Amazon Music

Amazon has announced that people can now add music

or live radio to Alexa Routines, which are commands that

can accomplish multiple things with a single command.

Starting today, Routines made by Alexa users in the U.S.

can include music from a specific artist, playlist, album,

or station or from streaming services like Spotify, Pandora,

Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn.

Alexa Routines for Echo device users appears to be

part of Amazon’s plan to move human-AI assistant

interaction beyond a simple, single command. Custom

commands can be configured with any phrase to carry

out a combination of smart home device controls or

deliver traffic, news, or weather reports. There’s also

“Alexa Says,” a portion of Routines that was added after

the debut of Routines last fall; it can be added to a Routine

f you want Alexa to chime in to say “Let’s party” on your

birthday or “It’s nice to have you home” when you get

Home.

You can also use Routines to schedule an event so,

for example, you can program Alexa to play the weather

and your favorite news every morning at a certain time

or your favorite podcasts on weekends.

The news comes the same day as Spotify, a company

whose service helped aid in the rise of the smart speaker,

went public for the first time on the New York Stock

Exchange (NYSE). Spotify is said to be planning to create

its own smart speaker and is currently experimenting with

more voice control in its iOS and Android smartphone apps.

The ability to accomplish multiple tasks at once is intended

to get AI assistants to become a regular part of your daily

routine. Alexa chief rival Google Assistant rolled out its

Routines for the first time last month. In both instances,

Google and Amazon want you to utilize Routines when

you wake up in the morning, when you leave home for

work, when you arrive back home from work, and when

you go to bed at night.