Alexa can finally control Apple Music on Sonos speakers
You don't need an Echo to get hands-free Apple tunes.
Amazon may have been a little optimistic when it said Alexa would "soon" control Apple Music on third-party speakers, but that feature is here at last. Listeners in the US, UK and Ireland can now use Alexa to steer Apple's service on Sonos speakers like the One and Beam, giving you the convenience of voice control while providing more oomph than most Echo speakers. Think of it as a more frugal alternative to owning a HomePod.
The feature only requires that you enable the Apple Music skill in the Alexa app and link your account, although you will have to add "on Apple Music" to your requests if you can't set the service as your default. We've asked Sonos if you can use this to send Apple Music requests to non-Alexa speakers. Even if you can't, though, this is still a big deal if you'd rather not pull out your phone (or get a different speaker) to use your music service of choice.
Update 4/17 6:35PM ET: Sonos has confirmed that you can send audio to its devices that aren't Alexa-equipped, but they have to be part of the same audio group (either in Sonos or Alexa).
