TechViral: Spotify user? You may as well forget about Apple HomePod

Apple"s HomePod is propelling on Feb. 9.

Image: mashable

Apple"s Siri-powered HomePod smart loudspeaker is finally launching on Feb. 9.

There are a dozen reasons why you shouldn"t buy one -- it"s various kinds of large-scale, it"s expensive, it doesn"t is in favour of ballyhooed multi-room audio at propel, Siri( lol) -- but my biggest relate hinges on its key exchanging spot: music.

Specifically: HomePod merely working in cooperation with Apple Music and that"s a huge non-starter for me and most people.

Now, I haven"t realise a HomePod in person , nor have I listened to one, so I can"t speak to how loud or clear it clangs.( It supposedly seems better than a Sonos .) But I do listen to music -- a good deal of music -- and none of it"s streaming through Apple Music.

My preferred music streaming service is Spotify. Pandora is my second alternative. Amazon Music and iHeartRadio round my songs out.

I"ve been using these streaming music services for years, and so when Apple introduced its own streaming music service practice back in 2015, I pretty much shrugged my shoulders and have ignored it ever since.

But if I"m even to consider buying a HomePod, I"d have to give up all these options and get in bed with Apple Music. And I don"t want to.

I like my prevailing streaming services, and I like that my Amazon Echo and Google Home Mini work with all of them. I too like that I can connect my iPhone and Android devices to these two smart speakers and stream neighbourhood music via Bluetooth, even if I can"t use Alexa or the Google Assistant voice restricts when I"m doing this.

HomePod doesn"t reinforcement Bluetooth music stream from other designs. It"ll still corroborate third-party music streaming through AirPlay 2, but that won"t be available at launch.

While I haven"t heard HomePod in person, I"m sure its sound quality blows every other smart loudspeaker( except maybe the Google Home Max) out of the ocean. After all, its larger width necessitates there"s more office to fit in a beefier woofer and tweeters. But music isn"t just about audio fidelity.

In 2018, music is as much about having the ability to choose where you get your music from as the themes themselves.

Apple says HomePod was spawned for music devotees( hence the main focus on room-filling resound and not on the smart residence or internet scour ). Siri"s been given as "musicologist" to help better recommend hymns through Apple Music.

But everything about the smart speaker"s features at launch proposes otherwise: HomePod is compiled for people who ooze Apple -- simply people who are deeply is enshrined in the company"s ecosystem.

The appeal of a smart orator is that it working in cooperation with many services.

If you"re one of Spotify"s 140 million-plus or Pandora"s 70 million-plus monthly active consumers, HomePod isn"t is available with lots -- especially if you"re a customer. It"s not for you. The sense is: Do with Apple Music"s 30 million subscriber base or going to go, and that"s unfortunate.

The appeal of a smart speaker is the fact that it works with many works. This open subscribe is the very thing that obliges the Echo such a popular device.

When the Echo first launched, it predominantly worked with only Amazon Music. But once Amazon opened the floodgates to allow Alexa to control Spotify and other music streaming services, that"s when the Echo truly started to taken away from and connect with a broader audience.

I get that Siri works best with Apple Music, but maybe it"s period for Apple to open the digital assistant up and tell it spread its wings. Otherwise, the HomePod becomes such a niche product -- you have to really care about the tone caliber, are in favour of Apple Music, and be willing to fork over $350 -- that it may be doomed before it ships.

Unless you"re rich, why would you fee more for a single smart talker that simply frisks music from one service when you are able buy a bag full of good-enough-sounding smart speakers( like the Sonos One) -- for multiple chambers for not much more than a HomePod?

It"s probable Apple could supplement support for other music assistances eventually, but I wouldn"t count on it. There are enough Apple fanatics that"ll rush out and blindly buy HomePod, but that won"t preserve the make in the long run unless Apple Music knows some kind of spate. If it does, it won"t be because of HomePod.