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Spotify Users Growing Impatient and Canceling Subscriptions Over Lack of Native HomePod Support

Does anyone have experience with HomePod/mini and using the alternative music options? Amazon Music, Pandora.

Prior to Apple Music I used Google Play Music now YouTube Premium Music and would Airplay to HomePod and Airport express connected speakers. With Apple Music it is a lot more convenient, just say Hey Siri play “song” and it plays, or say play everywhere and all Homepods play.

If I had just Spotify I would just Airplay, like I did with YouTube Music. Airplay works over Wi-Fi so it is higher fidelity than Bluetooth and more convenient than connecting a cable.

I also Airplay to my Apple TV 4K which has the HomePod connected to wirelessly. Apple Music and Podcasting right on Apple TV to HomePod and Airport express speakers.

Use the HomePod/mini for Alarms, timers, “jokes”, music control, smart lights

Curious about others experience with smart speakers, other music services, Sonos speakers.
 
I’ve switched between the 2 services many, many times. Recently switched back to Apple Music in July/August this year.

They’re both good services. I like Apple’s recommendations better because rather than pigeon-holing me into 3-4 genres, they’re more broad. That, or it’s a by-product of a poor learning algorithm used in Apple Music. ?

Listen, music is music, so small things like HomePod support matter. ??‍♂️ Personally, I think Apple Music works better with Apple Watch. Music controls appear faster for me.
 
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Yes - totally agree here....and also, if I can be honest, I'm JUST as enraged they haven't made any progress (publicly) on hifi music. In fact, this article has just reminded me of how f"ing annoyed I am with them that I just cancelled my subscription. I hadn't even opened the app in months -- since getting AirPods Max and realizing how amazing lossless /dolby music is. F*ck you Spotify. See you in hell.
 
Docsta80 said:
Absolutely I have Sonos in every room of the house and I love it
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I have both Sonos and HomePods. I’ve got a lot of smart home devices (lights, ceiling fans, thermostats, blinds, door locks, etc) and having HomePods is very convenient. There’s at least one in each main room - three have stereo pairs.

I also have 4 Sonos zones (two stereo pairs, one surround system and a Roam for the patio/kitchen). The interesting thing is that I can tell Siri to play a genre or a playlist on specific Sonos system, too. Which is quite convenient.

If I’m going to browse for music, I’m picking up the iPhone or iPad anyway.
 
trvs said:
It was a joke. Hence the lol. Obviously staying within Apple’s ecosystem makes for the most seamless experience. But I just can’t be bothered to migrate a decades worth of playlists and liked songs from Spotify to Apple Music… and so I subscribe to both ?
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I actually use the app SongShift to migrate all my playlists from Spotify to Apple Music. Except for a couple of tracks here and there, they came out pretty identical. Liked/recommend music however… To be honest I think Spotify gets that way better.
 
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szw-mapple fan said:
There are over 100 pages of discussions on this. Seems like a sizable number of users were searching for HomePod support and landed on the thread. Seems bizarre that Spotify has ignored it for so long after complaining that they weren’t getting full access to Siri for years.
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So it was a sizable amount of apple devices too when there is a “gate”

I mean a 100 page thread proves that. Right?
 
It's not surprising.
  1. Spotify is on Team Epic, being a member of The Coalition for App Fairness.
  2. Spotify has been anti-Apple for more than five years now. Its management hates Apple so much that they tweaked Spotify's search algorithms so artists who release Apple Music exclusives or who release their songs to Apple Music earlier than Spotify show up less frequently.
  3. Spotify probably wants to make their own HomePod clone, seeing they already have Car Thing.
You can't but laugh at Spotify's hypocrisy though. It's been at loggerheads with Apple on the issue of App Store's 30% fee but at the same time can't find a way to compensate artists more fairly after years of criticism. They rail against Apple's monopolistic behaviours on iOS but display the same type of behaviours when it comes to streaming services. Their dragging their feet at providing native HomePod support is just another sign of their hubris.
 
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MacRumors said:


Spotify users are growing impatient with the music streaming giant over its lack of HomePod support, pushing several customers to the brink of canceling their subscriptions entirely and moving to alternative platforms, such as Apple Music.

wrap-up-3-homepod-spotify-1.jpg

More than a year ago, at the 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced that it would be adding third-party music service support to HomePod. A few months later, Apple highlighted some of the apps that would take advantage of the new feature, including Amazon Music, Pandora, and iHeartRadio. A notable exclusion from the list - Spotify.

homepod-mini-third-party.jpg

Whether Spotify opted not to be part of the initial batch of third-party music providers with ‌HomePod‌ support or Apple didn’t ask remains unknown. Nonetheless, a feature request was posted to the Spotify Community forum a few weeks later, kindly requesting that Spotify add support for HomePod.

