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Alexa, Amazon Music, and Similar Band Names

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Earth-Two_Kenn

Alexa, Amazon Music, and Similar Band Names
« on: July 09, 2020, 12:38:48 am »
We have several Echo devices in the house, and we have Amazon music.   However, I cannot get Alexa to find music from one of my favourite bands, except in the most general sense.  The band is a band out of upstate New York called "Ookla the Mok" (after the character from the old Thundarr cartoon.)  But whenever I ask for Ookla the Mok, Alexa ALWAYS defaults to a different band called "Ooklah the Moc".   

Now, I've set up a routine so if I say "Alexa, play Ookla the Mok" Alexa will actually play songs by Ookla the Mok.   

But if I say "Alexa, play (song title) by Ookla the Mok" it will respond "I can't find (song title) by Ooklah the Moc, here is other music by Ooklah the Moc".

If I'm lucky, I may be able to find a unique song title or album name, and not have to say the band name.   But if the song title is not unique then I am hosed.

e.g. if I say "Alex, play 'Mister W' ", it will start a song called 'Mister W' from someone named Michelle Blade.   But if I say  "Alexa, play 'Mister W' by Ookla the Mok" it will tell me "I can't find 'Mister W' by Ooklah the Moc, here is other music by Ooklah the Moc".   And the song is available on Amazon Music.

I could start the song manually through my tablet, or I could dig out my copy of the CD.   But the whole point of using Alexa to play music through a service is to avoid those steps. 

I know I could also set up a hundred plus different Routines, one for each track from each ablum and one for each album.    But that is a fair amount of work.

Is there a way to get Alexa to set up a Routine that will take a general "Alexa, (whatever the request) 'Ookla the Mok'" statement and make it fulfill the request with the words I am intending, NOT the homophones?


Re: Alexa, Amazon Music, and Similar Band Names
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2020, 05:28:51 am »
something to think about, forget the routine, create playlists and have amazon play them.  you can name the play list with any name and you can have only one song in a playlist if you want. 

Earth-Two_Kenn

Re: Alexa, Amazon Music, and Similar Band Names
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2020, 01:56:56 pm »
Yeah.  Setting up a hundred plus playlists (one for each song; one for each album) isn't any better than setting up Routines.

I'm a programmer.  There should be a straight forward way to make a substitution.
If (input string)== "ooklah the moc" then input string := "ookla the mok"

Re: Alexa, Amazon Music, and Similar Band Names
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2020, 03:09:40 pm »
if you are really a programmer, then maybe create your own alexa skill for the band. 

one other possibility, if you already have your own personal digital copies, then you could use mymedia or plex and create your own cloud.  you could access your music from it with alexa. 

Earth-Two_Kenn

Re: Alexa, Amazon Music, and Similar Band Names
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2020, 03:31:12 pm »
On a similar note, I'd like to make a skill or routine so that locally, the words "California Girls" (when said as a song title) in interpreted as "California Girls" NOT "California Gurls".  At least there I can say "by the Beach Boys" and she gets it right.

Offline jwlv

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Re: Alexa, Amazon Music, and Similar Band Names
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2020, 05:53:17 pm »
Alexa does learn from the music that you play. If Alexa plays the wrong song when you ask for it by voice, you should play the correct song by typing it in through the Alexa app. After several times of typing it in (could be a dozen or more times), Alexa should be able to learn that is the correct song you want when you ask for it.  Playing the correct song all the way through helps. That is, don't interrupt it and don't say "stop" while it's playing.