In an early Christmas present to Apple fans with an Amazon Echo, Apple Music is coming to Amazon’s line of smart speakers next month. Apple Music will be available as an option on Echo devices starting December 17.
“Music is one of the most popular features on Alexa,” said Dave Limp, senior vice president of Amazon Devices. “We’re thrilled to bring Apple Music – one of the most popular music services in the U.S. – to Echo customers this holiday.”
Apple Music’s arrival on Amazon Echo devices follows hot on the heels of a recent deal between Apple and Amazon. That deal means that Amazon will be able to sell more Apple products through its sales channel, although it still will not sell the HomePod speakers.
Amazon offers its own music streaming service, Amazon Music Unlimited. However, this remains a small bit-player compared to market leaders Apple Music and Spotify. In May this year, Apple announced that Apple Music has passed the 50 million active user mark. Given the popularity of Amazon’s Echo devices, this new deal should help Apple increase its subscriber base significantly.
There’s no word on whether HomePod will also be offering greater Amazon Music Unlimited support. At present, doing so requires that users play tracks in the Amazon Music app and then stream the audio to HomePod, via AirPlay. I’d be extremely surprised if that changes any time soon, though.
