Apple Music to Be Available on Amazon Echo Speakers

Apple Music will be available to Amazon Echo owners beginning Dec. 17, blogged Amazon Friday. Echo owners with Apple music subscriptions will be able to ask Alexa to stream radio stations based on genre and by songs, album and artist, it said. Music is one of the most popular features on Alexa, said Dave Limp, senior vice president-Amazon Devices, and the company launched a music skill application programming interface in October. Other music services available to Echo users are Amazon’s free and subscription-based services, Spotify's premium service, iHeartRadio and TuneIn. The Amazon-Apple relationship adds more spice to an increasingly competitive space for voice-enabled speakers. In its first annual report Thursday, wireless multiroom music leader Sonos named Amazon, Apple and Google as competitors (see 1811290041), and referenced their larger financial, technical and marketing resources. “Our current and potential competitors have established, or may establish, cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties in order to increase the abilities of their products to address the needs of our prospective customers, and other companies may enter our markets by acquiring or entering into strategic relationships with our competitors,” it said. The post didn't say whether Amazon Music will be available on Apple's HomePod. An Amazon spokeswoman emailed us the company can't speculate on the future; Apple didn't respond to questions.