Amazon Echo - Music

Shrimply

Thanks for all the help, it's really interesting but it does seem like mine likes to misbehave more than some of yours. I should say that although I have quite a broad accent I do regularly get told how well I pronounciate and that I'm actually very easy for people, particularly from other countries, to understand.

And if I ask Google for Tay FM it searches for Tay FM so why can't Alexa.

Tay FM is my local station.
I had the same problem.
Try "Alexa, play ninety-six point four fm"

I just get:

"I could not find a station called ninety-six point four fm"

So if it works for you I don't know why mine is so stubbornly against Tay Fm.

EDIT - 102.8FM works - but jeez that's a mouthful

I think what frustrates me here is that it doesn't seem to learn, and instead you have to learn the hoops you need to jump through to get it to do what you want.

I can totally understand having trouble selecting the correct station, but after I listen to it on multiple occasions you'd think it would stop trying to play me a French station which I cancel immediately every time.

I even have Tay FM in my favourites but you can't select by favourites which again just seems like something that has no reason to be missing. It's the same that you can't ask her to wake you up with music or a radio station. There seems like there are a lot of basic functionality missing for no apparent reason.

I've learnt a bit about asking for genres too from your replies.

She fails at
"rock music station"
"rock radio station"
but gets
"rock station"

I still can't for love of money get her to select a 90's or classical station

She is also quite good at telling me that TuneIn stations that I can access fine through the app on my phone are not currently available. I've contacted Amazon about this as it doesn't make sense.

As to the music, thank you all for your thoughts. I have read that Spotify is superior and that Amazon music is actually quite badly implemented, but I don't know how much I'd notice this. I can get Spotify for £4.99 a month.

Maybe the best option is to try Spotify for it's free month and then try Amazon. It's just a shame that you can't get a free go at Amazon music (rather than unlimited) before signing up to prime. I've already had my free trial before getting the device unfortunately.

CuddlesTC

Shrimply wrote: »

Thanks for all the help, it's really interesting but it does seem like mine likes to misbehave more than some of yours.

Oh I dunno - my Dot played Little Mix at me yesterday instead of the podcast "Serial"; that's how I found out that "Dear God no" isn't an adequate synonym for "Alexa stop".....

madlyn

I to am in a similar situation having been given a dot as a gift and I'm wondering how to play music on it.
I don't really want to pay out each month for a premium service as I only tend to listen to music for a short time, usually while I'm cooking or just chilling, I would like to listen to the radio to so advice on how to set this up along with playing some music would be great. I'm new to this sort of tech so as simple as possible please.

Shrimply

It's daft things as well

Ask it to "set and alarm for 5 past 10" and it does so if you ask it to "set an alarm for 5 minutes past 10" and it starts a 5 minute timer.

CuddlesTC

And it understands some words but not others - you can set a repeating alarm, but not a recurring alarm, for example.

I do still like it despite its little foibles, although I have had a few arguments with it in the week I've had it!

I hope more functionality will come along eventually, especially an iPlayer Radio skill.

CuddlesTC

People looking for local radio stations, have you tried enabling different skills rather than just going with TuneIn?

I was just browsing the skills and Radioplayer came up as a recommendation - seems to have a good variety.

http://www.radioplayer.co.uk/

Doshwaster

madlyn wrote: »

I to am in a similar situation having been given a dot as a gift and I'm wondering how to play music on it.
I don't really want to pay out each month for a premium service as I only tend to listen to music for a short time, usually while I'm cooking or just chilling, I would like to listen to the radio to so advice on how to set this up along with playing some music would be great. I'm new to this sort of tech so as simple as possible please.

Using an Echo/Dot as a radio is of the easiest things you can do and is ideal for use in the kitchen or bathroom (where you would need to run it off a battery pack)

Try
"Alexa, play BBC radio 2"
"Alexa, play Capital FM"
"Alexa, play a 90s radio station"
"Alexa, play a jazz radio station"
"Alexa, what's playing?"
"Alexa, increase/decrease volume"
"Alexa, mute" (and resume to start again)

It comes preconfigured with the TuneIn app but you can also add Radio Player as a "skill" which has many more UK local stations including small community ones.

You'll need "Alexa, play <station name> on Radio Player" or "Alexa, ask Radio Player to play <station name>"

Take a look at
https://www.amazon.co.uk/UK-Radioplayer-Ltd/dp/B01M13BOP1

madlyn

Thanks for the advice, and as for other music... what is the free Spotify like or is it worth paying a subscription each month?

Doshwaster

madlyn wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, and as for other music... what is the free Spotify like or is it worth paying a subscription each month?

I don't think you can use the free version of Spotify with the Echo/Dot

Shrimply

Yeah it's paid for services only which is a bit of a pain if you don't listen to music all that much.

If your music collection is digital though Amazon allow you to upload 250 songs which would then be accessible to the Echo. So that might be an option.