Apple pushes music service on Amazon Echo

Takes music service into more homes, after less than stellar sales of its HomePod

Apple Inc. and Amazon. com Inc. announced their second partnership this month: the iPhone maker’s music-streaming service is coming to Amazon’s Echo devices in December.

The move gets Apple Music onto the most-popular voicecontrolled speakers, giving it distribution beyond Apple’s own devices. Subscribers will be able to control Apple Music with Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant, the first time Apple has opened up its music service to full voice control outside its own Siri technology.

The decision pushes Apple’s music service into more living rooms at a time when its own internet-connected speaker, the HomePod, hasn’t sold as well as the competition. Given the breadth of Alexa-enabled speakers on the market, the move could also boost Apple’s own subscription numbers.

“This is further evidence that Apple sees it needs to work with other hardware players in order to advance Apple Music, and it is an admission that the HomePod has been a disappointment,” said Gene Munster of Loup Ventures.

Apple will sell 3.5 million HomePods this year, making Amazon the best partner to help increase Apple Music subscriptions, which currently stand at 50 million. The service is a key component of Apple’s plan to expand digital services revenue and offset slowing growth of iPhone unit sales.

HomePod was supposed to be the ultimate hub for Apple Music as it focused on audio playback over general purpose tasks. However, the device struggled out of the gate, in part due to its high $349 (Dh1,281) price, and delays to key features.