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Amazon Echo / Alexa music



Jam The Man

Jam The Man

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
8,226
South East North Lancing
I've just purchased one of these having gone out on a limb after seeing how good my mates set up was.

For those that also have one, what's the best bet for my music collection?
I've got about 150,000 songs on my computer, so I'm tempted to shell out the seemingly cheap £22 a year to upload the lot into Amazon Music.

Anyone done the same?

Buy Amazon Echo in Black: http://amzn.to/2wYXwIc
Buy Amazon Echo in White: http://amzn.to/2w83Ks7

Buy Amazon Echo Dot in Black: http://amzn.to/2y9N7sA
Buy Amazon Echo Dot in White: http://amzn.to/2fvjXxm
 




Chinman3000

Chinman3000

Well-known member
Sep 28, 2011
1,269
What does the Amazon Echo actually do? From the adverts it seems just like a Siri / Cortana in a seperate box?
 


Bozza

Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
57,292
Back in Sussex
Jam The Man said:
I've just purchased one of these having gone out on a limb after seeing how good my mates set up was.

For those that also have one, what's the best bet for my music collection?
I've got about 150,000 songs on my computer, so I'm tempted to shell out the seemingly cheap £22 a year to upload the lot into Amazon Music.

Anyone done the same?
Click to expand...

I've not, but it sounds like iTunes Match, which is also £21.99 a year. It was somewhat jaw-dropping when that was released a few years back as it effectively allowed anyone to legitimise years worth of dodgily downloaded music. In most cases your music isn't uploaded. What they'll do is look to match what you have against the Amazon library of millions of track and then effectively marks off the ones that you own. Any of your music that it can't find in their repository, it will upload. Shouldn't be too much though, and the whole process will be invisible to you, and a lot quicker than actually having to upload 150,000 tracks!

Chinman3000 said:
What does the Amazon Echo actually do? From the adverts it seems just like a Siri / Cortana in a seperate box?
Click to expand...

+ Sonos (or similar internet-hooked up music device).
 


chaileyjem

chaileyjem

#BarberIn
NSC Patron
Jun 27, 2012
14,614






Carrot Cruncher

Carrot Cruncher

NHS Slave
Helpful Moderator
Jul 30, 2003
5,053
Southampton, United Kingdom
What [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] neglected to mention was that if you do buy one, do it through the link at the top...
[MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION], are you ill...?
 




Bozza

Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
57,292
Back in Sussex




LlcoolJ

LlcoolJ

Mama said knock you out.
Oct 14, 2009
12,982
Sheffield
Bozza said:
I've not, but it sounds like iTunes Match, which is also £21.99 a year. It was somewhat jaw-dropping when that was released a few years back as it effectively allowed anyone to legitimise years worth of dodgily downloaded music. In most cases your music isn't uploaded. What they'll do is look to match what you have against the Amazon library of millions of track and then effectively marks off the ones that you own. Any of your music that it can't find in their repository, it will upload. Shouldn't be too much though, and the whole process will be invisible to you, and a lot quicker than actually having to upload 150,000 tracks!
Click to expand...

That sounds exactly the same as Google Play, which is free and really easy to use.
 




Arthur

Arthur

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
8,761
Buxted Harbour
chaileyjem said:
Its a voice controlled hub, with thousands of "recipes" (ie: ways of connecting with devices and databases) and a speaker.
This is a good review of the £50 "dot" version which is a third of the price of the full version.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/28/amazon-echo-dot-review
Click to expand...

Bought one of these yesterday (through the link of course [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION]). Was tempted to buy an Echo as they had £30 off but thought about it and wasn't sure when I'd actually use it so went for the Dot which had a tenner off. See they are back up to full price today.....result! Pure laziness on my behalf as I expect the only thing I'll use the Dot for is to ask it how ****ed my trains are each morning. I expect I'll still check my phone to confirm anyway.

Bit of fun/novelty though for not a lot of money. Looking forward to playing with it when I get home this evening.
 






