Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you
Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you
Amazon Echo Dot (2018)

Amazon brings Apple Music to Australia on Alexa

From today onwards, Apple’s HomePod isn’t the only smart speaker with Apple Music, as the Alexa-enabled speakers are getting it, too.

Australians are probably used to waiting. While many TV shows are now “fast-tracked” to our TV sets to within a few hours, not everything comes to Australia on-time.

Technology can see a bit of a delay. Not always the release of new products, mind you, and Australians are lucky to see gadgets earlier than much of the rest of the world, but software and service release can take time.

That’s true for some apps, and true for updates, and if you’ve been an Amazon Echo owner hoping that service for Apple’s Music service would roll out past the US audience to folks on the other side of the world, that’s true there, too.

Last year, Pickr reported that Alexa-enabled speakers like the Echo and the Sonos One would be seeing support for Apple Music, but that it would only be available in America, at least for the time being, with Australian support not likely expected until some time this year.

Fortunately, that time has arrived, and Amazon and Apple are ready, with Australian Apple Music support for Alexa-enabled speakers.

And not just Australia, but also New Zealand, with Australia and New Zealand support for Apple Music on Echo devices available now as an Apple Music skill.

That means you can command Alexa by voice to play music on Apple Music, live-streaming Beats 1 radio, and create radio stations simply by issuing a command, similar to how the Apple Music can be used with Siri on the Apple HomePod.

You’ll find the Apple Music skill now in the local Alexa skills listing, available either on the website or via the Alexa app.

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