Amazon has just announced a new free music service for Echo owners. If you’re not a Prime member with access to Prime Music and are not an Amazon Music Unlimited subscriber, you can now stream music from Amazon on your Echo device without paying anything. Read more ›
Support for the Apple Music Skill has just arrived on the Amazon Fire TV. All Fire TV models in the US can now use Alexa to listen to their Apple Music subscription by simply making a music request by voice and adding “on Apple Music” to the end of the request. If you’ve already set up the Apple Music Skill, from when support arrived on Echo devices, you’re already set to listen through a Fire TV device. For everyone else, you’ll need to link the skill to your Apple Music subscription through the Alexa app. From there you can also set Apple Music as your default music service, if you’d like, so that all music requests play through Apple’s service, without needing to specifically say “…on Apple Music.” Additionally, Fire TV Cube owners will be able to listen to Apple Music synced up with other Alexa devices, since the Cube gained support for whole-home audio a few months ago. Support for Apple Music on both Fire TVs and Echos will be coming to the UK in a few weeks.
Amazon has launched a new feature for Alexa called Song ID that allows the voice assistant to announce the artist and title of each song before it plays. You likely wouldn’t use the feature for albums you know or playlists you created, but it can come in handy when playing stations or playlists curated by other people that are filled with new music you’ve never heard before. It sort of turns Alexa into a radio DJ who announces each song as it plays. To turn the feature on, simply say “Alexa, turn on Song ID” at anytime. As you’d expect, say “Alexa, turn off song ID” to turn it off.
Amazon is offering 4 months Free of Amazon Music Unlimited to Echo device owners as part of their Super Bowl deals. This offer is supposed to be for “new subscribers only,” but if you tried Music Unlimited in the past and but are not a current subscriber, you likely will qualify for the deal. After you go through the sign up process, check the Amazon Music Subscription Settings for your account to verify when your free trial ends. It should say something like “your Unlimited subscription will renew at $0.00,” which indicates you’ll receive the extra free months.
As promised last month, support for Apple Music has arrived on Amazon Echo and other compatible Alexa devices. Apple has put up a help page to get you started, but essentially you just need to open the Alexa app, select Music from the Settings area, and select the Link New Service option. Read more ›
Amazon is on an Alexa improvement kick with the Amazon Fire TV Cube that has been bringing formerly Echo-exclusive features to the streaming device. The Fire TV Cube gained support for Alexa Announcements earlier this month and now Amazon has announced that the next update will add support for multi-room music and Alexa follow-up mode. Multi-room music support will make it possible to sync music playback on the Fire TV Cube with all other whole-home audio capable Alexa devices, such as the Amazon Echo speaker line up. Follow-up mode allows the Fire TV Cube to continue listening after responding to a voice command so that customers don’t need to repeat the wake word before follow-up requests. Read more ›
Amazon Music is launching a few new Alexa features to help find the best music to play. You can now say “Alexa, help me find a playlist” to prompt the voice assistant to ask you questions about what kind of music you’d like to listen to. After asking about the genre or tempo you want, you’ll hear sample tracks and receive followup questions to narrow down the right playlist choice. Read more ›
A new Amazon Music app for Android TV has just popped up in the Google Play Store, as first spotted by Android Police. Judging by the screenshots, the app appears to be very similar to the one available on Fire TV devices. The app is not available to install just yet, but you can pre-register for it, which will notify you when it’s available. It’s unknown if the app will only be available for NVIDIA Shield TVs, like the Prime Video app for Android TV, or if other Android TV devices will also be able to install the app once it’s released. This new Amazon Music app will give Android TV users access to both Prime Music, which is the 2 million song service that is included for free with a Prime membership, and Amazon Music Unlimited, which is the 50 million song service that requires a separate paid subscription.
Amazon has announced that Apple Music will be available on Alexa devices, such as Echos and Fire TVs, on December 17th. Apple’s subscription streaming music offering is among the most popular services, thanks to the popularity of Apple’s mobile devices. This isn’t the first time Apple Music has been made available on non-Apple devices, since there is an Apple Music Android app, but Echo devices will be the first non-Apple smart speaker platform to natively support the service. Once an Apple Music Alexa skill is released, customers will only need to enable the skill and link their account to begin streaming Apple music through Alexa. All 50 million Apple Music tracks, including radio stations, like Apple’s live Beats 1 station, will be available through standard Alexa voice commands.
Alexa has a new feature that lets you follow music artists. Doing so will result in your Echo devices letting you know when that artist releases something new. The alerts come in as standard Alexa notification, which means your Echo’s LED light ring will light up yellow and you’ll need to say “Alexa, what did I miss” or “Alexa, read my notifications” to hear the message. To follow or unfollow an artist, simply say “Alexa, follow/unfollow [artist name].” You can also follow and unfollow artists by visiting their page in the Amazon Music mobile app or web player.
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