Qualcomm is announcing new software and hardware partners for its AllPlay media streaming platform. On the software side, SoundCloud and Tidal are going to offer support for AllPlay later this year. QQ Music and KT Music in China and Korea will also support the platform. There are some new partners on the hardware side too, including House of Marley’s first WiFi speaker, Bayan Audio, and Goodmans. Sy Choudhury, senior director of product management at Qualcomm Connected Experiences said, “Throughout the past year we’ve launched and expanded upon the AllPlay platform through integration with our hardware and content partners, in addition to the release of the first AllPlay Click software development kit, further showcasing the breadth of what this platform can accomplish in the ecosystem. As we continue to collaborate with developers and new companies, we remain committed to providing the choice, flexibility and high quality audio that define the AllPlay brand.”
Qualcomm’s AllPlay is a proprietary streaming platform like Apple’s AirPlay or DLNA. Nobody really uses it, but soon you will be able to stream music from SoundCloud and Tidal over the platform. This includes podcasts and other audio that the two companies stream as well. The same thing goes for QQ Music in China and KT Music in Korea. The new hardware partners include Bayan Audio, Goodmans, Inkel/Sherwood, Optoma Nuforce, SVS, TCL and TP-Link as well as House of Marley. They are all working on new hardware like speakers and home audio equipment that will let you stream music and other audio over AllPlay. Some of these companies won’t have compatible equipment until late in the year, but it’s still on its way to us.
Qualcomm launched AllPlay in September of 2013 but hasn’t seen much traction from services or hardware companies. There are other options that out there that are already built into the devices we use. Even so, Spotify signed on in September of 2014 and now these new companies are joining forces to support AllPlay in 2015. We’ll add it to the list of options we have for streaming audio in our homes.