YouTube Music Integration May Be Coming to HomePod

[johntherazz]

Enabling HomePod to play audio directly from the same apps I have on my phone? I’ll believe it when I hear it. I’m pretty sure we’re close to the stage where a software update enables my HomePods to play nothing but a selection of Apple startup chimes.
‘Hey Siri, play Sosumi’
‘Now playing Chimes Of Death’

 

[B/D]

Enabling HomePod to play audio directly from the same apps I have on my phone? I’ll believe it when I hear it. I’m pretty sure we’re close to the stage where a software update enables my HomePods to play nothing but a selection of Apple startup chimes.
‘Hey Siri, play Sosumi’
‘Now playing Chimes Of Death’

@johntherazz


Yes, via SiriKit. It will come with IOS and AudioOS 17. That way, there is no need for an app to natively support the Homepod.

The only downside is that you will have to specify the name of the app each time (to Siri on the Homepod).


“Once HomePod processes a request, a SiriKit intent is sent to the iPhone, where Siri starts your app and AirPlays content back to the speaker,” Apple explains. In other words, Siri on the HomePod will use your iPhone to automatically play what you have requested via AirPlay.

While HomePod apps can run natively even when your device is not nearby, using iPhone and iPad apps through Siri will require the iOS device to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the HomePod. Apple says that “any app supporting SiriKit Media Intents today will be able to use this capability with no additional changes.”

This integration will work with music apps, audiobooks, podcasts, radio, and meditation. In some cases, commands to like or add that media to your library will also work. “Everything your app can do on iOS today will work on HomePod. For example, app users can ask to play artists, albums, songs, music genres, and hits.”

Siri will use voice recognition to route requests to that user’s device when there’s more than one person registered with the Home app. This is a big change to make HomePod even more useful for people who don’t subscribe to Apple Music, which comes included in every Apple device."

 

[Bananasaurus]

How is YouTube music? The attractiveness is they bundle it with ad free YouTube plus screen off youtube.

I like a lot, honestly. I’m finding a lot a interesting music that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I have YouTube Premium and never bothered to check it out until recently, but it’s definitely filling a gap left from Apple Music.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Sigh…I’m never getting Spotify integration aren’t I?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Step out of the Walled Garden. Other smart speakers have Spotify and play Apple Music (and airplay) just fine (and about any other service too). Since this thread is a rumor about possibly getting YouTube music (which- as rumor- means it may not happen too), other smart speakers already have it.

Or if airplay is "good enough" for all such purposes, get some "dumb" speakers which will play anything linked to a Receiver that can airplay. Spotify (and YouTube, AppleMusic, Amazon, et all) will work great that way too.

Else, buy only Walled Garden products and live with the gatekeepers decisions within that wall. They decide what "their" speakers you own(?) can and cannot play natively. They decide whether to allow strong competitors to natively play on "their" speakers and possibly have some impact on sales of their own music service. You own(?) it but these strangers decide what can be played natively on it.

IMO, speakers should have no gatekeepers: let any "smarts" live within the computing devices people use. Marrying smarts to speakers likely means the long-term is going to be like iMac where perfectly good "dumb" screens have to get tossed soon after the gatekeeper decides to obsolete the hardware and/or those "smarts" conk... even if the screen itself is still perfectly good and fully usable.

Dumb speakers can last- and sound just as good- 10, 20, even 30 years after purchase. I suspect the use window of any "smart" speakers is going to be much shorter than that... not because anything happens to the speaker tech itself... but because it is dependent on relatively short-term support for OS "smarts."

But if one wants smart speakers anyway, my opinion is to go with those that are minimally self-serving, already supporting pretty much all music services and, ideally, with a hardware way to inject music into them should the parent company decide to obsolete/vintage the "brains" to spur on recurring revenue via replacement sales. With both options, the "owner" has a better chance at getting to enjoy the speaker portion for a much longer period of time... and enjoy it with ANY source of audio vs. only those that direct play on (stream to) computing devices.

 

[bozzykid]

A Youtube Music app for Apple TV would be even better for consumers.

It’s already available on the YouTube app. The YouTube Music app on other devices is just a link to the music section of YouTube.

 

[trip1ex]

“Dumb” speakers have no phone or computer dependencies, no OS requirements, no connection type requirements, etc. Play from phone- iPhone or your friends Android- or turntable or Betamax or Edison’s gramophone. Play from computer (Mac, PC, Ubuntu, BSD), or first gen iPod or Amiga output or Sony Walkman, cassette deck, Aunt Meg's SuperVHS player, CD players, reel to reel, 35mm film, Kinescope, etc.

Bring ANY device over and it will play audio on “dumb” speakers.

Well technically any of those devices will play on HomePods. Just need the right adapter.

 

[cflem]

I would LOVE Sirius XM integrated too.

 

[BuffaloTF]

Step out of the Walled Garden. Other smart speakers have Spotify and play Apple Music (and airplay) just fine (and about any other service too). Since this thread is a rumor about possibly getting YouTube music (which- as rumor- means it may not happen too), other smart speakers already have it.

