# Requesting music from Echo



## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

It seems you often have to use particular wording to get Echo to play a specific album or song.  This morning I wanted to play Mary Chapin Carpenter's new album "The Things We Are Made Of" which was released yesterday.  It is currently available in Prime Music.  I tried a variety of wording my requests.  It showed correctly on the Home page of my Echo app but I kept getting wrong music.  Finally got it when I asked, "Play album 'The Things We Are Made Of' by Mary Chapin Carpenter FROM Prime Music."  I didn't think I had to include artist's name when I asked?  

I gave feedback within the Echo app.  A little later got a long e-mail  saying call Echo tech.  I did.  Gotta say that was no good.  Indian who I could understand, but . . . .  I don't think this problem would be solved by unplugging and plugging in the Echo.  I hung up.  Tried asking Echo again with the specific words above.  It's playing now.

Sometimes it's difficult to get what you want if it's a specific album or track.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Sandpiper said:


> It seems you often have to use particular wording to get Echo to play a specific album or song. This morning I wanted to play Mary Chapin Carpenter's new album "The Things We Are Made Of" which was released yesterday. It is currently available in Prime Music. I tried a variety of wording my requests. It showed correctly on the Home page of my Echo app but I kept getting wrong music. Finally got it when I asked, "Play album 'The Things We Are Made Of' by Mary Chapin Carpenter FROM Prime Music." I didn't think I had to include artist's name when I asked?
> 
> I gave feedback within the Echo app. A little later got a long e-mail  saying call Echo tech. I did. Gotta say that was no good. Indian who I could understand, but . . . . I don't think this problem would be solved by unplugging and plugging in the Echo. I hung up. Tried asking Echo again with the specific words above. It's playing now.
> 
> Sometimes it's difficult to get what you want if it's a specific album or track.


I just tested saying "Play Album _The Things We Are Made Of_ from Prime Music" and Alexa said "The Album _The Things We Are Made Of_ from Prime Music by Mary Chapin Carpenter" and started playing. 

So, I don't know...maybe she was in a mood?

Betsy


----------



## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> So, I don't know...maybe she was in a mood?
> 
> Betsy


Yeah, I think she can be moody. It can get frustrating. She plays something wrong. "Stop." Try again. "Stop." Try again. "Stop."


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Sandpiper said:


> Yeah, I think she can be moody. It can get frustrating. She plays something wrong. "Stop." Try again. "Stop." Try again. "Stop."


Yeah, that's happened to us.

Betsy


----------



## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

DANG! I don't get it?? Echo / Alexa / she was playing the above peaceful MCC album and then, out of the blue . . . song Beatles It's a Hard Days Night??  

*"Alexa, STOP!"*


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Maybe she got it from us, before I tested your album choice (nice album, thanks!), we were playing Beatles tunes!

Did you check the app to see what she heard?

Betsy


----------



## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Maybe she got it from us, before I tested your album choice (nice album, thanks!), we were playing Beatles tunes!
> 
> Did you check the app to see what she heard?
> 
> Betsy


_Maybe_ that happened because prior to Beatles playing I told Alexa "Shuffle". Using that one word request or "loop" has worked before meaning to shuffle or loop current album playing. So maybe last night she took it to mean stop playing current album and shuffle all Prime or My Library music??

A little while after that had same problem twice that hasn't happened for two weeks -- no sound out of Alexa. I e-mailed same Amazon tech I had been working with on this. He doesn't work Sundays and Mondays. I'll see if it happens more in the next few days. It may be time for gratis new Echo which the tech said he could get for me if problem continues.

It's easy to get Echos to play music by requesting all music by a certain artist. Getting a particular album or song to play is difficult. Makes me a little  .


----------



## KindleGirl (Nov 11, 2008)

Well my Echo started playing music right in the middle of an Outlander episode last night! I don't think anyone said Alexa but she must have thought she heard it. She jabbered on about something and then music started playing! Usually if she hears her name on a commercial she'll just ask what I said, but this time she must have thought she heard a music request.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

KindleGirl said:


> Well my Echo started playing music right in the middle of an Outlander episode last night! I don't think anyone said Alexa but she must have thought she heard it. She jabbered on about something and then music started playing! Usually if she hears her name on a commercial she'll just ask what I said, but this time she must have thought she heard a music request.


You can check the "cards" on the home page in the Alexa app to see what she heard. It'll actually play the audio clip.

Betsy


----------



## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> You can check the "cards" on the home page in the Alexa app to see what she heard. It'll actually play the audio clip.
> 
> Betsy


Huh! I didn't know about the audio clip. Don't like hearing me/myself/I. ***shudder***

Sometimes requests don't make it into cards on the Home page. Go into Settings / History, _all_ requests should show up there.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Sandpiper said:


> Huh! I didn't know about the audio clip. Don't like hearing me/myself/I. ***shudder***
> 
> Sometimes requests don't make it into cards on the Home page. Go into Settings / History, _all_ requests should show up there.


Good tip, and no, I don't like hearing myself either, but sometimes I want to hear what random thing on TV she heard...and sometimes when she puts something really strange on my shopping list, I have to check to see what I said that made her add that. 

EDIT: From Settings, go to History, as you say. Then find the card and click on it, you'll then see the play button to hear the audio.

Betsy


----------



## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Good tip, and no, I don't like hearing myself either, but sometimes I want to hear what random thing on TV she heard...and sometimes when she puts something really strange on my shopping list, I have to check to see what I said that made her add that.
> 
> EDIT: From Settings, go to History, as you say. Then find the card and click on it, you'll then see the play button to hear the audio.
> 
> Betsy


 Didn't think about all that to find out why she sometimes does what she does.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Sandpiper said:


> Didn't think about all that to find out why she sometimes does what she does.


I don't always do it, but once or twice I got really curious!


----------



## KindleGirl (Nov 11, 2008)

I'll have to look up the history. I'm curious to see what she heard.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

KindleGirl said:


> I'll have to look up the history. I'm curious to see what she heard.


I am, too!


----------



## Andra (Nov 19, 2008)

Aldo if something is Prime but you add the album to your library it confuses her if you add "from Prime" to the request.


----------



## NightReader (Apr 25, 2010)

I've become a huge fan of Alexa, but sometimes she makes me crazy.  No matter how hard I tried, I could not get her to play the song "Uh huh" by Escondido.  She got close a couple of times "I can't find "Ah hah" in your library, but either she just can't hear an "uh huh" or I can't say it well enough.  (Likewise, I had to rename "Wall light" because she kept hearing "all light" and asking which one to turn on.)

It was a Prime song, but I added the song to my library, so I'll see if that makes it easier.  (I don't even know if I like the song.  I found it checking out songs mentioned in EW magazine.  It'll be sad if I did all that work to hear it and don't like it. ha-ha!)


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

If you go to Settings > History you can find "cards" for tasks you ask Alexa to do, and can provide feedback to the developers for tasks she fails at.

Betsy


----------

