Something Has Changed

[moneeman1]

My wife has tinnitus, and relies on Alexa to play sounds/music all night to allow her to sleep.  This has worked great for several years, until two or three weeks ago (more or less).  At night we tell Alexa to play one of the nature sounds, which she continues to do.  However, now she cuts off after perhaps an hour.  We discovered that she will play longer if you tell her to loop, but then she will only do so playing the requested sound AND SIMILAR.  Well, "similar" doesn't help when you rely on only certain sounds to help you sleep.

Also, Alexa will no longer play ONLY a select requested music artist.  It is always that artist AND SIMILAR!

What happened?  Is there a pronouncement somewhere that says what changed?  More importantly, is there a work around?  Or is there some kind of premium service Amazon is driving us to?  Thanks for any advice.

[AlanH]

I don't know anything about Amazon Music's nature sounds, but there has been a recent change to how a request for a particular music artist is managed.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/3/23436887/amazon-music-prime-changes-shuffle-angry-customers

[jwlv]

You may want to consider using one of the many Alexa skills for nature or sleep sounds. Most of these Alexa skills are made by third parties and not Amazon, therefore not subject to the changes that Amazon made to Prime Music recently.

[renegade600]

what Amazon is doing is trying to force users to subscribe to their music service if you want to play specific songs or playlists.    If you need to subscribe to get what you want, take your money to another music service or find a good skill that has the music you want.   

[jwlv]

Amazon isn't losing any money if people decide to pay for a different music service. That is, unless people cancel their Prime membership altogether.