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Trending Lyricist I
May 30, 2019
Answered

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

  • May 30, 2019
  • 34 replies
  • 2836 views
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
Hello everyone, I have a quick update on this -

Apple Music via Alexa is in the process of going live on Sonos in Australia and New Zealand, as such you may find it working already. Since it's still rolling out, the teams aren't allowed to talk about it as it's an unannounced feature. However, you definitely didn't get the right messages from our support team here, I'll make sure the team is able to look into what went wrong.

That said, when it's confirmed to be up and running at 100% I'll make sure to leave an update on this thread.

Thanks for your patience.

34 replies

Keith N
Sonos Staff
May 30, 2019
@joshuaroth -

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

Thanks for your patience!
Building community is like building a garden. You build the frame, till the ground, plant the seeds, feed the plants & sometimes you gotta pull the weeds.
Trending Lyricist I
May 30, 2019
@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.
Trending Lyricist I
May 30, 2019
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?
Contributor I
May 31, 2019

@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!
ithuliel
Lyricist III
May 31, 2019
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
Trending Lyricist I
May 31, 2019
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.

ithuliel
Lyricist III
May 31, 2019
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.
Trending Lyricist I
May 31, 2019
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.
ithuliel
Lyricist III
May 31, 2019
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.
Trending Lyricist I
May 31, 2019
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.