Alexa OS incorrectly responding to music requests

[Jeff29]

Before 1 Nov 2022:

Req: Alexa play <song title> by <artist>
Resp: Playing <song title> by <artist <list>>
Action: correct song plays (matching announced title and artist)

On Nov 1st:
Same request but:
Incorrect resp: Shuffling <song title> and similar songs
Incorrect action: random song plays (not the requested title) or requested title is played but there doesn't appear to be any logic behind when the correct title is played vs. an incorrect title.

Additional associated errors:
command: Alexa turn off shuffle
response: "I can't set the shuffle mode on Amazon Music"

command: Alexa what song is this (following an above request for <title>)
response: I can't specify for this stream
 - note that no stream was requested.

On Nov 1st I called and reported this to Amazon technical support and was told this is a bug and engineers are working to resolve the problem.

Given this bug has continued all week I thought I would post here to let the community know Amazon is working on resolving the bug.

I am also hoping someone will mark this as "sticky" until it's resolved so people immediately see what I believe is a pervasive issue.

[jwlv]

Amazon says it's a "new feature" of Amazon Prime Music. It's not a bug.

According to Mac Rumors: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/11/01/amazon-prime-100-million-songs/
and Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/streaming/amazon-music-prime-new-features-songs-podcasts-2022-11

Instead of 2 million songs for free for Prime members, it's now 100 millon songs. But the 100 million songs are played in shuffle mode (or random). That means it won't always play exactly what you ask for, but it will get to it eventually.

[renegade600]

no bug, just amazon trying to force users to pay for a subscription so they can play what they want to hear.  No asking for specific music without a paid subscription.    Best to find another music service.   

[AlanH]

The Verge also has a piece on this 'feature'.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/3/23436887/amazon-music-prime-changes-shuffle-angry-customers

[Jeff29]

Amazon support stated to me it was a bug.

The moment I ran into this problem (before contacting support) I suspected it was Amazon attempting to better monetize their music.

AlanH--thanks for that link to The Verge and the excellent article.

It seems like Amazon is attempting (perhaps successfully) to return to a very old business model where big business forces music on consumers then capitalizes on predictable returns.  This is how the music industry worked until the Internet where people could make their own decisions vs being stuck with a business driven radio station (with "hit" songs that weren't organic but, again, planned and driven by a business model with surprising success and revenue).

I have always purchased my own music, movies, books and never trusted big business to "handle" my purchased content on my behalf--I won't even "activate" the "free digital copies" businesses try to foist on consumers.  Some people here may remember how consumers in a very large group lost all of their online (digital music) purchases with the closing of a single business.

If my last name was "Bezos" I'd be doing this too but hopefully with a smoother transition.  That said, "Amazon, welcome back to being a (granted, extremely large) commodity limited to shipping as I won't be using any Amazon music options."

[jwlv]

Quite often tech support is the last to hear about changes that corporate makes. Most of the time they hear it from users rather than some higher-ups in the company.

[scottrods]

I haven't used any of the Amazon Music gimmes since I found Echo. I still hang with the freebie version of Pandora for my random listening option. they have a good set of things for me, but not everyone.
If you think Amazon has wronged you, you should have been beaten by Apple when they started Apple music (Not the iTunes it started with). I had thousands of songs curated by me and album art and obscure music not avsailable in any online music venue. Some really awesome stuff that Apple, upon signing up to their Apple music service, Started replacing with "the best, Apple Curated, Versions of songs available in any streaming service". Which meant the most current version of a song that was 30 years old and I had been listening to for years on my digital devices as I had ripped them myself (before most digital tunes were made difficult to rip), some were replaced by songs with the same name, but completely different music... Apple Music SUCKS. If you even go to the Apple store to buy tunes you are familiar with from the 80's let's say... the most commonly purchased option has become the only version of many songs... remastered, a version found on a different album, some other crap...

I feel your pain in the Amazon music debacle already and forsee more similarities to the Apple "upgrade" as well. Best you can do really, is get a stand alone MP3 player and either bluetooth it to your Amazon echo devices or a standalone msuci machine... in my humblest of opinion...

[TheAssandtheElephant]

The Verge also has a piece on this 'feature'.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/3/23436887/amazon-music-prime-changes-shuffle-angry-customers

Note that this is only a few days after their puff piece with VP Steve Boom where they declaimed how awesome the update is.

It's in that interview where Boom let the cat out of the bag:

"We look at Prime Music as the best service you can get without having to spend an extra $10 a month out in the marketplace. But ultimately, it has limited functionality compared to a full on-demand service and we want people to upgrade at the end of the day."