I'd like to print My Music as a list of songs I can ask Alexa for. How?

[lennon2]

Okay, one last note. Echo is not a personal device. Anybody in the room can request something. This is its appeal to us, and swears at being able to use only a personal device to know what's available to all of us.

My family all want to participate but I'm the only techy one. So when you all use "I," I must use "we." I could always click on a song and play it on my PC; my spouse is barely online, able only to search for recipes (but not print them) and read email (but not respond to them).

Being able to make my music available to him is the magic of Echo. Tablets, phones, personal devices don't work for "us." He also has eye problems, and watching a video on a tablet would not be optimal. We do have a Fire stick so we can watch video together on our big TV.

Once I made choices only for me, and wrote workarounds so that others with fewer chops could benefit from them, too. Now I must think about "us."

Echo is just wonderful for non-techy family members, including our mid-sized grandchildren. If only everybody knew what was available and was able to ask for it specifically. (Alexa, as you all know, misunderstands requests, often hilariously, and especially during this season, is likely to offer wacky versions of popular song titles.)

Mike, we have thousands of songs, and like to make very specific requests. Your usage and ours is totally different. Thanks for chiming in, though. I have many friends in phone support, and they are all trained to say, "Sorry, can't do that" even though each would take it as a personal challenge to write a workaround to do it. None have Echos or I would have asked them to!

Btw, I see the Kindle users asking the same questions about their libraries. They too want printed lists of what books they own. They once could generate lists but cannot any more.

(And... I do have an emergency phone that I use in the car for gps directions, and the occasional grocery-store lookup. He has a flip phone he swears at a lot. These are personal choices.)

[lennon2]

Oh no, has the OP left; after I took the time to respond to him?  Whatever, I let Parker chat with him too long!   

Still here, Mike, and I'm a her.
Thanks for taking the time.

[lennon2]

And... I did actually call customer service because I've switched from Echo to Echo Dot, since some of the Music Unlimited songs only played one channel on the mono Echo, and I can put Echo Dot through my speakers. (Echo went to my grown daughter.) The Unlimited subscription did not transfer, however, so I needed a rep to do that for me. After that got moved, I raised the printing issue.

He immediately understood the problem and agreed that the nature of Echo required a solution larger than a listing on a personal device. He said that the only workaround he could figure was to take screenshots of the list display you get on the "Upload My Music" view at the bottom of the left sidebar at music.amazon.com and print them. There's a lot of white space between the lines there, and many pages would be required.

He emailed afterwards, "I am sorry there isn't a way to print Albums in list view. I will definitely pass this over to our developers. I will also stress that this is a group device and not a personal device. I know they are always trying to make improvements to the Music app and music library webpage. I hope they can add list view for albums in the near future. Thanks for taking the time to share your suggestion and for helping us improve Alexa and Amazon music."

[lennon2]

And... I do have an emergency phone that I use in the car for gps directions, and the occasional grocery-store lookup.

This gives the impression that you're just making things up as you go along.

Parker, nobody knows the number and since it lives in the car it never interrupts me.

Do you have a family? My family uses Alexa but they don't use my PC. This can't be hard to understand.

[lennon2]

...But I think the biggest problem here is your own fundamental misunderstanding of what Alexa and the devices you use to access that service are all about.  ...

demonstrates some truly bizarre reasoning. 

Parker, it's a tool. There is more than one way to use a tool. That does not make my use of it bizarre. It makes you sound rigid. A year from now, Amazon will have list view and people will print to paper or their TV screens an easily browseable list of all their songs. I'll be happy and you'll be you.

[mike27oct]

@lennon2

This comment is completely wrong:
>>>  I did actually call customer service because I've switched from Echo to Echo Dot, since some of the Music Unlimited songs only played one channel on the mono Echo, and I can put Echo Dot through my speakers. (Echo went to my grown daughter.)

Amazon does not send just one stereo channel to an Echo, even though Echo's speakers play a mono signal!  Plain vanilla radios (like Echo does) play a blended L+R output of stereo signals.  It would be asinine for Amazon to do what you claim.  Being a long time audio/music fan, I would hear this, but I don't. 

In fact, I just asked Alexa Echo to play a favorite song of mine with 3 singers from the earliest days of stereo, where one singer is totally on the left, the main singer is in the center, and the third singer completely on the right.  Each is playing a guitar, too.  I could still pick out three distinct voices from the mono output.  If Echo was not playing a blended L+R output it would have been very apparent.  Poppycock!

[lennon2]

Mike, I wasn't playing the same songs as you, obviously. Simple courtesy might ask what I was playing.

It was one or more of these three tracks that triggered one channel only on Echo, can't remember which. Sounded like crap.

Btw, when you try to listen to John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" here, labeled "For Echo," Alexa gives you the Sarah McLachlan version.

