Non Ideal Music UX

Magic wand time…

Let’s say I could fix music on Alexa (or at least make it better). What would I fix?

Tonight, I had to say this:

“Alexa, play Calendar Girl by Neil Sedaka from Spotify on Living Room”

That’s a lot of slot filling. Song Title, Artist, Source, and Output Speaker. Intent is Play, of course. At least this time (sometimes Alexa thinks I want to play a game).

“Alexa, play again”… I’m sorry, that’s not supported on Spotify.

“Alexa, play Calendar Girl”… Starting Calendar Girl from Audible.

“Alexa, play A Few Of My Favourite Things by Julie Andrews”… blah blah Amazon Music. (but I have Spotify!)

First, support repeating music. Just issue the request again. If I’ve asked for the song Calendar Girl before, start biasing my answers towards that. If I have Spotify, stop trying to sell me Amazon Music. If I’m continually asking to stream music to my living room Sonos, just make it the de facto player for that playing session (an hour or two).

Learn! Please… learn from your mistakes, Alexa. Music by voice is magical until it becomes annoying.