Echo & Alexa Forums
General Category => Amazon Echo Discussion => Topic started by: lennon2 on December 07, 2016, 10:06:45 pm
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I'd like to be able to select just the text from songs/albums/playlists at music.amazon.com so I can print it out and keep it by the couch so we can browse it and ask Alexa to play something from it. There's too much there to remember, and having to browse it on the PC defeats the point of Alexa.
Any attempt to select text just selects the sidebar info. How can I output just a list of what I have there?
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if browsing by computer defeats the purpose of alexa, then having a printed copy does too. use your tablet or phone to search or you can start doing screen prints. that is about the only way I can think of without doing a google search.
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Hi, I suspect I wasn't clear, because I can't imagine a google search that would generate a list of My Music in Amazon Music.
I don't have a tablet or phone, and screen prints show only what's visible in the window at any time, and not in text list form (album covers take up a lot of screen real estate.) We do the same thing, for instance, with the player roster of our favorite NFL team so we know the players by their numbers, but I accumulated many CDs over my years as an Amazon customer before Alexa than there are player! The point of a printed copy is that the family can see all these.
I simply want a way to scrape this database output. Surely others want this too!
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I don't have a tablet or phone...
Don't take this the wrong way, but the idea of owning something as leading edge (consumer electronics-wise) as an Alexa-enabled device and NOT having a mobile device like a tablet or even a smart phone doesn't seem want to compute for me.
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I do wish someone would simply address my request, but I will explain my personal choices.
I had a little Mac in the mid-'80s and, in 1989, I bought a used IBM XT with a 30-meg hard drive and a 1200- or 2400-baud modem. I ran a dial-up BBS in the early 1990s, hosting several hundred other BBSes getting the Fidonet feed from Planet Connect using a 5-foot KU dish on my roof. In the '00s, I was a Movable Type blog software blogger and developer, and a news site Web producer. I am retired now and tired of technology, with severe upgrade fatigue.
I hate the interruption of phones and, no longer working, have no need for one beyond our landline. A tablet seems like a cripppled PC to me, and hard to type on. Again, I have no need for anything portable.
I just want to listen to music, cook, read and play with my spouse and cats now. And I want a printout of my music so I can do all that without getting off the couch.
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I'm sorry, but that's just not a print-friendly web site, and the whole feature is really geared toward users who at least have one or more mobile devices.
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I'm sorry, but that's just not a print-friendly web site, and the whole feature is really geared toward users who at least have one or more mobile devices.
I don't understand what the hardware has to do with it: I have purchased hundreds of albums and several thousand songs since my first Amazon purchase in 1998. Browsing them in a phone window would be a nightmare too, I expect.
This is simply a display issue: Amazon could offer a "list view" easily enough, one that could be selected or scraped. There have always been workarounds for data presentation. I would expect some clever person here to know one, or to be connected enough to Amazon to encourage them to offer this as an option as one's purchased music library grows.
(I did try to ask about it on the site, but just got a "Thank you for your feedback" autoreply.)
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I don't understand what the hardware has to do with it: I have purchased hundreds of albums and several thousand songs since my first Amazon purchase in 1998. Browsing them in a phone window would be a nightmare too, I expect.
No more so than combing over tens (or more) of pages of paper. And I have yet to find a printer that can produce searchable print.
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I can scan printed pages very quickly, especially when their content is alphabetized. And of course the family wouldn't have access to my phone, if I had one, to scan titles.
I'm surprised at the resistance to finding a solution here. Sorry no one is interested. Perhaps I should take the problem to Stack Exchange or the Amazon developer forums instead.
p.s. Your emphasis on portable devices is amusing given that Echo itself is not portable.
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I'm surprised at the resistance to finding a solution here. Sorry no one is interested.
There is no resistance to finding a solution here. The problem is that the specific solution you want is not readily available. The only resistance here is your resistance to using current technology in the way it's designed to be used.
p.s. Your emphasis on portable devices is amusing given that Echo itself is not portable.
