Image by Adam Engst
Apple Music Arrives on Alexa
If you subscribe to Apple Music but have resisted buying one of Apple’s HomePod smart speakers because you already have (or prefer) an Alexa-powered device, we have good news. Apple and Amazon have taken advantage of their improved relationship of late to make Apple Music available through Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, found on Amazon’s Echo smart speakers, as well as other devices. To use it, you need a paid Apple Music account, and you have to install the Apple Music skill—Apple offers instructions for how to do that with the Alexa iOS app. Once everything is set up, say something like “Alexa, play Bruce Springsteen on Apple Music” to play tunes from Apple Music on your Alexa devices. You can direct Alexa to play songs, artists, albums, playlists, and genres. Alas, it’s available only in the United States.
Grrrr! USA Only!!!
There is far too much of this geographically-limited functionality in systems today.
I’d have hoped that it would be a gradually-reducing trend, but if anything, it seems to be accelerating. To the benefit of… nobody, I suspect, except already-bloated license-holders.
I was alarmed, since I don’t use an iOS device! Fortunately, the page makes clear that you can also set up Apple Music on Echo using Android devices, or at alexa.amazon.com.
My bad for assuming that all of our readers have iOS devices!
Not at all! Congratulations on the new addition to your family.