Apple Music / Tidal on Ford Streaming

[XTheUnknown]

Hi - I'm a '22 GTPE owner with Ford Streaming. Wanted to ask a question that may end up being a PSA but here we go.

So, (for me at least), we had Tidal and it's been well worth the $10 a month to use Alexa and the ability to just call out a song/album and have it play for us via voice command. Plus, it doesn't use up cell resources which I also like.

Anyway. ..I'm well aware that Ford Streaming promised integration with Spotify and Amazon but nothing else. Still, we never reallly paid too close attentionuntil recently as it just "worked" with Tidal and things were good. I figured, if we added the skill in the Alexa app, it seemed it would work with well, whatever.

Tidal was getting expensive as we had their top tier family plan and so we recently switched to Apple One bundled plan with Apple music. We added the skill in the Alexa app but NOPE, it doesn't work in the car.

It works on every other Echo with the sole exception of the Mach-E.

Has anyone been able to get this to work? Likewise, are there any plans to add the integration? Otherwise, may have to go back to Tidal...or Amazon.

Thanks for any insights or at least know that Tidal DOES work. (The PSA part)

RobbW

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[minjaep]

Just use Siri which is superior to Alexa. If Carplay is connected, you can hold the voice button on the steering wheel (or just call "Hey Siri") to activate commands. Why bother with Alexa?

 

[XTheUnknown]

Hi - I'm well aware of CarPlay and AA options.

This is about Ford Streaming and whether Alexa integration can or will be eventually able to handle music service skills that are available on other Echo platforms like Apple Music.

It seems arbitrary that Tidal works but Apple (seemingly) doesn't and I'm hoping to better understand if this is a tech issue or perhaps a licensing issue.

 

[minjaep]

Hi - I'm well aware of CarPlay and AA options.

This is about Ford Streaming and whether Alexa integration can or will be eventually able to handle music service skills that are available on other Echo platforms like Apple Music.

It seems arbitrary that Tidal works but Apple (seemingly) doesn't and I'm hoping to better understand if this is a tech issue or perhaps a licensing issue.

Then you should ask the Alexa forum. The feature does not do anything with Ford streaming. Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple Siri are three big competitors and I think they intentionally exclude each other's own streaming services. I don't think it will be changed anytime soon.

Maybe you should replace your Echos to Homepods in the end, if you are not using Amazon music.

 

[Jimrpa]

Hi - I'm a '22 GTPE owner with Ford Streaming. Wanted to ask a question that may end up being a PSA but here we go.

So, (for me at least), we had Tidal and it's been well worth the $10 a month to use Alexa and the ability to just call out a song/album and have it play for us via voice command. Plus, it doesn't use up cell resources which I also like.

Anyway. ..I'm well aware that Ford Streaming promised integration with Spotify and Amazon but nothing else. Still, we never reallly paid too close attentionuntil recently as it just "worked" with Tidal and things were good. I figured, if we added the skill in the Alexa app, it seemed it would work with well, whatever.

Tidal was getting expensive as we had their top tier family plan and so we recently switched to Apple One bundled plan with Apple music. We added the skill in the Alexa app but NOPE, it doesn't work in the car.

It works on every other Echo with the sole exception of the Mach-E.

Has anyone been able to get this to work? Likewise, are there any plans to add the integration? Otherwise, may have to go back to Tidal...or Amazon.

Thanks for any insights or at least know that Tidal DOES work. (The PSA part)

RobbW

Works perfectly well with CarPlay and Siri.

 

[TheSleepyDad]

Then you should ask the Alexa forum. The feature does not do anything with Ford streaming. Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple Siri are three big competitors and I think they intentionally exclude each other's own streaming services. I don't think it will be changed anytime soon.

Maybe you should replace your Echos to Homepods in the end, if you are not using Amazon music.

OP said it works on all their Echo devices and the only place it doesn't work is the car.

I don't use Alexa so have nothing to add, but no need to suggest switching ecosystems when someone trying to understand the discrepancies.

 

[XTheUnknown]

So hopefully this update will be useful (to everyone not named Minjaep apparently) but got everything figured out so wanted to provide this update.

To recap, we used to have Tidal working with Ford Streaming as a jukebox (i.e. Alexa, play Tom Sawyer from Rush, or play the album Moving Pictures by Rush) and it would work flawlessly which gave me the mistaken impression that any music streaming service that has an Alexa skill compatibility would work here.

Wrong.

Interestingly, when you go to Ford and dig deeper, in the small print, it says Ford Streaming "only compatible with Amazon Music and Spotify". Tidal is apparently a complete surprise gift but not "officially" supported.

Apple Music will work on ANY of my home Echo devices with the skill enabled but does NOT extend to the Alexa/Ford Sync. It says "unavailable". Full Stop.

Ultimately, we decided to do an Amazon Music Unlimited annual plan which is $79 for the year if you have Prime already (we did) so not too bad all in all. Using Alexa in the MME is super smooth with Amazon Music integration. It damn well better be hahaha but it not only works well, it has the apparent added benefit of allowing for HiResolution playback for all of you audiophiles out there.

When we had Tidal, we had their Master quality plan but using Ford streaming seemed to play a very compressed version of the music over Alexa/Ford Streaming. I couldn't find a way to adjust it in the Alexa App or on Tidal.

With Amazon Music Unlimited, the HD flag appears within the song display and it sounds much better, as if you pulled cotton out of the speakers, hitting much better highs and seemingly much improved fidelity. Plus, I was happily surprised that Amazon has 90M titles in their library these days which is worlds apart from where they were a few years ago so truly impressed all in all.

One final word on this, I thought "maybe" I could activate Amazon Music Unlimited under their $3.99 a month single device plan but Ford Sync is not an eligible device for that option so you'll have to do a proper individual or family subscription.

They are raising rates by $10 over the next day or two so if you want to capture the $79 annual rate (with 30 day trial), you'll need to act quick. Still $6.58 a month with that $79 annual rate seemed totally fair so not complaining.

So...just wanted to followup up here to add a postscript and again, hope that helps!

 

[phil2kx]

So you see a „music player interface“ on the Sync 4 screen when playing music through Alexa on Spotify / Amazon Music? Can someone confirm this and post a photo? Can I also let me show my playlists in either one of those services on screen?

I‘m sill on 2.7.X and can‘t upgrade right now…

 

[XTheUnknown]

Yes - absolutely for Amazon Music and other apps I use like NPR "Flash News Update", or Pandora. It will take me out of Android Auto and display a full screen page showing what I'm listening to (Artist/Title/Album Art/Play Controls).

In the small card tile below, it will just say "Amazon Music (or the name of the other app I asked for)" which is mildly frustrating because it would be helpful if I could see Artist/Title once I go back to Android Auto or Sync Navigation, etc. Unfortunately, once I'm back in Google Maps on Android, the only way to know WHO I'm listening to is to toggle cards between Amazon Music (via Ford Streaming) and then back to Android Auto (or other screens).

If you still want a screenshot, let me know and I can add. Sorry for the delayed reply, I had been off the boards during vacation.

X

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