Amazon Music Users Get A More Helpful Alexa Today
Amazon Music subscribers who frequently queue up music using Alexa will find that the AI companion is a little smarter beginning today. Amazon has launched a new update for Amazon Music that brings more voice control options to Alexa – using this new functionality, indecisive listeners who don't know precisely what they want to listen to will be able have a conversation with Alexa to find music that fits the mood.
To kick off a conversation with Alexa, you simply need to say "Alexa, help me find a playlist." You can add certain qualifiers to your request to narrow down options right away, like "Alexa, help me find a holiday playlist," or "Alexa, help me find music for dinner."
When searching for a playlist, Alexa will take your listening history into account, but she'll also ask follow up questions to narrow down the potential playlist candidates further. In the near future, this functionality will be beefed up more, and users will be able ask Alexa to recommend some new music. She'll follow up by asking about favorite genres or eras and again take listening habits into account to suggest some new tunes.
The most popular voice command, "Alexa, play some music" is also being improved today. Now when users give that relatively simple command, Amazon says that Alexa will return a more personalized playlist that's influenced by likes and dislikes, along with music that's present in existing playlists. You'll even hear new music from followed artists (if there is any, of course), which is always a nice touch.
Finally, you're now able to tell Alexa directly whether you like or dislike a song that's playing. As a song is playing, all you need to do is say something like "Alexa, I like this song," or "Alexa, I don't like this," and she'll take note of your preferences. After that, you can say "Alexa, play music I like" and she'll create a playlist out of tracks you frequently listen to and those you've told her you like.
As with most things Alexa, it sounds like many of these new features will get better as you use them, so at the outset, using them might be a little rocky. These new features should be available for Amazon Music and Prime Music subscribers today, so be sure to check them out either using the Amazon Music app on Android and iOS or one of Amazon's various Echo speakers.