On November 1, I asked Alexa to shuffle my playlist, and she said, "Shuffling your playlist and similar songs."
Then she told me I could now access over 100 million songs, instead of the 2 million I'd been "making do" with.
What she didn't tell me was what they took away. They gave me access to 100 million songs but:
1) I can no longer ask for the specific song I want to hear and listen to only that song.
2) I can no longer hear only the songs on my playlist (which I spent years building up on this platform).
3) I can no longer hear only songs by a specific artist (unless I've bought the album and it's in my Amazon library, but I noticed some of those are missing from my library).
4) I can no longer ask for songs by a lyric that's running through my head and have her play only that song.
5) I can no longer listen to the music I fell asleep to sometimes (Bread, and only Bread's greatest hits).
6) I can no longer have her repeat a song, so that I can listen to it over and over. This was helpful when I was learning a new song on the guitar.
7) When she does shuffle my "playlist and similar songs," so far, the 7 or so times I've tried that, she starts out with the same songs and plays those in the same order, every time. That's not shuffling.
Basically, they turned Alexa into Pandora. If I wanted to listen to Pandora, I'd listen to Pandora. They took away the things that made listening to the music on Alexa a unique experience. Sure, sometimes one of the songs I asked for wasn't one of the 2 million available to me, and I heard, "That song is only available on Amazon Unlimited,"but I had no problems with that. I'd go find it on youtube if I wanted to hear it badly enough.
"To listen to specific songs you like, try Amazon Music." That's now her refrain when I ask for things I used to receive without question.
The whole point, of course, is to force me to purchase Amazon Music for $8.99 a month. I'm not going to be nickled and dimed by these massive, bloated overbearing corporations. I have the CDs, I have a CD player, and I have a radio. I can hear music some other way.
When my Alexa dies, as electronics do, replacement at this moment appears doubtful. I lived without Alexa before, and I can live without her again.
I can even live without Amazon, convenient though it may be.
In the meantime, this sent me scurrying to find my CD player, to see where I had stashed my CDs, and to see what albums I'd put on my cellphone. I listen to Sheryl Crow (and only Sheryl Crow, not "and similar songs") when I am writing my news stories. Those CDs are on my desktop, and they are on my cellphone.
I have a work-around. But I am not at all happy with my 100 million songs that comes with a lack of choice, so every night now I give Alexa feedback and tell her so.
At least I have the satisfaction of thinking I'm wasting somebody's time somewhere, if they actually read or listen to the feedback.
Beautiful blog
ReplyDeleteYou are right, Amazon does want to nickel and dime us all. I bought an Alexa and used it for about a year. Haven't bothered with it since.
ReplyDeleteI believe that eventually all the free services will turn to being paid services with some kind of fee. I have often wondered how some of the "free" services stay in business without charging. Makes me think it's "free" until they figure out you like it and use it and then it's "Let's charge them now!" I have experienced the same thing with Netflix, Disney Plus, Lime Wire and others through the last few years.
ReplyDeleteWell, you’ve got me glad I didn’t pay attention to the music offering on Prime.
ReplyDeleteI saw an email about this from Amazon but didn't pay attention and scanned it. You've explained it better than if I tried to make heads or tails of the email.
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