Alexa owners in the US get access to free, ad-supported Amazon Music

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Amazon Music is coming to more users in the US, specifically those with Alexa devices. These device owners can listen to a limited number of top playlists and stations on Amazon Music for free. It is similar to what Amazon Prime subscribers get access to for free. They don’t need to be Amazon Prime subscribers. You can ask Alexa to play music by creating stations based on a song, era, genre, or artist. Or have the voice assistant queue popular global playlists on Amazon Music. If you want access to Amazon Music Unlimited, you’ll need to subscribe to the paid premium tier, which gives you access to over 50 million songs. Amazon is leveraging the popularity of its smart speakers to get more users to use its services—especially since it doesn’t come at an additional cost. This just might entice listeners away from third-party services that Amazon speakers support (like Spotify and Apple Music).

Source: Engadget

New Alexa feature announces songs before they start playing

This new feature for Amazon Alexa could be either very annoying or very useful. Called Song ID, the virtual assistant will announce the name and artist of whatever song is playing before the song plays. It’s a feature available exclusively to Amazon Music. Amazon added the feature because it thinks it’ll help with music discovery. Perhaps a lot of people have been asking the virtual assistant what song is playing. If you do find the feature annoying, you can ask Alexa to “Turn off Song ID.”

Source: The Verge

Update on Friday, March 8, 2019 at 10:06PM by Nicole Batac

The feature is currently only available in the US.

Amazon Alexa can let you know if your favourite musicians release new music

Amazon Music and Alexa will make it easier for its subscribers to find out if their favourite musicians released new songs or albums. Amazon’s Music app is getting a New Release Notifications feature that can turn up on the mobile app or as a yellow light notification on your Amazon Echo device. If you’re in the US, you can follow an artist by saying to your Echo device, “Alexa follow ______ on Amazon Music.” Or say, “Alexa, let me know when ______ has new music.” You need to have notifications enabled to get updates. No word yet when Amazon plans to bring this feature outside the US.

Source: CNET

Alexa now available on Amazon Prime Music app

Amazon Canada announced that Prime Music listeners in Canada are able to request songs by voice with Alexa in the Amazon Music mobile app for iOS and Android. Listeners can now use voice features to hear the music they love wherever they go on Alexa-enabled devices. Prime Music, like Prime Video, is included in Amazon Prime subscriptions.

Prime Music listeners can easily ask Alexa to play music in a variety of ways, including by mood, genre or era. Alexa can also search by album name, artist name and more. This new feature combines the power of natural voice commands with a visual app experience.

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