asking siri to play some music for you. Spotify should do some real development and build an actual useable app on the apple watch. Especially with watchOS 6 allowing watch only apps, this should be a given. But they have dragged their feet on this for years. Even Pandora has an app, it isn't great at all but at least it is an app and it functions without the phone.

 

[macfacts]

The opposite... It would be easier if people didn't have to say 'on Spotify'. But apple doesn't give a shot about that.

It is just another example of how "stupid" Siri is. It can't remember your favorite music player.