Before you say "Poppycock," let me quote you an email from a different Amazon Customer Service rep:

"I'm sorry that Alexa did not play song by the artist you wanted to play. This is definitely not we expect our customers to experience.

I've checked and tried playing the song "Happy Xmas (War is Over) by John Lennon", but instead it started playing the same song by "Sarah McLachlan". I'm sorry for inconvenience this has caused." 

[mike27oct]

Ms. Lennon,

It really doesn't matter what songs we listened to, the Echo does not omit a channel, (unless the track was bad, and you may have listened to a bad one.) 

It may interest you to know the digital recording rights really only are owned by a few companies, and Apple, Amazon, and many others do not create their own digital content.  They buy it from the rights holders.  Case in point: a few years ago I had a digital album with a misspelling in one of the track titles, and not only was the eMusic track I had downloaded spelled wrong, but the same track title at Apple and Amazon was spelled wrong, too.  Obviously, all from the same original source.

And, playing the wrong track can happen at anytime to any service.  Not relevant to saying Echo plays one track instead of both.  I have had an Echo for two years or so, and I think I (and others) would have noticed something amiss here if there had been.

[Alpha Bitch]

Ms. Lennon,

I have a Mac (iMac), retired and never in my life had a cell phone.  Never had any use for them.  My landline suits me just fine.  That being said......

If you are still using a Mac, you can take a screen shot of your playlists until "printing" is enabled.  Once the screen shot(s) are on your desktop, print them out.  I do not use any of Amazon's music subscriptions as I am not a member.  At least not that way.  My DOT is hooked up to my iMac & MBP through bluetooth.  I have over 5000 of my own custom music on my iMac & probably 2000 on my MBP.  DOT finds my music just fine. 
Like you I cannot read anything on those tiny cell phone screens.  My iMac has a 27 inch screen & the MBP 15 inch.  Excellent views of the Alexa app.

I just received my DOT 2 days ago.  Since then, I have been busy customizing my settings.  I made screen shots of everything I did then printed it out.


HTH

[garyyoung]

Lennon2, you are not the only one who wants to be able to print lists from the Amazon Music app. I find that I often can't get Alexa to do what I want by voice command unless I word things very precisely. For instance, if I say, "Alexa, play songs by Hank Williams, Senior," I always get songs by Hank Williams, Jr. The only way that I've discovered to get songs by the original Hank Williams is to request a particular album by name. Like you, I find it much more convenient and faster to refer to a printed list of my favorite albums instead of the Amazon Music app.

Also, my elderly father likes to listen to music in a room without a computer, but his poor eyesight prevents him from using a smart phone or a tablet (at least not one small enough that he could afford it). I've typed up a list of his favorite albums in large type, but would prefer to be able to copy and paste it from the app.

I'm a bit mystified by the reaction here to lennon2's question. I agree with DParker that, "The point of Alexa is to act as a speech-based interface to a variety of technology-based services." For that very reason, I doubt that use of a computer or tablet to control the Echo is really an integral part of Amazon's grand scheme. After all, Amazon bills the Echo as "a hands-free, voice controlled device." More likely, I think, is that the app is a crutch to overcome some of limitations, hopefully temporary, of the voice interface. I can't imagine why Amazon would object to another crutch, like a printed list, any more or less than an app that is anything but hands-free. Also, I'm doubtful that a sales-driven company like Amazon is really indifferent to the sizable number of people like my father who have difficulty using a smart phone or tablet. I suspect the real problem here is that Amazon has a lot on its plate and the Amazon Music service is very new.

I gather that there's no easy way to print a list other than screen prints. I'll submit a request to Amazon. I'm just posting here to give lennon2 some moral support.

[DParker]

For instance, if I say, "Alexa, play songs by Hank Williams, Senior," I always get songs by Hank Williams, Jr.

Have you tried just "Hank Williams"?  "Senior" is not a part of his name, so I can see why that would throw things off.

I'm a bit mystified by the reaction here to lennon2's question.

Why is that?  The question was, "How do I do X".  The answers were, "There's no easy way to do X, and here's why."

I agree with DParker that, "The point of Alexa is to act as a speech-based interface to a variety of technology-based services." For that very reason, I doubt that use of a computer or tablet to control the Echo is really an integral part of Amazon's grand scheme.

Nobody is talking about using computers, tablets et al to control the Echo.  We're talking about using one of those devices to review the contents of your Amazon Music account, which has nothing to do with controlling the Echo and existed prior to...and is separate from...Alexa and the supporting devices (Echo, Dot, etc.)  In fact, the OP is talking about using a computing device in order to review AND produce a printout...very old fashioned...of the information in question.

After all, Amazon bills the Echo as "a hands-free, voice controlled device." More likely, I think, is that the app is a crutch to overcome some of limitations, hopefully temporary, of the voice interface.

Again, you seem to be confusing Alexa with one of the services that it provides access to.  The fact that they're both Amazon offerings does not mean that they are the same thing.

