Years ago, without even really paying any attention to it happening, I realized that I’d adopted Apple products more than any other. I had a MacBook and I had an iPad, along with my iPhone. That just became the default after that, with plenty of Android phones thrown in there for good measure to really shake things up from time-to-time. But in the end I realized I was invested in the Apple ecosystem, and apparently that’s how that was going to stay.
At least that’s what the thought process was at the time. I’ve tried to abandon the Apple ecosystem more times than I can count over the years, but there’s always been something to bring me back. Usually just a lack of wanting to relearn certain elements of Windows 10. And coming to terms with the fact that me wanting to switch wasn’t so much me not liking macOS or iOS or whatever else. Just a desire to change.
That eventually led me to switch to Apple Music, and, since March of this year, I haven’t looked back. But that mostly comes down to the ecosystem again, because I’ve grown accustomed to using Siri to start music on the HomePod, and doing that with another music service hasn’t been possible (this is not a great aspect of Apple’s software/hardware, just for the record). But that’s changing with iOS 13, thankfully, and Spotify rolled out support for those changes recently.
The company launched an update to its iOS app and it now supports voice controls for media playback with Siri, including playing music on the HomePod. Siri even works with Spotify with CarPlay, which is great. Better late than never, right?
Annoyances with a piece of software or hardware typically lead me to want to switch. I imagine that might be the same case for you, too. As such, there has been something eating away at my sanity with Apple Music: repetition. I have thousands of songs available to listen to but when I turn shuffle on my library I keep hearing the same musicians and bands and songs. All the time. It doesn’t matter how many times I hit shuffle, or if I shuffle the library every single day. I’m going to hear at least one song I heard the day before — and sometimes earlier that day!
It drives me crazy. And it’s not just when I shuffle all my songs, either. I created a playlist with about 300 songs in it and I can safely say the same experience happens there, too. Over the course of about a week I heard the same song, or songs, from the same band or bands, on what felt like repeat. Basically it felt like I was shuffling three artists only, which left about a dozen more not being played at all.
So I’m back with Spotify. Some might consider it good timing, with the update to support media playback with Siri in iOS 13, and I’m okay with that. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to stick with Spotify from here on out, but I’m definitely giving it another shot and, so far, I’m happy being back.
But I’m curious to hear, after Spotify’s most recent update to support Siri media playback, if you’re going to switch back to Spotify, too. Did you move over to Apple Music to better fit within the ecosystem and features, and will now go back to the primary competition’s app? Let me know!
