The Joys of smart speakers..... (Apple Music)

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DJSimonmurray

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Nov 8, 2015
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Hi,

Hope you are all well folks and have 2 quick queries relating to smart speakers I was hoping someone may be able to assist with?

Query 1

I believe the answer to the attached is no, but thought I would ask the experts.

I’m looking to buy a smart speaker for the house that can support my Apple music library.

However, I do not have an Apple music subscription, I only have iTunes Match which stores all of my library in the cloud.

Is there an option available to stream from your library in the cloud, (either at home or elsewhere) over wi-fi? From what I can see, you must have a music subscription and even then its only stuff tat is actually in the music store that you can stream?

Obviously don’t have room on my phone to download my entire library and simply airplay to device, but was just wondering if there are any other viable options?

Query 2

Already have an Amazon Alexa speaker however even though you can link BBC sounds to it, the speaker cannot set alarms with BBC channels because of a limitation with TuneIn etc. There may be way around this or I’m not doing it right, but basically I’m looking a speaker that is IOS/Apple friendly and can also wake me on weekdays with a BBC radio channel of my choice?

Best

Simon.
 

cjmnews

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I don't have a lot of experience with these smart speakers, as I don't want live microphones in my home. Siri is disabled on all my devices.

iTunes Match: $25/year match/upload up to 100,000 songs from your Mac or PC to iCloud Music Library where they can be streamed or downloaded on up to 10 devices. This music is DRM free and can be downloaded to your devices. Song quality is also upgraded above the standard quality. You can then stream these songs to the 10 devices that you own (same Apple ID). You can't sync these tracks to an iPhone or iPod, you must stream. You can't share through Family Sharing.

Query 1: Assuming you have a Mac/PC you can Air Play from the Mac/PC or your iPhone to HomePod devices. Since they are network connected they should be able to get the stream easily. It looks like you can't access iTunes Match without an Apple Music subscription directly. So asking Siri to play something will not work. You will need to manage this from an iPhone or or iTunes.

Query 2: The HomePod devices can work with TuneIn directly. I would expect the same limitation with TuneIn would remain with HomePod as it does with the Alexa speaker. Also the HomePod alarms must use the built in sounds, they can't use radio stations. So there is another problem. I honestly think this is not possible with the current technology.
 

DJSimonmurray

Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2015
Messages
54
Points
6
I don't have a lot of experience with these smart speakers, as I don't want live microphones in my home. Siri is disabled on all my devices.

iTunes Match: $25/year match/upload up to 100,000 songs from your Mac or PC to iCloud Music Library where they can be streamed or downloaded on up to 10 devices. This music is DRM free and can be downloaded to your devices. Song quality is also upgraded above the standard quality. You can then stream these songs to the 10 devices that you own (same Apple ID). You can't sync these tracks to an iPhone or iPod, you must stream. You can't share through Family Sharing.

Query 1: Assuming you have a Mac/PC you can Air Play from the Mac/PC or your iPhone to HomePod devices. Since they are network connected they should be able to get the stream easily. It looks like you can't access iTunes Match without an Apple Music subscription directly. So asking Siri to play something will not work. You will need to manage this from an iPhone or or iTunes.

Query 2: The HomePod devices can work with TuneIn directly. I would expect the same limitation with TuneIn would remain with HomePod as it does with the Alexa speaker. Also the HomePod alarms must use the built in sounds, they can't use radio stations. So there is another problem. I honestly think this is not possible with the current technology.
Thank you for such a detailed response, your help and support is greatly valued and i will take the advice onboard

Best

Simon.
 
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