You misunderstand. My emphasis on portable devices is based on the fact that the manufacturer designed the products in question such that their use is facilitated via the use of mobile devices. Hence the apps they have developed for that purpose. PCs are also an option, albeit a significantly less convenient one. The fact that the Echo is not portable (though even that is not strictly the case anymore given the availability of battery units for it) is utterly irrelevant in terms of the role mobile devices are intended to play with regard to it.
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The only resistance here is your resistance to using current technology in the way it's designed to be used.
That, sir, used to be called innovation, and I built a career on doing it!
For the life of me, I can't imagine that browsing thousands of songs on a tiny phone screen is the way anything is designed to be used. The human eye has a broader, faster sweep than that.
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That, sir, used to be called innovation, and I built a career on doing it!
Eschewing current technology in favor of one that's nearly 80 years old is your idea of "innovation"?
For the life of me, I can't imagine that browsing thousands of songs on a tiny phone screen is the way anything is designed to be used. The human eye has a broader, faster sweep than that.
When that screen allows you to navigate those thousands of songs in multiple ways (subgroups by the first letter of the title, artist, album, etc), a search function et al it should be quite easy to imagine that such an interface is how your library is intended to be browsed.
But given your assessment of tablets as nothing more than "crippled PCs" I'm not surprised by your approach to this.
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Technology ought to serve the needs of its users.
I have stated my family's needs and you are telling me to have different needs: I should want to navigate alphabetically to what I do not know I want using a tiny screen that would display only a few of the thousands at a time and might be in one member's pocket which might be at the market when it's needed.
When everyone has tens of thousands of songs the problem may make more sense to you. No hard feelings, but I'm moving on from here.
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It's not a resistance to help you, it's that there is no easy way to do what you want to do since the Amazon music service is not designed to do what you want. Also, your comments about smartphone and tablets is way off base, but more about that later. Let's see if I can help you get the printing done.
Using the PC browser, go into your Amazon account and locate your My Music Library. Mine is quite small since I have rarely downloaded music from Amazon (I have an alternative service called eMusic I mostly download from). Plus, I have digitized many of my CDs and some LPs. Some of this has been uploaded to Amazon into a free 250 song playlist.
Look at the menu on the left side of My Music. Notice My Playlists (If you don't have any you can create them -- one playlist could likely be your entire Amazon library.) I look in my free playlist and all the songs (NOT albums) are shown there with thumbnails and titles (NOT printer friendly). I can click on a song and play it on the PC.
What you see is one reason that makes printing this stuff practically impossible. For further help in printing this stuff I suggest you give Echo Customer Support a call (from your landline) at 1-877-375-9365. Ask them!
Playing my own digital music is a lot easier, on both home equipment and mobile devices. Today, all my digital music (which is organized nicely by iTunes program) is stored on a WD NAS server. Any device, program or app that can access this server (and I have many) either from home or remotely can find exactly what I want, but I usually don't go to the time and trouble of selecting something specific. I make 100-track random playlists that can play songs one after the other for hours -- it's all my music, so I really don't care what song plays when.
To close, I want respond to this comment of yours:
>>> I hate the interruption of phones and, no longer working, have no need for one beyond our landline. A tablet seems like a cripppled PC to me, and hard to type on. Again, I have no need for anything portable.
I just want to listen to music, cook, read and play with my spouse and cats now. And I want a printout of my music so I can do all that without getting off the couch.
I hate phone interruptions, too, and that is why hardly anyone has my cell smartphone number for all the years I have had one. Most people only have my home landline. I am retired as well, and I would bet that I am much older than you, but unlike most senior citizens, I am not a Ludite and have kept up with technology, because it makes my life more fun, educational, and productive. Tablets are a great invention. and I have an iPad and two Amazon Fire tablets. I mostly use them to enjoy video and music media I have stored on server as well as I can stream from services, and definitely not to "type on". I never travel with a laptop any more; just an iPhone and an iPad and maybe a wireless hard drive or flash drive -- oh yea, and a Dot. If you only knew what all can be done with a tablet you would not make such an un-informed and negative comment about tablets. When I need a PC I have two modern Windows laptops in operation. Not to mention too many Alexa devices already! I could go on, but it would be like spitting into the wind.
