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Australia - “Apple Music is not available in your country”


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Hi everyone

I’ve just bought 4 x Sonos One’s and 1 x Beam.

I’ve committed to the Sonos ecosystem fairly quickly.

My appliances all use Alexa, but I am a staunch Apple and Apple Music fan.

I’m trying to set up the Apple Music skill and it won’t link. It seeks to think I’m in another country.

I go to the Alexa app > Music > Add Service > Apple Music is NOT displayed (Spotify and something called Deezer are)

I add the Apple Music skill from “Skills and Tricks”, I sign in and I’m told it’s not available in my country or region.

I’ve spent thousands on products that can’t be returned (store policy in Myer Australia).

PLEASE HELP 😭😭😭
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Best answer by Keith N 31 May 2019, 19:41

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34 replies

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When you say you inlinked your device within the Alexa IOS app, do you mean deregister?, cause i cant seem to find a way on inlinking

Yes, I de-registered. It took me a few attempts before it unlinked/deregistered. I also went in to the Sonos App, and under the Voice Control section I removed Amazon Alexa.

Everything for me - so far - is working flawlessly on the One that I have set up.

I have a Beam and another 3 x One's to set up yet so will let you know how I go tomorrow...
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@joshuaroth -

Check out this topic regarding Australia availability of Apple Music via Alexa on Sonos.

Thanks for your patience!


Hi Keith.

Thank you for your answer but it’s not relevant. The link you posted relates to a different problem.

Despite Apple Music, Alexa and Sonos being active in Australia, my particular unit is telling me it’s not available where I live (Australia). It is active on other people’s devices as you can see in the forum posts. It is active on that persons device, in fact.
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I have noticed that "Alexa, play chill out music" or similar, Alexa will play a track that fits that genre/radio, but she will repeat the same track over and over, until I say "Alexa, skip this track"... it seems my perfection wasn't short lived...

Time to get on the phone tomorrow to Sonos!

Did either of you have any luck today?
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Thats pretty much where I am, although Ive had the Sonos skill enable since I bought my Sonos One. So, to recap, I am back to where I started from with the skill being enabled, linked to my Apple Music account, but with Alexa saying it will play my music, but never actually doing it...
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Thats pretty much where I am, although Ive had the Sonos skill enable since I bought my Sonos One. So, to recap, I am back to where I started from with the skill being enabled, linked to my Apple Music account, but with Alexa saying it will play my music, but never actually doing it...

at least on Monday us 3 can call them, state that a Sonos member of staff has written an email saying its supported as well as confirming so on the forum and we want to know why Music won’t play.

I am determined to get this b#stard thing working.
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OKAY - I'VE GOT IT WORKING.

I am brand new to Sonos so forgive me if a few of these steps weren't necessary, but all I can tell you is it is working.

I removed my device (unlinked) from within the Alexa iOS app
On the Sonos App, I turned off Alex voice control
I deleted the Alexa iOS app
I re-downloaded the Alexa app
Via the Sonos App, I initiated the Alexa set up
I signed in as normal
Once the device was set up, I was able to command Alexa by saying "Alexa, play Tina Turner in the Lounge" or "Alexa play Energy by Burns, ASAP Rocky in the Lounge"

I got a bit sick of having to say "... in the Lounge" and I found that if under the iOS Alexa app, you create a group (I created one called Lounge), I now just say "Alexa, play music" or "Alexa play music by Adele" and she goes off and does it ("Adele from Apple Music").

It seems to work, so now I may set up my other Sonos devices and hope for the best....
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When you say you inlinked your device within the Alexa IOS app, do you mean deregister?, cause i cant seem to find a way on inlinking
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When you say you inlinked your device within the Alexa IOS app, do you mean deregister?, cause i cant seem to find a way on inlinkingYes, I de-registered. It took me a few attempts before it unlinked/deregistered. I also went in to the Sonos App, and under the Voice Control section I removed Amazon Alexa.

Everything for me - so far - is working flawlessly on the One that I have set up.

I have a Beam and another 3 x One's to set up yet so will let you know how I go tomorrow...


Thank you for the update! I’ll try these steps and see how it goes.

When you say you inlinked your device within the Alexa IOS app, do you mean deregister?, cause i cant seem to find a way on inlinkingYes, I de-registered. It took me a few attempts before it unlinked/deregistered. I also went in to the Sonos App, and under the Voice Control section I removed Amazon Alexa.

Everything for me - so far - is working flawlessly on the One that I have set up.

