Apple Music, since it’s launch hasn’t really been available on third party devices, apart from Android. It has long been an ‘Apple only’ service, which makes sense as Apple doesn’t typically make money off services, it is the hardware which brings in the money but this week Amazon and Apple both announced that Apple Music will be coming to the range of Echo devices later this month.

The announcement took some of the internet by surprise, but come December 17th the Apple Music skill will be launched and Echo users will be able to utilise Apple Music.

Music is one of the most popular features on Alexa—since we launched Alexa four years ago, customers are listening to more music in their homes than ever before. We are committed to offering great music providers to our customers and since launching the Music Skill API to developers just last month, we’ve expanded the music selection on Alexa to include even more top tier services. We’re thrilled to bring Apple Music – one of the most popular music services in the US – to Echo customers this holiday.”

Dave Limp – Senior Vice President of Amazon Devices

As of writing, Apple Music has over 56 million subscribers, this number does include the three month free trial that Apple offers. Looking at Spotify, which Apple is competing with – it has 87 million paid users and 192 million users including those who are on the free plan.

Source: Amazon