Amazon's Trick

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.