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REVIEW
Which music services
does HomePod support?
If you don’t have an Apple Music subscription and
haven’t already used the three-month free trial you’ll
see the option to try it out. Otherwise, it’s £9.99 per
month or you can choose to get your music from
another source.
Siri can also play music you’ve purchased
from iTunes or music stored in your iCloud Music
Library. There’s also Beats 1 radio, which doesn’t require
an Apple Music subscription, plus the thousands of
podcasts available from Apple. If you already have
a Spotify, Tidal, Pandora, Deezer or Amazon Music
subscription (or another service) you can play this
through the HomePod via your iPhone using AirPlay.
You can then ask Siri to control playback, such as
pausing or skipping to the next track. What you can’t
do when playing music this way is to ask Siri to play
a specific album, song or playlist. Until there’s proper
integration with another streaming service, Siri won’t
be as useful as with Apple Music where you can say
“Hey Siri, add this song to my favourites” or “Hey Siri,
play party music from the 1980s”.
Apple wants HomePod owners to use Apple Music,
which should come as no surprise to anyone. Amazon
and Google both make their devices work best with
their own streaming services, too.
Of course, you can play any audio you like through
the HomePod as long as it’s via AirPlay. That means you
can select the HomePod when you’re watching Netflix,
iPlayer, YouTube or even when making a phone call –
the built-in mics let it act as a hands-free speakerphone
50 TECH ADVISOR • MAY 2018
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