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Oh no, has the OP left; after I took the time to respond to him? Whatever, I let Parker chat with him too long! ;) ;)
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Okay, one last note. Echo is not a personal device. Anybody in the room can request something. This is its appeal to us, and swears at being able to use only a personal device to know what's available to all of us.
My family all want to participate but I'm the only techy one. So when you all use "I," I must use "we." I could always click on a song and play it on my PC; my spouse is barely online, able only to search for recipes (but not print them) and read email (but not respond to them).
Being able to make my music available to him is the magic of Echo. Tablets, phones, personal devices don't work for "us." He also has eye problems, and watching a video on a tablet would not be optimal. We do have a Fire stick so we can watch video together on our big TV.
Once I made choices only for me, and wrote workarounds so that others with fewer chops could benefit from them, too. Now I must think about "us."
Echo is just wonderful for non-techy family members, including our mid-sized grandchildren. If only everybody knew what was available and was able to ask for it specifically. (Alexa, as you all know, misunderstands requests, often hilariously, and especially during this season, is likely to offer wacky versions of popular song titles.)
Mike, we have thousands of songs, and like to make very specific requests. Your usage and ours is totally different. Thanks for chiming in, though. I have many friends in phone support, and they are all trained to say, "Sorry, can't do that" even though each would take it as a personal challenge to write a workaround to do it. None have Echos or I would have asked them to!
Btw, I see the Kindle users asking the same questions about their libraries. They too want printed lists of what books they own. They once could generate lists but cannot any more.
(And... I do have an emergency phone that I use in the car for gps directions, and the occasional grocery-store lookup. He has a flip phone he swears at a lot. These are personal choices.)
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Oh no, has the OP left; after I took the time to respond to him? Whatever, I let Parker chat with him too long! ;) ;)
Still here, Mike, and I'm a her. :)
Thanks for taking the time.
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And... I did actually call customer service because I've switched from Echo to Echo Dot, since some of the Music Unlimited songs only played one channel on the mono Echo, and I can put Echo Dot through my speakers. (Echo went to my grown daughter.) The Unlimited subscription did not transfer, however, so I needed a rep to do that for me. After that got moved, I raised the printing issue.
He immediately understood the problem and agreed that the nature of Echo required a solution larger than a listing on a personal device. He said that the only workaround he could figure was to take screenshots of the list display you get on the "Upload My Music" view at the bottom of the left sidebar at music.amazon.com and print them. There's a lot of white space between the lines there, and many pages would be required.
He emailed afterwards, "I am sorry there isn't a way to print Albums in list view. I will definitely pass this over to our developers. I will also stress that this is a group device and not a personal device. I know they are always trying to make improvements to the Music app and music library webpage. I hope they can add list view for albums in the near future. Thanks for taking the time to share your suggestion and for helping us improve Alexa and Amazon music."
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And... I do have an emergency phone that I use in the car for gps directions, and the occasional grocery-store lookup.
This gives the impression that you're just making things up as you go along.
Parker, nobody knows the number and since it lives in the car it never interrupts me.
Do you have a family? My family uses Alexa but they don't use my PC. This can't be hard to understand.
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...But I think the biggest problem here is your own fundamental misunderstanding of what Alexa and the devices you use to access that service are all about. ...
demonstrates some truly bizarre reasoning.
Parker, it's a tool. There is more than one way to use a tool. That does not make my use of it bizarre. It makes you sound rigid. A year from now, Amazon will have list view and people will print to paper or their TV screens an easily browseable list of all their songs. I'll be happy and you'll be you.
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@lennon2
This comment is completely wrong:
>>> I did actually call customer service because I've switched from Echo to Echo Dot, since some of the Music Unlimited songs only played one channel on the mono Echo, and I can put Echo Dot through my speakers. (Echo went to my grown daughter.)
