Amazon can be incredibly aggressive about the promotion of its consumer hardware products and related software platforms, with every available weapon in the e-commerce giant’s arsenal often employed to stave off the competition.

While the recent addition of Apple Music support to Alexa-powered Echo devices could be interpreted as the beginning of a beautiful friendship between two industry rivals, another possible explanation is that Amazon was simply looking for a powerful ally to help fight a common enemy.

Then again, said enemy has just been discreetly welcomed back to ...