Apple Music comes to Amazon Echo speakers with the rollout scheduled for the week of the 17th December 2018. The integration will allow Apple Music subscribers to access 50 million songs on Echo devices by asking Alexa to play their favourite songs, artists, and albums or Apple Music’s curated playlists from around the world, covering many activities and moods.
Customers will also be able to ask Alexa to stream expert-made radio stations centred on popular genres like Hip-Hop, decades like the 80s, and even music from around the world, like K-Pop. Alexa can also play Beats 1, Apple Music’s global livestream including in-depth artist interviews – all completely ad-free. It is enabled in the Apple Music skill in the Alexa app by linking your account.
“Music is one of the most popular features on Alexa—since we launched Alexa four years ago, customers are listening to more music in their homes than ever before,” said Dave Limp, senior vice president, Amazon Devices. “We are committed to offering great music providers to our customers and since launching the Music Skill API to developers just last month, we’ve expanded the music selection on Alexa to include even more top tier services. We’re thrilled to bring Apple Music – one of the most popular music services in the US – to Echo customers this holiday.”
According to market analysts, CIRP, the installed base of smart speakers in the US is:
- Amazon Echo 70%
- Google Home 24%
- Apple HomePod 6%
With the Apple HomePod pitched at the upper end of the market, Apple needs the market penetration of Amazon’s Echo devices to compete against Spotify in its bid to become the leading music streamer.
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