I can't imagine why Amazon would object to another crutch, like a printed list, any more or less than an app that is anything but hands-free.

It has nothing to do with objecting to anything.  It has to do with expending time, effort and resources (including money) developing, maintaining and supporting a piece of functionality that is of extremely limited use relative to their user base as a whole.

I suspect the real problem here is that Amazon has a lot on its plate and the Amazon Music service is very new.

I don't know that I'd describe a 9 year-old online service as being "very new".

[garyyoung]

Have you tried just "Hank Williams"?  "Senior" is not a part of his name, so I can see why that would throw things off.

Yes. Same result. Amazon tells me there's a glitch and they're working on it.

Nobody is talking about using computers, tablets et al to control the Echo.  We're talking about using one of those devices to review the contents of your Amazon Music account, which has nothing to do with controlling the Echo and existed prior to...and is separate from...Alexa and the supporting devices (Echo, Dot, etc.)  In fact, the OP is talking about using a computing device in order to review AND produce a printout...very old fashioned...of the information in question.

If a printout is easier and more efficient for me and my father, I'm not sure why I should care that it's old-fashioned.

The OP and I want to make printouts to help us in issuing voice commands to our Echos. By your lights, that "has nothing to do with controlling the echo"! Are you joking?

The lack of a print function is a problem with the Amazon Music app. But explaining why I wanted the printout function meant going into the limitations of Alexa. The same sort of voice-control problems that bedevil the Amazon Music service also apply to other services (Harmony and Pandora, based on my experience; many other services, judging from several posts to this forum). That suggests to me that the limitations in Amazon Music and other services stem at least in part from the limitations in Alexa. If you have some actual evidence that the problems I encounter are solely the fault of the Amazon Music service, then I'd be glad to hear it. Verbal distinctions without a difference?, not so much.

This is a perfect illustration of what I find mystifying about the reception of lennon2's post. Why should a straightforward question, the gist of which everyone understood, be met with endless loops of pointless hair-splitting and pedantry? (Not to mention insinuations of dishonesty.)

Again, you seem to be confusing Alexa with one of the services that it provides access to.  The fact that they're both Amazon offerings does not mean that they are the same thing.

No, see above.

It has nothing to do with objecting to anything.  It has to do with expending time, effort and resources (including money) developing, maintaining and supporting a piece of functionality that is of extremely limited use relative to their user base as a whole.

I don't have a problem with saying -- better to say speculating, since I'm not privy to Amazon's thoughts -- that there's no print function because Amazon had other priorities. You did, however, suggest that a print function was not only low on their list of priorities, but inconsistent with Amazon's vision.

I don't know that I'd describe a 9 year-old online service as being "very new".

Point taken. I've only been using the app since the introduction of the unlimited service, and that's why I mistakenly said it's very new. However, isn't it true that voice command of the Amazon Music service -- which is what the OP and I are talking about -- is only about 2 years old?

[jwlv]

Amazon boasts something like 2 million songs that's available to Prime members. The songs in that list changes just about every single day. I've had some songs that I played a month ago and now it's no longer available. I suspect it's licensing issues. Once that license expires, then it's up to Amazon to decide whether to renew it.

By the way, you can print out of list of songs that's in your playlist. If you added songs to your playlist, then you can view that playlist on your computer and print it out.

But if you're talking about the 2 millions songs that's available to Prime members, forget about it. Amazon won't let you print it out or even tell you a fraction of what songs they have. It's like Netflix. They will not reveal to you their entire catalogue of movies that they have available.

See this page to find out more about your Amazon playlist:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201379470

Just keep in mind that whatever songs you add to your playlist today might not be there tomorrow. That's happened to me numerous times. I originally thought there was something wrong with my Echo. When Echo encounters a song that doesn't exist any more, it just stops playing. It will not continue to the next song on your playlist.

[garyyoung]

By the way, you can print out of list of songs that's in your playlist. If you added songs to your playlist, then you can view that playlist on your computer and print it out.

Do you know of a way to do this other than print screen?

[mike27oct]

I just asked one of my Dots to play music by "Hank Williams" and it replied "Shuffling music by Hank Williams Senior".  Duh.

No one here is trying to discourage people from printing out reams of paper full of Amazon song titles, (except maybe tree huggers!)  It's just not found in the Easy Department. Everyone who wants this capability is FREE to contact Amazon with this request, but spare the rest of us your rationale for wanting this.  I hardly ever print anything any more as there are better ways to store information today tnan on paper. 

And, guess what; the Amazon Echo is really not for everyone.  Heck, I need to use a magnifying glass to see my alexa app on phone, but it beats nothing, and when I need to look at a clock I just ask Alexa the time vs struggling to see a clock!

The number of whiners in this forum have increased greatly over the past few months.  Not everything can be done using an Echo; deal with it.