Apple doesn’t tend to share well with other corporations, but they have made a few efforts to expand their services to the platforms of their competitors. You can, for instance, download Apple Music onto an Android device or on Sonos Speakers. Soon, you’ll be able to access Apple Music on your Amazon Echo.
The rollout is slated to begin the week of December 17th, and if you have both an Amazon Echo and an Apple Music account, to get the two to work well together, you’ll need to add the Apple Music skill to your Alexa account.
Once you do, Apple Music will work similarly to how the Pandora and Spotify services currently work on Echo. You’ll be able to issue voice commands that will play specific playlists, artists, albums, song titles, or online radio stations.
Apple Music is one of the most popular and widely used music services in existence, but additional growth is getting increasingly difficult. At this point, the company sees its best option for further growth in leveraging the platforms of its competitors, which explains Apple’s sudden interest in the Echo.
After all, the Echo lineup has a commanding 41 percent market share in the overall smart speaker market. That puts it in first place, with Google, Alibaba, Apple and JD.com trailing far behind.
It’s an interesting move that should further cement Apple’s dominance in the music market, while simultaneously adding value to the Echo.
Industry insiders see this as a win for all parties involved, and the Echo’s legions of users are thrilled that they’ll soon have access to another music service. Although at least some opinions may change when parents begin hearing phrases like “Alexa, play ‘What does the Fox Say? On Apple Music.’
In any case, brace for impact. It’s coming.