I have a Beam and another 3 x One's to set up yet so will let you know how I go tomorrow...

Ensure, post setup, that you get Alexa to scan to find your new devices, if necessary. Also remember to add the Alexa voice service to each of your Sonos Rooms, for the Sonos products that support voice assistants (Sonos One/Beam) and then when all the 'Household' is up and running, perhaps look at setting up “Alexa Enabled Groups” for grouping/ungrouping of Sonos Rooms automatically, via Alexa Control.

This thread from Ryan S. at Sonos, that discusses the grouping features, is worth a read a little later down the line...

https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/sonos-now-playing-with-alexa-groups-6817588

Enjoy your new Sonos System.
@joshuaroth -

Check out this topic regarding Australia availability of Apple Music via Alexa on Sonos.

Thanks for your patience!
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I followed Kens instructions andhad some success, but coincidentally, a second Sonos I had ordered last week arrived, so I decided to start all over again, de-register everything and try again fresh. Having set up the Sonos Ones as a stereo pair, adding Alexa seemed to work seemlesly. Boh speakers now have Alexa enabled and plays Apple Music flawlessly.I havent had a problem with them since then.

My only problem now seems to be that my children have decided they would rather use Spotify, instead of Apple Music....

So.... here we go again....
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I followed @Ken_Griffiths instructions and have found that I’m stuck at the first step of adding the Apple Music skill to Alexa and testing that. I still have the same issue - the Echo Dots I have around the house play music from Amazon Music, despite Apple Music being set as the default, or they respond with “I could not find that on Apple Music” for all requests.

I assume, then, that this is an Alexa issue rather than a Sonos issue, as I’ve removed Sonos from the equation completely and Alexa still isn’t playing Apple Music.
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Bizarrely, the address bar (when attempting to link my Australia Apple Music account with my Australian Amazon/Alexa account on my Australian Sonos, whilst being physically present in Australia on Australian internet... do you see a pattern here?) diverts to TWO separate JAPANESE (.co.jp) addresses.

Look at the video grabs.



Is this normal?
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OKAY - I'VE GOT IT WORKING.

I am brand new to Sonos so forgive me if a few of these steps weren't necessary, but all I can tell you is it is working.

I removed my device (unlinked) from within the Alexa iOS app
On the Sonos App, I turned off Alex voice control
I deleted the Alexa iOS app
I re-downloaded the Alexa app
Via the Sonos App, I initiated the Alexa set up
I signed in as normal
Once the device was set up, I was able to command Alexa by saying "Alexa, play Tina Turner in the Lounge" or "Alexa play Energy by Burns, ASAP Rocky in the Lounge"

I got a bit sick of having to say "... in the Lounge" and I found that if under the iOS Alexa app, you create a group (I created one called Lounge), I now just say "Alexa, play music" or "Alexa play music by Adele" and she goes off and does it ("Adele from Apple Music").

It seems to work, so now I may set up my other Sonos devices and hope for the best....


I just tried those steps and unfortunately it still doesn’t work for me. I still have the same issue where it plays via Amazon Music or, when I specifically ask to play via Apple Music, Alexa responds ‘I could not find that on Apple Music’ no matter who or what you ask to play.

Hopefully whatever Sonos claim to be doing now will fix it soon!
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Well, ive been at it for most of the day so far and as yet, have still not had any success. Ive followed Joshua's instructions multiple times and still cannot get Alexa to play any music at all.

And when I say at all, i mean at all. Not on Apple music. not on Spotify and not on Amazon music ( at least with the free trials that i just opened up on both of those services.

So, it appears that Alexa will simply not play any music on my sonos at all.....

grrrr
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@joshuaroth -

Check out this topic regarding Australia availability of Apple Music via Alexa on Sonos.

Thanks for your patience!
Hi Keith.

Thank you for your answer but it’s not relevant. The link you posted relates to a different problem.

Despite Apple Music, Alexa and Sonos being active in Australia, my particular unit is telling me it’s not available where I live (Australia). It is active on other people’s devices as you can see in the forum posts. It is active on that persons device, in fact.


Keith is very good at marking topics ‘answered’ when he hasn’t answered them at all. He did it to me too!
AussieSonosUseXCX & ithuliel,

The thing you need to do is is have your chosen 'native' music App running on your Sonos controller device... so that’s Apple Music or Spotify or whatever music service is now available to your country. Make sure it’s signed into a premium account, with a monthly/yearly subscription or trial that is active.

