Way cheaper than buying a HomePod

Apple will never admit it, but the arrival of Apple Music on Amazon’s Echo speakers is an obvious admission that HomePod isn’t getting the job done.

Don’t get me wrong, HomePod is a fantastic-sounding “smart” speaker, but its premium pricing pricing, limited Siri capabilities, and missing support for third-party streaming services like Spotify and Pandora make it a device only an Apple fanatic would appreciate.

Putting Apple Music on Amazon’s Echo devices expands Apple’s music-streaming service beyond its own smart speaker and potentially gives it access via over 50 million sold devices if The Information’s sales numbers are remotely accurate (Amazon doesn’t share how many unit sales for Echo devices).

Since installing an Echo in my home three years ago (just thinking about how spoiled I am by Alexa is kind of mind-blowing), Spotify (requires premium account), Amazon Music, Pandora, and iHeartRadio have been my go-to music services on the smart speaker and I can almost always find the song I want to hear between the four services.

I can’t say I’ve been pining for Apple Music on Echo speakers. That’s what HomePod is for. 

But I sympathize with anyone who feels HomePod is out of reach. It’s a fair complaint because not everyone cares for or needs audiophile-grade sound. Dollar for dollar, most people are better served with a couple of Echo Dots or Echo Pluses spread out within the rooms of a home as opposed to a single pricey HomePod.

Apple Music on Amazon Echo speakers brings Apple’s splendid (yes, I sometimes prefer Apple Music over Spotify because of the often on-point human-curated playlists) to more affordable devices. However, it does make me wonder if that means a cheaper HomePod “mini” or a Siri-powered Beats smart speaker might not be on the table anymore.

Whatever Apple’s plans are, it’s good to see it open Apple Music to Echo speakers — the more choice, the better. As of this writing, Apple Music only works with Amazon’s own Echo smart speakers and smart displays like the Echo Show and Echo Spot. 

Third-party devices with Alexa don’t support Apple Music, and it’s uncertain if they will in the future. We’ve reached out to both Apple and Amazon for comment, but both companies generally don’t comment about future plans, so we’re not holding our breath.

Connecting Apple Music to your Echo

Getting Apple Music to work with your Echo device is a simple affair and doesn’t take more than couple of taps within the Alexa app.

First, you need to go into your Alexa app’s settings within the hamburger menu in the upper left corner. Then, scroll down to “Music” and then tap the “Link New Service.”

Apple Music will be listed along with any other music services you haven’t connected. Tap Apple Music and it’ll prompt you to enable its Alexa skill.

Once Apple Music has been linked to your Echo device, you can also choose to set it as your default music service. If you choose to do so, any songs requested via Alexa will be selected from Apple Music first. Don’t worry, you can always change this setting later.

And that’s all there is to it.

Apple Music on Echo devices should work immediately, but you might have to wait a few hours like I did. In my case, Alexa told me it needed to apply a software update to enable the connection and to come back in two hours. However, keep in mind I also set Apple Music up three days earlier than the official rollout, so you might not run into the same delay.

Controlling Apple Music with Alexa

Apple Music gives you access to over 50 million tracks, and for the most part you can use Alexa voice commands for many of Apple Music’s features. 

You can ask Alexa to play a specific song, any playlist, songs by an artists, albums, etc. Additionally, you can tell Alexa to put on the Beats 1 radio station with an “Alexa, play Beats 1 radio on Apple Music” command.

All of the usual Alexa playback controls also work as well, so you can tell it to skip to the previous or next track, and increase or decrease the volume. Furthermore, you can ask Alexa to fast forward or rewind a song by a specific duration. For example, you can tell Alexa to skip forward by 20 seconds.

Strangely enough, you can do a couple of things with Apple Music on Echo speakers you can’t on HomePod, such as setting a song as your alarm (nice!).

On the flip side, other features like the ability to “like” or “favorite” songs and add them to your library on HomePod don’t work on the Echo. Telling Alexa you like a song returns a “your feedback is saved” reply, which does absolutely nothing and doesn’t affect your playlists in any way. Lame.

Echo audio quality

Generally, I like Apple Music more because it sounds better than Spotify on my devices. Nobody knows at what bitrate the songs on Apple Music stream at, though.

It’s believed Apple Music streams at 256kbps compared to Spotify Premium’s highest 320kbps. But as we’ve reported before, it’s not as simple as pushing out more 0’s and 1’s. The encoding format can make songs streamed at lower bitrates actually sound better than tunes with higher bitrates. This could explain why Apple Music sounds clearer to my ears.

Of course, speakers will always be the thing that affects your sound quality the most. 

TL;DR: Apple Music on Echo speakers don’t sound as good as through HomePod. 

That didn’t surprise me since 1) I know Echo speakers sound average (and terrible if you have a first- or second-generation Echo Dot) and 2) HomePod uses on-device machine learning to tune the sound quality based on the song itself and the space the smart speaker’s in so that it’s always excellent-sounding.

Echo speakers don’t have this fancy audio-adjusting technology. What you get through its speaker(s) is what you get.

Sound quality is alright (average at best) — it really depends on your Echo device, and if you have an Echo Plus and the Echo Sub I’m sure it sounds even better — and that’s okay so long as you don’t expect HomePod-like audio fidelity.

More affordable than HomePod

Image: lili sams/mashable

I like HomePod, but it’s really pricey. Getting two for a stereo pair will run you $700 — a lot to drop on smart speakers.

If you live in a small apartment and pay for Apple Music, you could pick up two Echo Plus smart speakers for less than one HomePod. Hell, even if you live in decent-sized apartment, you could buy four and still have $100 to spare for two Echo Dots.

Or if you’re okay with the new, better-sounding third-gen Echo Dots, get seven of the puck-shaped smart speakers for the price of one HomePod or 14 for the price of two.

Or, mix and match however you want. It’s really up to you and your living situation.

Whatever your Echo device preferences are, the math doesn’t lie: Apple Music on Echo speakers is way more affordable than with HomePod. Besides the excellent Alexa controls, you also get all the benefits Alexa, which is a smarter digital assistant than Siri.

Unless you’re willing to shell out money for the best-sounding smart speaker, Amazon’s Echo speakers are just fine for Apple Music.