Amazon Music integrates Alexa Plus for AI-based discovery, more: What's new

Alexa Plus arrives in the Amazon Music app, offering users AI-driven, back-and-forth conversations to explore songs and artists

Amazon is bringing new AI capabilities to its music streaming service by integrating Alexa Plus into the Amazon Music app for iOS and Android. The integration brings conversational, AI-driven music discovery directly into the company’s streaming service. The company said the integration uses generative AI to enhance user engagement and exploration within Amazon Music. Notably, this is currently limited to users enrolled in the Alexa Plus Early Access programme. Amazon has said that it will be rolled out to more users in the coming months but no specific timeline has been provided yet.

 

The integration is unavailable for Indian users at present as Alexa Plus is not available in the country.

 

What can it do

According to Amazon, Alexa Plus allows users to engage in more natural, back-and-forth conversations about music—similar to chatting with a knowledgeable friend. Instead of issuing short commands, listeners can ask complex or follow-up questions such as - play pop songs from the ’90s excluding boy bands or recommend contemporary jazz music for a dinner party.

 

The assistant can also identify tracks from partial information like lyrics or movie references and offer contextual details such as an artist’s background, discography, or a song’s meaning.

 

In addition to discovery, Alexa Plus can generate custom playlists based on specific moods, eras, or themes, which users can save and edit later. It can also explain the stories behind tracks, trace sampling origins, and provide factual music knowledge, such as chart positions or festival lineups.

 

Early Access participants can start using Alexa Plus in the Amazon Music app by updating to the latest version and tapping the “a” button in the lower-right corner.

In related news, Amazon recently launched four new Echo devices that are powered by Alexa Plus. The newly launched devices are Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 11. Buyers of any new Echo device will automatically gain Early Access to Alexa Plus. While some models are already available in select markets, others will go on sale starting November 12, with no India release date announced yet. Notably, Indian availability has not yet been announced for any of the four products.