Bozza

Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
57,292
Back in Sussex
Arthur said:
Bought one of these yesterday (through the link of course [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION]). Was tempted to buy an Echo as they had £30 off but thought about it and wasn't sure when I'd actually use it so went for the Dot which had a tenner off. See they are back up to full price today.....result! Pure laziness on my behalf as I expect the only thing I'll use the Dot for is to ask it how ****ed my trains are each morning. I expect I'll still check my phone to confirm anyway.

Bit of fun/novelty though for not a lot of money. Looking forward to playing with it when I get home this evening.
Click to expand...

In black, I note.

I'm tempted to get one for similar reasons - something new to have a play with. Sonos integration seems to be with a Play 5 only currently though, and we only have 1s and a 3.
 


Gullflyinghigh

Gullflyinghigh

Registered User
Apr 23, 2012
4,279
Arthur said:
Bought one of these yesterday (through the link of course [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION]). Was tempted to buy an Echo as they had £30 off but thought about it and wasn't sure when I'd actually use it so went for the Dot which had a tenner off. See they are back up to full price today.....result! Pure laziness on my behalf as I expect the only thing I'll use the Dot for is to ask it how ****ed my trains are each morning. I expect I'll still check my phone to confirm anyway.

Bit of fun/novelty though for not a lot of money. Looking forward to playing with it when I get home this evening.
Click to expand...
Once you've had some time with it is there any chance of a little review appearing in this thread please?

I'm toying with the idea of getting one but just need a little prod to justify it to myself...if you report a positive experience that might just do it...
 




Arthur

Arthur

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
8,761
Buxted Harbour
Gullflyinghigh said:
Once you've had some time with it is there any chance of a little review appearing in this thread please?

I'm toying with the idea of getting one but just need a little prod to justify it to myself...if you report a positive experience that might just do it...
Click to expand...

No problem. Give me the weekend to play with it and I'll post something next week.
 




Nathan

Nathan

Well-known member
Jan 8, 2010
3,788
Can it play music without an Amazon paid subscription? And can you ask it questions in the same way as you would google but just voice activated?
 


Jam The Man

Jam The Man

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
8,226
South East North Lancing
Carrot Cruncher said:
What [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] neglected to mention was that if you do buy one, do it through the link at the top...
[MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION], are you ill...?
Click to expand...

I did just that!
 




BNthree

BNthree

Plastic JCL
Sep 14, 2016
11,453
WeHo
We've got 2 x Echo and love them. As we have Amazon Prime plus Spotify premium pretty much any music we want to listen to is covered. Plus the AI seems a lot better than Siri etc and gets it right a lot of the time. Got Google calendar hooked up so can check diary. Check weather and news with it when I wake up. It's one of those things you didn't think you needed until you get one then you use it all the time.
Only con so far is that IFTTT integration isn't set up for UK customers yet, though it is coming. Once that is in place it will be amazing. Like you could dictate a shopping list and get it emailed to yourself (amongst thousands of other things).
 


Triggaaar

Triggaaar

Well-known member
Oct 24, 2005
53,159
Goldstone
Jam The Man said:
For those that also have one, what's the best bet for my music collection?
Click to expand...
You're speaking to an expert.

I've got about 150,000 songs on my computer, so I'm tempted to shell out the seemingly cheap £22 a year to upload the lot into Amazon Music.
Click to expand...
That's a pretty good option, but let's step back a second. Did you get the tall Echo with the big speaker? If so, is that all the sound quality you could ever wish for?

I have 3 Echo Dots. These can connect to home stereos with a 3.5mm jack to 2 * RCA.
For better funtionality and sound, you can connect them to Sonos (Sonos receiver & your hifi, or just Sonos speakers).
Sonos are working with Amazon to make the systems integrate properly in 2017 (possibly early).

While I like the Echo, Google Home will have advantages for music. It understands people better. It can also use Chromecast (audio, or youtube).

So how many rooms do you want it in, and how good do you want it to sound?
 


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