3 Reasons to Buy the Apple HomePod & 3 Reasons Not To

Don't Buy if You Love Spotify or Streaming Your Own Music

Are you a Spotify user who has no plans to switch to Apple Music? If so, don't buy the HomePod unless you are OK with not using your voice to play music. Spotify cannot use Siri controls because Apple forbids it in the Siri use for third parties. You can play Spotify using AirPlay on your HomePod, but that takes a lot of the benefit out of using a smart speaker. 

You can use your voice to control Spotify on Google Home or Amazon Echo devices, and that's one of the best reasons to own those devices. It's nice that I don't need to use the music services Google and Amazon offer. The HomePod doesn't come with that choice. 

Another issue is that the HomePod does not appear to support Home Sharing. You can stream music you bought on iTunes, but if you have your own MP3s in iTunes that you've ripped and curated over years, you cannot play them on the HomePod according to 9to5Mac.