Is a real Apple Music integration yet to come?
Answered
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Official comment
Thanks for the feedback Matthias
All I can say is we continue to work with Apple about our mutual consumers' concerns in this area. As it is Apple's Service, it is always good to also let them know your concerns about listening to Hi-Res Content through your favourite Hi-Res Systems.
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Ok, so as I expected, it’s to wait for Apple.
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Wait for what, Apple have readily available the Apple Music API's which are now being utilised by both Autonomic and Savant (just announced), not to mention Sonos have been providing Apple Music for a long time.
Apple Music API:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/applemusicapi/
There is also MusicKit:
https://developer.apple.com/musickit/
Both of which have been available for some time now.
There is also an open-source alternative making use of these APIs called Cider - https://cider.sh/
But I guess you need to strike up a business agreement or licensing with Apple in order to commercially make Apple Music available in BluOS?
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you need to strike up a business agreement or licensing with Apple in order to commercially make Apple Music available
THIS is the part many forget when implementing Services. That being said we continue to have great relations with our friends at Apple.
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Either way, even Sonos is only supporting Spatial Audio but still lacks any Apple Lossless support and the later is what I am (and presumably most of the users are) waiting for.
So currently, for high quality audio, I have to use Tidal Master. I like the design of the Apple Music app, and especially Apple Classic, way better. But I‘m really just using it to get inspiration for new artists or albums, and then (have to) search it on Tidal.1 -
I have no intention of dedicating an iPad to stream via Bluetooth and certainly not do it from my phone. So my Node is setup to play hires music I purchase which is less and less.
What is the impact, at a larger scale for Bluesound, of no having the Apple Music integration?
Because there is no integration of Apple Music like Sonos (no intention to switch music service),
I recently purchased 4 Sonos Amps. I would have preferred buying four Powernodes, but we've been waiting for the integration for far too long and I've lost patience.The lack of Lossless Audio is not a real issue if you're streaming whole house audio in ceiling speakers or outdoor speakers. Convenience and simplicity are the key.
I think the finance team should ask for real market reach from the marketing team to determine what percentage of sales has been lost to Sonos just because you've never bothered signing an agreement with Apple vs the cost of the actual agreement.
Maybe the real answer to this is the actual strategy of going for a niche market which is a corporate decision. If this is the case, it would be wise to have a clear message for customers and not create false expectations.
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Yes. Agreed. Sonos’ broad variety of services (incl. Apple) is its main selling advantage over Bluesound.
This really needs to get done.
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Integrating Apple music would be great as today to get high resolution 196/24 from Apple Music I use an iPad into my dedicated RME DAC and I can tell you it sounds great. However I need a cable to the DAC to do this and is quite cumbersome when going back to my Node and Powernode ( I have 2 node and 1 power node). Main set is Node 2i,RME Dac, NAD pré- and power amp, B&W speakers.
What I do not understand is that a Chinese company Eversolo who recently launched a great streamer the DMP-A6 at a very competitive price has the full integration and not Bluesound/NAD.
The ability to have the Apple Music app integrated into BlueOS would be a considerable selling argument, don't you think ?
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100%. I’ve stopped buying Bluesound for this very reason. Totally frustrating.
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Thanks for the feedback JDest but Eversolo is an Android-based product running a number of Android-based Apps.
Your BluOS Players are not just streamers as they are running a proprietary platform to allow for many other features such as multiroom synchronisation, home theatre grouping and a full AV Receiver solution along with full custom install options.
If you have a MacBook, you may also want to check out this Help Centre Article; https://support.bluos.net/hc/en-us/articles/4403218953495
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I’ve decided to use Spotify to stream high quality music through my BlueSound Vault to my Marantz and it sounds great! I’ll be stopping my Apple Music subscription because I can’t stream high quality music through my Vault 2. (And I used to work for Apple!) I wish BlueSound and Apple would figure it out!
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I agree. I am about to bail on Bluesound because of this limitation with Apple Music.
I would go all-in on Sonos if their Port streamer offered a bit-perfect lossless digital output (it doesn’t). Sonos continues to offer vastly superior user interface and music service integration.
