Sonos, the original Switzerland stand-in for digital music services, is about to be undercut by Amazon.
Apple Music subscribers will be able to enjoy Apple Music’s 50 million songs on Echo devices. Customers will be able to ask Alexa to play their favorite songs, artists, and albums—or any of the playlists made by Apple Music’s editors from around the world, covering many activities and moods. Customers will also be able to ask Alexa to stream expert-made radio stations centered on popular genres like Hip-Hop, decades like the 80s, and even music from around the world, like K-Pop. Just ask Alexa to play Beats 1 to hear Apple Music’s global livestream including in-depth artist interviews— all completely ad-free.
The Apple Music Alexa skill is expected to become available the week of December 19th. As a YouTube Red subscriber with Google Play music, I’m hopeful that Google takes an approach similar to Apple: Despite competing hardware, make your service available everywhere. But I’m not holding my breath…