Your Amazon Echo and other Alexa-enabled devices are more musically savvy than you might think. Beyond playing your favorite playlists and radio stations, Alexa possesses a neat trick for identifying songs playing around you. Ever wondered “what song is this?” while listening to music at a cafe or friend’s house? Alexa can help. This guide will walk you through how to use Alexa to identify songs, ensuring you never miss out on discovering new music.
Effortlessly Identify Songs On Request
The most direct way to leverage Alexa’s song identification prowess is by simply asking. When a tune catches your ear, just say, “Alexa, what song is this?” or “Alexa, name that song.” Your smart speaker will listen to the ambient music, analyze it, and then announce the song title and artist. This is incredibly handy for those moments when you hear a catchy melody and need to know more.
It’s important to note that this feature works best when Alexa can clearly hear the music. Background noise might sometimes interfere with accurate identification. Also, while Alexa excels at recognizing songs from streaming services and popular music libraries, its ability to identify live performances, very obscure tracks, or radio broadcasts might be limited. For radio stations, Alexa is typically able to identify the station itself, but not necessarily the specific song currently playing due to the nature of radio streams and potential advertisements or jingles.
Amazon Echo showing music notes, representing song identification feature
Automatic Song Identification with Amazon Music
For users deeply integrated into the Amazon Music ecosystem, Alexa offers an even more convenient feature: automatic Song ID. If you primarily listen to music through Amazon Music on your Alexa devices, you can enable Song ID to have Alexa proactively announce the name of each song before it begins playing.
To activate this hands-free song identification, simply say, “Alexa, turn on Song ID.” Once enabled, Alexa will briefly announce the song title and artist before playback starts for every track within Amazon Music. This is a fantastic way to continuously learn about the music you’re listening to without having to ask repeatedly.
Keep in mind that the automatic Song ID feature is exclusive to Amazon Music. If you primarily use other music services like Spotify, Apple Music, or Deezer as your default music player, this automatic announcement won’t be triggered. However, you can still utilize the “Alexa, what song is this?” command regardless of your default music service to identify songs playing from any source.
If you decide you no longer want Alexa to announce every song title on Amazon Music, disabling the feature is just as simple. Just say, “Alexa, turn off Song ID,” and the automatic announcements will cease.
Expanding Alexa’s Musical Horizons
While “Alexa, what song is this?” is a universal command, the automatic Song ID feature’s limitation to Amazon Music might raise questions for users of other streaming services. Although direct automatic Song ID isn’t available for services like Spotify or Apple Music, the on-demand song identification (“Alexa, what song is this?”) works seamlessly across various music sources.
For users who prefer Spotify but want to utilize Amazon Music’s features occasionally, you can always specify “Amazon Music” in your playback commands. For example, saying “Alexa, play [artist/song/playlist] on Amazon Music” will direct Alexa to use Amazon Music for that specific request, potentially enabling the automatic Song ID feature if it’s turned on.
In conclusion, Alexa’s ability to identify songs is a valuable and user-friendly feature. Whether you prefer to manually ask “what song is this?” or automate song announcements within Amazon Music, Alexa provides versatile tools to enhance your music discovery and listening experience.