Next install the exact same music service and account within the Sonos Controller App and make sure you can play/stream music using the Sonos App to your speakers. It must be working before moving onto the next step.

Install the Amazon Alexa App and ensure the App is logged into your Amazon Account. You will then go onto install two “skills” ...start with your 'music skill', like Apple Music for example... once this service is installed you need to set it as the default music service in the Alexa App “Settings/Music” section. Now it’s time to run your next test... check by either using your Alexa App on the mobile device, or via an echo device, that you can control the installed music service with your voice using Alexa. This needs to be working before you move to the next step.

With everything working so far, you now need to install the Sonos Skill into the Alexa App. You will be invited to sign in and agree to share details between your Sonos Account and your Amazon Account in order to continue and on completion Alexa will scan for your Sonos devices on your local network and install them in the Alexa App.. they will appear under the devices section... just check that all were discovered and installed correctly. You may find they also get placed into default “Alexa Enabled Groups” ... they can be moved later, if you want to, but just keeping things simple leave them where they are for now.

Were almost there... now goto the Sonos App “Room Settings” for your Sonos One and/or Beam devices and in there you will see a voice services section and the option to “Add a voice service” ... Here you can manually add the Alexa Voice Service to your Sonos Speaker. So do that and you can then speak to Alexa on that speaker and control your music.

When it comes to grouping/ungrouping and implicit/explicit control of your speakers using Alexa, then it’s best to read through some of the articles on this forum.

You may find these four links helpful with setup and grouping etc....

Setting up Amazon Alexa on Sonos

Setup Sonos One/Beam with Amazon Alexa

Controlling your Sonos System with Amazon Alexa

Sonos and Amazon Alexa Enabled Groups

And of course if you still run into any difficulties you can always contact Sonos Customer Care.

Hope that helps to get you up and running with your Sonos System.
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Has there been a fix for this issue as I am also having exactly the same issue. I have had my Sonos one for many months now, but Apple Music has never worked using Alexa. since the skill was made available, I have tried and tried to get it working and eventually tried removing the skill. When i tried to re-link my Apple Music account, I got the exact same issue- "Apple Musin on Alexa is not available in your country or region". As all my accounts and physical location is in Australia, I had assumed that this would work. Any assistance would be appreciated
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So I have spent many, many, MANY hours on the phone to Apple, Amazon and Sonos over the last two days - first and foremost, Sonos customer care is ABSOLUTELY DIRE and being a new customer who just invested (wasted!) $3,000+ by buying into their ecosystem, they are a nightmare to deal with.

Customer service agents telling me there is no Apple Music skill in Australia, its wrong, I am misinformed blah blah. When I tell them to check Amazon and Apple's website, as well as press release's they said "we are not aware of this being released so we cannot support it".

They refused to contact Apple and Amazon, and said they have no plans to support it.

See an email conversation from today, in which they state there is NO SUPPORT FOR APPLE MUSIC ON ALEXA IN AUSTRALIA.

If you are thinking of buying a Sonos to use Apple Music and Alexa - SAVE YOUR MONEY! DO NOT BUY A SONOS - THEIR HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE DO NOT MATCH UP AND THEY HAVE NO INTENTION OF SUPPORTING SKILLS WHICH OTHER COMPANIES HAVE CREATED FOR THEIR PLATFORM.

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Well, this is certainly a shock, considering there are obviously other people using Apple Music on Alexa in Australia as you can plainly see with other threads on this very forum....

As I posted before, i most certainly have linked Apple Music to my Alexa account in the recent past. It just didnt play any music.

I wonder how this situation has occured, with press releases going out, touting Sonos' compatibility (not just inferred as an Alexa enable device, but named specifically as being compatible.)

All I can say is I hope the impending Google Assistant update is better handled, but as the time elapsed between the announceent of Google Assistant and its integration (in the US, at least), doesnt bode well.
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Well, this is certainly a shock, considering there are obviously other people using Apple Music on Alexa in Australia as you can plainly see with other threads on this very forum....

As I posted before, i most certainly have linked Apple Music to my Alexa account in the recent past. It just didnt play any music.

I wonder how this situation has occured, with press releases going out, touting Sonos' compatibility (not just inferred as an Alexa enable device, but named specifically as being compatible.)

All I can say is I hope the impending Google Assistant update is better handled, but as the time elapsed between the announceent of Google Assistant and its integration (in the US, at least), doesnt bode well.


RIGHT?