Or if airplay is "good enough" for all such purposes, get some "dumb" speakers which will play anything linked to a Receiver that can airplay. Spotify (and YouTube, AppleMusic, Amazon, et all) will work great that way too.

Else, buy only Walled Garden products and live with the gatekeepers decisions within that wall. They decide what "their" speakers you own(?) can and cannot play natively. They decide whether to allow strong competitors to natively play on "their" speakers and possibly have some impact on sales of their own music service. You own(?) it but these strangers decide what can be played natively on it.

IMO, speakers should have no gatekeepers: let any "smarts" live within the computing devices people use. Marrying smarts to speakers likely means the long-term is going to be like iMac where perfectly good "dumb" screens have to get tossed soon after the gatekeeper decides to obsolete the hardware and/or those "smarts" conk... even if the screen itself is still perfectly good and fully usable.

Dumb speakers can last- and sound just as good- 10, 20, even 30 years after purchase. I suspect the use window of any "smart" speakers is going to be much shorter than that... not because anything happens to the speaker tech itself... but because it is dependent on relatively short-term support for OS "smarts."

But if one wants smart speakers anyway, my opinion is to go with those that are minimally self-serving, already supporting pretty much all music services and, ideally, with a hardware way to inject music into them should the parent company decide to obsolete/vintage the "brains" to spur on recurring revenue via replacement sales. With both options, the "owner" has a better chance at getting to enjoy the speaker portion for a much longer period of time... and enjoy it with ANY source of audio vs. only those that direct play on (stream to) computing devices.

There is no wall on the HomePod music garden. Spotify deliberately does not support it by design to instead offer support to their antitrust complaint against Apple Music with the EU… they’re trying to sue their competition out of existence. Spotify is the wall… and the gatekeeper… for music.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

There's 2 sides to every story. But it is a common practice to always blame the not-Apple player in all such things. Step back to a strategic level and think about WHY Spotify might not want to be native on HPs. While it certainly could be exactly what you wrote, what you wrote also conveniently and cleanly shifts all blame to the not-Apple player. Could there be anything else in play?

Why isn't Amazon native? Why isn't Napster? Why isn't Tidal? Why isn't Sirius XM? Why is this rumor looking forward to Youtube Music potentially being native on HPs after many years of HP availability? Look at the long list that ARE on Sonos smart speakers now (and for some time already): why aren't ALL of them also on HPs? They all don't have antitrust complaints going against AM, nor are they all trying to sue their competition out of existence. So why aren't they natively on HPs?

In that line of imagining, it's not hard to imagine another side of this story. "Think different."

 

[Bananasaurus]

There's 2 sides to every story. But it is a common practice to always blame the not-Apple player in all such things. Step back to a strategic level and think about WHY Spotify might not want to be native on HPs. While it certainly could be exactly what you wrote, what you wrote also conveniently and cleanly shifts all blame to the not-Apple player. Could there be anything else in play?

Why isn't Amazon native? Why isn't Napster? Why isn't Tidal? Why isn't Sirius XM? Why is this rumor looking forward to Youtube Music potentially being native on HPs after many years of HP availability? Look at the long list that ARE on Sonos smart speakers: why aren't ALL of them also on HPs? They all don't have antitrust complaints going against AM, nor are they all trying to sue their competition out of existence. So why aren't they natively on HPs?

In that line of imagining, it's not hard to imagine another side of this story. "Think different."

The reason is companies are stingy doorknobs and the only people missing out are the consumers. If someone is paying for your service, you’d think you’d want them to be able to access your service in as many ways as humanly possible. I don’t own (and probably never will) a HomePod, but I still find this all incredibly ridiculous.

 

[trip1ex]

Not if you use android or linux.

there's an app (airmusic) on android that lets you do that according to google. and google also says there are airplay clients on linux..

I don't think there is anything technical that would prevent apps on other platforms from being able to access HomePod. IT's just a question of whether or not there is enough motivation for someone to make it happen

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

The reason is companies are stingy doorknobs and the only people missing out are the consumers. If someone is paying for your service, you’d think you’d want them to be able to access your service in as many ways as humanly possible. I don’t own (and probably never will) a HomePod, but I still find this all incredibly ridiculous.

Many of those players offer a free or dirt-cheap tier with revenue to them driven by advertising. To maximize their revenue, they need as many listeners as possible. And I have to think their advertisers would love generously-spending Apple people to be exposed to their ads. One doesn't win the advertising game- and revenue- by choosing NOT to have exposure where it is easy to get it. And thus, there they are, all available on Sonos.

So why aren't they available on Apple with far more customers (very generously-spending customers) than Sonos... all with ears to hear ads and potentially be moved to buying advertiser offerings in numbers much greater than they can get from the Sonos base?

Again, 2 sides to every story. In any fan zone, we only see/read one side of the story over and over. It can be quite convincing if it's all we tend to see. But think about the (advertising) money and the rationale of the story starts to have issues. Perhaps there are some other reason(s) motivating so many players to NOT tap into the lucrative advertising revenue for huge numbers of Apple people?

