Amazon Adds Apple Music To Echo Devices In Time For Christmas Season

Amazon is to bring Apple Music to its popular Echo devices in mid-December, as it strengthens ties with one of its major competitors in the smart speaker business.

Apple Music is one of the most popular music services in the US, where it is neck-in-neck with Spotify, with both having around 20 million paid subscribers there, the Financial Times reported in July.

Apple’s service also had a faster rate of growth than Spotify in the US, the FT said at the time.

Amazon operates its own music service, but also offers access to the likes of Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio and TuneIn on its Echo devices.

Voice activation

It is to add Apple Music to the list on 17 December, the company said, allowing users to play specific songs, genres, playlists and the Beats 1 live station using voice commands.

To add Apple Music users will be able to enable the Apple Music feature in the Alexa app and then link it to their Apple Music account.

The addition of Apple Music adds appeal to Amazon’s Echo speakers, while giving Apple access to a broader range of devices.

While Apple has sold the HomePod since last year, Amazon sells some Echo speakers, such as the Echo Dot, that are priced at a fraction of the price of a HomePod.

Google’s Home devices are another major competitor in the smart speaker market.

Apple said earlier this year it had reached 50 million paid subscribers worldwide, still well behind the 83 million Spotify said it had in July.