I pointed two specific people from Sonos customer care - Howard, and his manager Michael - both refused outright to accept that Sonos worked in Australia with Alexa and Apple Music. Exact phrasing "we do not support it, we have not begun supporting it and we are not aware of anyone using it". I quite literally shouted at them "I AM MAKING YOU AWARE!" and again they repeated "it does not work in Australia".

I then tried a different avenue, and said "look at your own forums, people are using it. Look at Amazon Skills, there are reviews on people in Australia using the Skill". Again, they refused and said it does not work.

So I told them, "surely then you have a responsibility to find out how people are side loading software on to your secure AI devices, forcing them to connect to a service you don't support and SURELY you will want to take action against Amazon and Apple for saying your devices do something they clearly don't do" - they could not care less! They refused to contact Apple and Amazon.

The manager told me "we are made aware of software changes 3 weeks before anyone else, and Sonos is not implementing support for Alexa and Apple Music in Australia. We were made a part of the US training but it is not coming to Australia and we have spoken to our engineers who confirms it does not and will not be made to work here".

They sent me that email in the hope it would allow me to claim my money back from Myer for mis-selling me products under the guise that they would work with Apple Music and Alexa.
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I am not an engineer, nor am I a developer, but to a laymans perspective, a fix for this issue would seem to have already been worked out. Apple music is not restricted by geographical boundaries (well, mostly) and I can most certainly play Apple Music on my Sonos using the Sonos App. Amazon Alexa, also, not resticted in Australia. The only thing that appears to be limiting the ability (now) to link the accounts is Sonos itself.

I would imagine that the software allowing the linking of accounts would already be written for North American and UK customers and translating that same software to Australia should not be an insurmountable task.

As far as I can see, the issue loes squarely with Sonos. I could understand the position they are taking if it hadnt been for the fact that the update was heralded with Sonos' name front and centre. If Sonos had no idea what was happening and no intention to support the changes, then why allow the prress released to go out.

I would like to think that it wasnt just to fool people into buying their products with features that they dont intend to implement.
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I am not an engineer, nor am I a developer, but to a laymans perspective, a fix for this issue would seem to have already been worked out. Apple music is not restricted by geographical boundaries (well, mostly) and I can most certainly play Apple Music on my Sonos using the Sonos App. Amazon Alexa, also, not resticted in Australia. The only thing that appears to be limiting the ability (now) to link the accounts is Sonos itself.

I would imagine that the software allowing the linking of accounts would already be written for North American and UK customers and translating that same software to Australia should not be an insurmountable task.

As far as I can see, the issue loes squarely with Sonos. I could understand the position they are taking if it hadnt been for the fact that the update was heralded with Sonos' name front and centre. If Sonos had no idea what was happening and no intention to support the changes, then why allow the prress released to go out.

I would like to think that it wasnt just to fool people into buying their products with features that they dont intend to implement.


By chance, have you spoken to Sonos about this? I'd maybe give them a call and ask to speak to Howard or Michael... it seems like their AU team is fairly small and they would certainly remember todays call!

They think I am mad and refuse to believe me that its written on their forums, Amazon, Apple, or that there are people online who have installed, and linked the Skill.
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I have not spoken to them. I HAVE spoken with Apple and tried to get onto Amazon AU, as I thought it was an issue between them, not thinking that Sonos might have been a fly in the ointment.

I shall try to give them a call on Monday.
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I have not spoken to them. I HAVE spoken with Apple and tried to get onto Amazon AU, as I thought it was an issue between them, not thinking that Sonos might have been a fly in the ointment.

I shall try to give them a call on Monday.


I've got $3K of stuff which at the moment is useless to me - so I am going to be a constant thorn in their side. Someone is being reported to Consumer Affairs, I've been sold a product which has support for a service, as stated in sales material and a press release, which the manufacturer now says they have no plans to support - and have said so in writing.

I would call and ask to speak to Howard or Michael and specifically mention my name (in my username), and this thread, and the traction online about this advertised service not working properly.

I have also spoken to Amazon and they are dumbfounded, as are Apple.

Michael - the manager - even told me if they enabled the skill they would be in breach of their contract with Apple, as they don't have the rights to allow Alexa to control Apple Music... even though Apple and Amazon are both advertising the cross-pollination of their platforms.

Did Apple say anything worth while? They couldn't understand why Sonos are allowing them to specifically mention their brand in their Support and marketing material if they are now denying the service works.

I am like a dog with a bone... to be honest I want to hit them over the head with my Beam and throw my numerous Sonos One's at them for good measure!