 

[Bananasaurus]

Many of those players offer a free or dirt-cheap tier with revenue to them driven by advertising. To maximize their revenue, they need as many listeners as possible. And I have to think their advertisers would love generously-spending Apple people to be exposed to their ads. One doesn't win the advertising game- and revenue- by choosing NOT to have exposure where it is easy to get it. And thus, there they are, all available on Sonos.

So why aren't they available on Apple with far more customers (very generously-spending customers) than Sonos... all with ears to hear ads and potentially be moved to buying advertiser offerings in numbers much greater than they can get from the Sonos base?

Again, 2 sides to every story. In any fan zone, we only see/read one side of the story over and over. It can be quite convincing if it's all we tend to see. But think about the (advertising) money and the rationale of the story starts to have issues. Perhaps there are some other reason(s) motivating so many players to NOT tap into the lucrative advertising revenue for huge numbers of Apple people?

The answer is Spotify is determined to never make a profit since their inception.

 

[MacFarmer]

“Dumb” speakers have no phone or computer dependencies, no OS requirements, no connection type requirements, etc. Play from phone- iPhone or your friends Android- or turntable or Betamax or Edison’s gramophone. Play from computer (Mac, PC, Ubuntu, BSD), or first gen iPod or Amiga output or Sony Walkman, cassette deck, Aunt Meg's SuperVHS player, CD players, reel to reel, 35mm film, Kinescope, etc.

Bring ANY device over and it will play audio on “dumb” speakers.

This is exactly the reason I'm not buying homepod. I've heard it sounds real good. But it does not have simple aux port, and I never trust the tech in these. Ok, it works now, but in few years it will be obsolete, and software will be broken. What then. It will be just a waste of the product.

If it would have some inputs, then you could still use it in the future when the support is gone. I could connect my iPods, and other devices to it an use it. I would rather have external airplay device connected to dumb speaker, then the speaker supporting it self. Because I know I can replace the external device and keep the speaker, but if it is all-in-one then I'm F@#$d.

And another reason - heard the stereo pair still have many issues. So would be great if this device in future get some good old fashioned wires...

 

[dumastudetto]

Nobody in this ecosystem should want Google spying on their sensitive music streaming activities.

 

[rillrill]

If Tesla could add YTM to their app, my divorce from AM and Spotify would be complete.

 

[springsup]

How is YouTube music? The attractiveness is they bundle it with ad free YouTube plus screen off youtube.

I switched to YT music about 6 months ago, and it's been really good; I'm very happy with it.

They have a lot of content that you won't find elsewhere, and ad-free YT is fantastic. Screen-off YT is mostly useful for music anyway IMO, but yeah, you get that too (and picture-in-picture).

YouTube Premium (with YT Music) is probably second to only Amazon Prime in terms of value for money. But if I had to choose between them, I'd cancel Prime before I cancelled YT Premium.

The only thing I wanted (and which I submitted feedback for) was HomePod integration. So I'm super-happy that seems to be coming. I hope it works with gen 1 HomePods.

 

[johannnn]

Could someone explain to me like a 3 year old exactly what "YouTube Music Integration May Be Coming to HomePod" means?

I can already hold my phone close to the HomePod, and the song I'm playing in YouTube Music starts playing on the HomePod.

With this news, can I finally ask the HomePod to play a song from YouTube Music? And if I only have YouTube Music (i.e. no Apple Music), can I just say "Hi Siri play xxx", or would I still need to play "Hi Siri play xxx in YouTube Music"?

 

[B/D]

Could someone explain to me like a 3 year old exactly what "YouTube Music Integration May Be Coming to HomePod" means?

I can already hold my phone close to the HomePod, and the song I'm playing in YouTube Music starts playing on the HomePod.

With this news, can I finally ask the HomePod to play a song from YouTube Music? And if I only have YouTube Music (i.e. no Apple Music), can I just say "Hi Siri play xxx", or would I still need to play "Hi Siri play xxx in YouTube Music"?

You will be able to set Yotube Music as the default music streaming service for your Homepod in the home app. That means that after everything is set setup, you´ll indeed be able to say "Hey Siri, play XXX" without specifying anything else, and the content will be played from YTM servers all the time.

It fully replaces, permanently (until/if you change it again), Apple Music as the source where the Homepod search and play music.

 

[Lioness~]

You will be able to set Yotube Music as the default music streaming service for your Homepod in the home app. That means that after everything is set setup, you´ll indeed be able to say "Hey Siri, play XXX" without specifying anything else, and the content will be played from YTM servers all the time.

It fully replaces, permanently (until/if you change it again), Apple Music as the source where the Homepod search and play music.

That is great news, as I stopped my subscription on Apple Music in favor of YouTube subscription a while ago. No regrets whatsoever!

I impulse-bought 1 HomePod v2 this week, just to test it. Didn't wanted to return 2 if I didn't like it.
But it's really great, so another one will be purchased very soon, to get a stereo-pair.

Starting to replace old, but 2 pairs fairly good speakers I have connected through Apple Express's. But I will of course use them until that option totally dies, and maybe with direct connection after that, or not?

HomePod's are much better 😍