At the time in June of 2020, and more recently, Spotify said it plans to implement AirPlay 2 support into its iOS app. While AirPlay 2 support would allow users to play their Spotify content through their HomePod, it is not native HomePod support. Native HomePod support would allow users to use Siri to play Spotify content from their HomePod without opening the app and selecting the speaker manually.

Customers are not holding back their frustrations, with one user writing that Spotify is exhibiting "childish behavior," while another said, "this is a total joke - how can they still not be offering it… how many people have come here, seen this and then just canceled. Why does Spotify make it so hard to support them."

"This is absolutely pathetic Spotify," another user wrote. Users are poised to turn their frustrations into action, with many saying that they have activated Apple Music's three-month trial and will renew their subscription unless Spotify adopts HomePod support before the trial ends. "Month with no information about the integration...why should I pay for Spotify when other Services are more interested in integrations," another user wrote, with many others saying they've moved to Apple Music (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
Spotify has labeled the idea a "Live Idea" but has not provided any updates on where it stands. Spotify spokespeople have also declined to respond to several emails by MacRumors over the last several months regarding HomePod support.

The reasoning behind Spotify's refusal to adopt HomePod support remains unknown. Spotify has in the past called Apple "anti-competitive," accusing the tech giant of making it harder for other services to compete with Apple Music. However, when given a chance to join a level playing field with Apple's service, Spotify seems less interested.
While the HomePod remained a rather niche product at the time third-party support was announced, the product has slowly grown more mainstream thanks to the smaller $99 HomePod mini which just recently launched in new colors.

Apple is offering new customers a free three-month trial to Apple Music, which does include native HomePod support. New Apple Music customers who own select AirPods and Beats model headphones can get six months of Apple Music for free. We'll update this article if Spotify provides new information concerning HomePod support.

Article Link: Spotify Users Growing Impatient and Canceling Subscriptions Over Lack of Native HomePod Support
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Why so many comments that there’s only a handful of Spotify users with HomePods? I know a lot of people with HomePods and Spotify subscriptions but that said not having HomePod/Mini support drives me nuts. If I wasn’t on a family plan I would ditch Spotify fast just because of this one issue that Spotify refuses to acknowledge!
 
I get so frustrated with even airplaying spotify on the homepod that I legit pull out my OG Beat Pill XL and just play music off of that. So disappointing. Both with spotify for lack of native support and for apple with the shotty airplay ability on the Homepod.
 
I quit Spotify when my account got hacked and even though I regained control of it, two factor authentication was not available.

To be honest, at the time at least, I found both Googles and Apples music services to be superior in terms of the music I wanted.
 
What difference does being announced make? It still doesn't (afaict) support Amazon Music, and they were on the planned list.
 
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If Apple Music didn’t suck so bad I would switch. Spotify should at LEAST add airplay 2 compatibility to their app
 
I cancelled my Spotify subscription because of this! I like Apple Music but still prefer Spotify's interface but the lack of support was just annoying. I get it is not a top priority but it shouldn't take this long to add support. Now I get lossless and dolby atoms so not bad overall!
 
Lol…I just Airplay from my iPhone playing Spotify to my Apple speaker. It must be magic…
 
Dreamweaver12 said:
Yes - totally agree here....and also, if I can be honest, I'm JUST as enraged they haven't made any progress (publicly) on hifi music. In fact, this article has just reminded me of how f"ing annoyed I am with them that I just cancelled my subscription. I hadn't even opened the app in months -- since getting AirPods Max and realizing how amazing lossless /dolby music is. F*ck you Spotify. See you in hell.
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Wow. Nice rant.
 
Grohowiak said:
I get the music free trial every year or so and cancel before it renews.
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Same. It actually makes sense for me to use Apple Music over Spotify and I would.

I don't care who provides the music as long as it is done the right way.

Spotify does it the best way. Apple Music? I mean you would think it would be really difficult to make a poor music offering, no, Apple excels at it.
 
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I can probably tell you, Spotify is intentionally not putting any support for AirPlay 2 (even going as far as lying to the public that support is coming) or support HomePod simply because they believe Apple is being monopolistic and they won’t agree to Spotify’s term, which in my opinion, it’s a massive security and privacy risk.

Why do people using iPhone still use Spotify? It’s junk and only useful if you have Android phone that Google stole from Apple.

In fact, why haven’t Google bought out Spotify? It would make total sense at this point. It’s better than YouTube music, but pathetic compared to Apple Music.
 
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Matty_P said:
The article quoted a subscriber mentioning over 100 pages of comments, not 100 users.
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I get it. But I was talking about very limited numbers of people who have HomePod to begin with let alone those who subscribe to Spotify. My use of 100 number was coincidental but in hindsight I see how it might be confusing.
 
I did wind up making the switch to Spotify for podcasts due to Joe Rogan. Also the app being available on my Xbox to listen while I’m gaming. I’ve just been using Airplay. I don’t know who is using Siri to play content. For me it’s never worked well even with apples own services.
 
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