Amazon does not send just one stereo channel to an Echo, even though Echo's speakers play a mono signal! Plain vanilla radios (like Echo does) play a blended L+R output of stereo signals. It would be asinine for Amazon to do what you claim. Being a long time audio/music fan, I would hear this, but I don't.
In fact, I just asked Alexa Echo to play a favorite song of mine with 3 singers from the earliest days of stereo, where one singer is totally on the left, the main singer is in the center, and the third singer completely on the right. Each is playing a guitar, too. I could still pick out three distinct voices from the mono output. If Echo was not playing a blended L+R output it would have been very apparent. Poppycock!
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Mike, I wasn't playing the same songs as you, obviously. Simple courtesy might ask what I was playing.
It was one or more of these three tracks (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=houston+person+christmas&rh=n%3A163856011%2Ck%3Ahouston+person+christmas&ajr=0) that triggered one channel only on Echo, can't remember which. Sounded like crap.
Btw, when you try to listen to John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" here (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_10?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=happy+xmas+war+is+over+john+lennon&sprefix=happy+xmas%2Caps%2C266&crid=124CR4CWMAEGT), labeled "For Echo," Alexa gives you the Sarah McLachlan version.
Before you say "Poppycock," let me quote you an email from a different Amazon Customer Service rep:
"I'm sorry that Alexa did not play song by the artist you wanted to play. This is definitely not we expect our customers to experience.
I've checked and tried playing the song "Happy Xmas (War is Over) by John Lennon", but instead it started playing the same song by "Sarah McLachlan". I'm sorry for inconvenience this has caused."
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Ms. Lennon,
It really doesn't matter what songs we listened to, the Echo does not omit a channel, (unless the track was bad, and you may have listened to a bad one.)
It may interest you to know the digital recording rights really only are owned by a few companies, and Apple, Amazon, and many others do not create their own digital content. They buy it from the rights holders. Case in point: a few years ago I had a digital album with a misspelling in one of the track titles, and not only was the eMusic track I had downloaded spelled wrong, but the same track title at Apple and Amazon was spelled wrong, too. Obviously, all from the same original source.
And, playing the wrong track can happen at anytime to any service. Not relevant to saying Echo plays one track instead of both. I have had an Echo for two years or so, and I think I (and others) would have noticed something amiss here if there had been.
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Ms. Lennon,
I have a Mac (iMac), retired and never in my life had a cell phone. Never had any use for them. My landline suits me just fine. That being said......
If you are still using a Mac, you can take a screen shot of your playlists until "printing" is enabled. Once the screen shot(s) are on your desktop, print them out. I do not use any of Amazon's music subscriptions as I am not a member. At least not that way. My DOT is hooked up to my iMac & MBP through bluetooth. I have over 5000 of my own custom music on my iMac & probably 2000 on my MBP. DOT finds my music just fine.
Like you I cannot read anything on those tiny cell phone screens. My iMac has a 27 inch screen & the MBP 15 inch. Excellent views of the Alexa app.
I just received my DOT 2 days ago. Since then, I have been busy customizing my settings. I made screen shots of everything I did then printed it out.
HTH
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Lennon2, you are not the only one who wants to be able to print lists from the Amazon Music app. I find that I often can't get Alexa to do what I want by voice command unless I word things very precisely. For instance, if I say, "Alexa, play songs by Hank Williams, Senior," I always get songs by Hank Williams, Jr. The only way that I've discovered to get songs by the original Hank Williams is to request a particular album by name. Like you, I find it much more convenient and faster to refer to a printed list of my favorite albums instead of the Amazon Music app.
Also, my elderly father likes to listen to music in a room without a computer, but his poor eyesight prevents him from using a smart phone or a tablet (at least not one small enough that he could afford it). I've typed up a list of his favorite albums in large type, but would prefer to be able to copy and paste it from the app.