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I’ve had my BlueSound Vault for quite a years. Love it! It’s simple and gets the job done. Spotify works for streaming with the Vault 2 because you can choose inside Spotify’s app a device to play through. So I can see the Marantz as well as the Vault. I don’t know what the difference is whether I choose Marantz or Vault. Either one sounds similar.
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I have been directed to this thread by the below response from Bluesound Support. I am not sure I understand what you mean by "to obtain higher resolution you can use an Apple Mac / Laptop connect directly to your NODE". I hope that does not mean one would need to physically connect the Mac/Laptop to the NODE? The whole idea of having the ease/ergonomics/flexibility to sitting on one's couch to listen to good music controlled via an app on an iPad or phone is then lost.
Isnt an elegant solution available for this basic, and widely used use-case?
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As I said, to get high resolution Apple Music you need to physically connect to the NODE. The issue is that Airplay does not support CD quality (or better) using the Apple Music App on iOS.
There are other streaming services such as Tidal, Qobuz and Amazon Music all of which support high resolution playback on Bluesound hardware if you need higher bitrates.
PS I am not support, just a regular Bluesound user.
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My apologies for mistaking you for Bluesound support.
I appreciate your point about Tidal, Qobuz and other hifi streaming services compatible with Bluesound. I used Tidal till a few weeks back. One of the drivers behind getting Apple Music was to reduce the multiple services being paid for. The Apple Music use case seems more than fairly common, will help if Bluespund can support it lest folks move to other platforms.
Or is it that Vluesound does not care enough, given folks have already invested in the platform and moving away would be a capital loss for users??
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Again, it’s what Apple decree how the connection is made. I am sure Bluesound would love to integrate Apple Music natively or if Apple updates Airplay to support hiresolutions then that would be better as you get the full Apple Music interface.
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Si, I found a way to get hi res to Powernode. From my iOS device I connect an optical adapter and from there to the optical input.
Granted, wired, but hey, I can use Apple Music and the Powernode DAC. Has anyone tried this before?1 -
Well seems to me but please put me right if i am wrong, that bluesound charge up £700 for a gadget that doesn’t even play apple music at a
competent level because they don’t want to pay apple a fee so we can all hear a decent quality music that you would expect from, in my case a bluesound node x, which at some point soon is going to be sold because it’s, let’s be honest inferior. Yes we all know apple with its billions of dollars can ask what it what it wants from whoever, bluesound included, so why not just charge £100 extra for your inferior product so we can have Apple Music integrated into what we have bought mistakenly.2 -
Who wants to p**s around plugging dacs and macs and cables and crap into something that should have apple music integrated into it lol what a **in waste of time in 2023
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There are no multi room streaming systems that can play Apple Music at CD quality (or better) and the only integrated one is lossy.
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Who cares
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Im not sure how many customers have apple music, and yes apple are a bunch of d**ks if they can’t even put their system for want of a better word, into a music streaming hardware source, but bluesound like plenty of others just seems to be a make do scenario. Yes i like my node x, and yes its app leaves plenty to be desired with its glitches a plenty. But it seems we are being offered and sold (not your fault) something that’s always going to be inferior. When will someone ’crack’ apples arrogance.
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Please just make it happen. It would make better to use the tools the right way. Technically there is no limitation to use the full spectrum for high res music experience. So get the deal with apple done and make us core unseres just happy.
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Apple says it themselves, they are a closed ecosystem and proud of it. They occasionally do a unique partnership with another company, for example Linksys for routers.
I don't have anything from Apple and that way I don't have to limit myself to their ecosystem.
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Smarthome sounds mentioned that wiim might be getting native apple music support on one of their youtube videos. Will be watching with interest.
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With Spotify demonstrating contempt for anyone who values the quality of their sound, this is surely a massive opportunity for Apple Music. Lack of BluOs integration is the sole reason I and a bunch of others I know have not jumped onto the service. Here's to hoping it happens, b/c I'd take Apple over Spotify Hifi even if it did, eventually and begrudgingly, surface.
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How hard can this be? It’s clearly one of the more popular streaming services. I would very much like to see it added.
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Hey Bluesound. Let’s get a move on this. My home has 5 powenodes, sure the quality is superior than the sonos amp, however, airplay from one device to several amps is terrible. This is a dealbreaker.
Let us know if there are plans to integrate apple music anytime soon.0
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