Amazon allows Echo users to pick Spotify or Pandora as the music source

Amazon has started allowing Echo users to choose third party apps as a source of music. Echo initially only used Amazon’s own music streaming service, Amazon Prime, to play back tracks on demand. Users had to specify that the track had to be played on Spotify, even if Spotify was configured into the device. The announcement is good news for Spotify or Pandora subscribers, and is a consumer oriented move by Amazon. Why should we in India even care? Amazon Echo is not available for India. Even if you get one, it does not work because all the baked in features are US oriented. The contextual information such as news and weather only works for US pin codes. In fact, out of the box, the device is configured to be virtually located in Seattle. Echo cannot even tell the time properly in Europe or Australia. Echo only works in English. Pandora and Spotify are also not available in India.  Sure there can be a problem in terms of licensing for this geography, but there is also the question of whether the market is ready for such services. Data is costly, and streaming is not really considered a viable or dependable option. While it is true that a lot of work needs to be done to improve the broadband situation in India , there have been companies who have put up India-centric music streaming service offerings, with a range of bit rates and file formats to choose from. Flyte offered more bit rates and formats, but we allowed it to die , perhaps it was premature, perhaps we are comfortable with our piracy . Well, so what if the devices don’t work here and the services are not available, at least we know what is happening, and there is a struggle going on here, and not just on the Echo. The struggle is between third party services and hardware manufacturers. Even after allowing users to configure third party streaming services as the default source of music, Amazon still offers it’s own music streaming service, Amazon Prime, as the default, out of the box option. When Amazon is building the next version of the Echo, it will focus on integration in-house services. The way Apple integrates Apple Music and Podcasts into it’s devices is totally different from the kind of experiences third party services such as Spotify can offer on the platform. Spotify offers podcasts as a feature in its App. Apple has its own podcasts App. Apple and Spotify are fighting over the interpretation of App Store rules . Amazon had a similar struggle with Apple as well, and found a way out by releasing a version of the Kindle app with reduced functionality, just for Apple devices. Spotify is going all out to take this issue up, and maybe it is going a little too far. https://twitter.com/jonathanmprince/status/748967657853095936 https://twitter.com/cmdshft/status/749014185808461824 Apple fired back at Spotify claiming that it treats all developers equally , and cannot give special treatment to Spotify. Apple is not exactly known for being transparent in communicating what will or will not be allowed on the app store. Apple may equally be a black hole to all other developers, but is bound to integrate it’s own service better with it’s devices. This is the same as what Amazon was doing with the Echo. This reduces the choice to other consumers, say customers who have a paid Spotify subscription, and interferes with the expected user experience these customers have when using Echo or Apple devices. For Kindle users, the app on Apple devices could have easily been a better experience, if Apple had easier app store rules. Maybe Spotify is right to approach EU regulators.  The European Commission had fined Microsoft for pushing it's own browser too much , and not giving consumers a choice when it came to browsers. There is a line that manufacturers can cross when integrating their own products in their technologies, that can be unfair to third party offerings in the same spaces, as well as reduce the choice for consumers.