amazon echo

amazon echo

For some reason, Amazon’s Alexa enabled devices could only wake you up with an alarm.  Not music.  Until now, that is.  Why is that exactly?  I mean, who doesn’t want to wake up to their favorite song?  It’s the highlight of my day, really.  Especially when it’s super early and I don’t want to get out of bed.  That song can make or break my day.  So the fact that this has been missing with the Alexa enabled devices is kind of weird.  Amazon has added a feature which now lets you wake up to the music of your choice.  You can do this from either Spotify or one of Amazon’s own music options.

How does it work?  Your criteria can be as broad or as narrow as you like.  Including naming a song, playlist, or genre.  You can even ask it to play any kind of music if you’re not picky.  This isn’t something that I could do, though.  I think that first song or moment of the day will actually set your day.  Which means, I wouldn’t be able to put that trust into Alexa’s hands without setting some parameters first.  Alexa can stream radio channels from places like TuneIn and iHeartRadio.  But, if you use one of Amazon’s music services, you will be able to wake up based on a mood.  Like “relaxing” for example.  Or you can even find a wake-up song by reciting the lyrics.

amazon echo

Why is this an important addition from Amazon?  This is going to potentially make any of the Alexa enabled devices, as a viable alarm clock.  Now, if you think about it, alarm clocks haven’t really seen any kind of update in years.  Sure, some have better options than others, but for the most part, they are all of the same size and have similar functions.  Your options are traditionally waking up with a buzzer or with the radio.  You know what I’m talking about – the small clock radio that has sat on your nightstand for the last 20 years.

That being said, with this new feature more people might be tempted to buy an Echo for example.  This would be an incredible boost to what are likely already high sales, for Amazon.  The feature is also extremely functional, don’t you think? There’s a lot that you can do with your Alexa enabled device now.  Some of which is extremely functional.  Notice I didn’t say useful?  I think there should be a distinction between the two for the purposes of this article. Why?  Well, I think that Alexa has a lot of incredible features.  But what is useful to you and what is functional I think are two different things.  Having the ability to voice control my playlist, or get the weather is useful.  But having a built-in alarm clock that plays my favorite music is functional.  At least in my opinion.

amazon echo

I expect that others will have a different opinion on this though.  I mean, what’s functional to one isn’t necessarily going to be functional to another.  Not to mention, this is a feature that is available from Google Home, so this brings Amazon’s devices into the same market. I suspect that the two will continue to compete.  Let us know what your favorite voice assistant is – Google’s Home or one of Amazon’s Alexa enabled devices?

Here are the key words to say to Alexa to set a music alarm:

  • News: “Alexa, set an alarm for 7 a.m. using NPR news on TuneIn.”
  • Song: “Alexa, wake me up to ’99 Problems’ by Jay-Z at 7 a.m.”
  • Album: “Alexa, wake me up to the album It Was Written by Nas at 7 a.m.”
  • Genre, recurring: “Alexa, wake me up to Jazz music at 7 a.m. every day of the week.”
  • Song, recurring: “Alexa, set an alarm for 7 a.m. every weekday using ‘Purple Lamborghini’ by Rick Ross.”

If you have Amazon Music, you can even use lyrics or ask for a mood playlist:

  • “Alexa set an alarm for 7 a.m. to the song that goes, ‘I don’t want to work today, maybe I just wanna stay.'”
  • “Alexa, wake me up with relaxing music at 7 a.m.”