I'm a bit mystified by the reaction here to lennon2's question. I agree with DParker that, "The point of Alexa is to act as a speech-based interface to a variety of technology-based services." For that very reason, I doubt that use of a computer or tablet to control the Echo is really an integral part of Amazon's grand scheme. After all, Amazon bills the Echo as "a hands-free, voice controlled device." More likely, I think, is that the app is a crutch to overcome some of limitations, hopefully temporary, of the voice interface. I can't imagine why Amazon would object to another crutch, like a printed list, any more or less than an app that is anything but hands-free. Also, I'm doubtful that a sales-driven company like Amazon is really indifferent to the sizable number of people like my father who have difficulty using a smart phone or tablet. I suspect the real problem here is that Amazon has a lot on its plate and the Amazon Music service is very new.
I gather that there's no easy way to print a list other than screen prints. I'll submit a request to Amazon. I'm just posting here to give lennon2 some moral support.
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For instance, if I say, "Alexa, play songs by Hank Williams, Senior," I always get songs by Hank Williams, Jr.
Have you tried just "Hank Williams"? "Senior" is not a part of his name, so I can see why that would throw things off.
I'm a bit mystified by the reaction here to lennon2's question.
Why is that? The question was, "How do I do X". The answers were, "There's no easy way to do X, and here's why."
I agree with DParker that, "The point of Alexa is to act as a speech-based interface to a variety of technology-based services." For that very reason, I doubt that use of a computer or tablet to control the Echo is really an integral part of Amazon's grand scheme.
Nobody is talking about using computers, tablets et al to control the Echo. We're talking about using one of those devices to review the contents of your Amazon Music account, which has nothing to do with controlling the Echo and existed prior to...and is separate from...Alexa and the supporting devices (Echo, Dot, etc.) In fact, the OP is talking about using a computing device in order to review AND produce a printout...very old fashioned...of the information in question.
After all, Amazon bills the Echo as "a hands-free, voice controlled device." More likely, I think, is that the app is a crutch to overcome some of limitations, hopefully temporary, of the voice interface.
Again, you seem to be confusing Alexa with one of the services that it provides access to. The fact that they're both Amazon offerings does not mean that they are the same thing.
I can't imagine why Amazon would object to another crutch, like a printed list, any more or less than an app that is anything but hands-free.
It has nothing to do with objecting to anything. It has to do with expending time, effort and resources (including money) developing, maintaining and supporting a piece of functionality that is of extremely limited use relative to their user base as a whole.
I suspect the real problem here is that Amazon has a lot on its plate and the Amazon Music service is very new.
I don't know that I'd describe a 9 year-old online service as being "very new".
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Have you tried just "Hank Williams"? "Senior" is not a part of his name, so I can see why that would throw things off.
Yes. Same result. Amazon tells me there's a glitch and they're working on it.
Nobody is talking about using computers, tablets et al to control the Echo. We're talking about using one of those devices to review the contents of your Amazon Music account, which has nothing to do with controlling the Echo and existed prior to...and is separate from...Alexa and the supporting devices (Echo, Dot, etc.) In fact, the OP is talking about using a computing device in order to review AND produce a printout...very old fashioned...of the information in question.
If a printout is easier and more efficient for me and my father, I'm not sure why I should care that it's old-fashioned.
The OP and I want to make printouts to help us in issuing voice commands to our Echos. By your lights, that "has nothing to do with controlling the echo"! Are you joking?
The lack of a print function is a problem with the Amazon Music app. But explaining why I wanted the printout function meant going into the limitations of Alexa. The same sort of voice-control problems that bedevil the Amazon Music service also apply to other services (Harmony and Pandora, based on my experience; many other services, judging from several posts to this forum). That suggests to me that the limitations in Amazon Music and other services stem at least in part from the limitations in Alexa. If you have some actual evidence that the problems I encounter are solely the fault of the Amazon Music service, then I'd be glad to hear it. Verbal distinctions without a difference?, not so much.
This is a perfect illustration of what I find mystifying about the reception of lennon2's post. Why should a straightforward question, the gist of which everyone understood, be met with endless loops of pointless hair-splitting and pedantry? (Not to mention insinuations of dishonesty.)
Again, you seem to be confusing Alexa with one of the services that it provides access to. The fact that they're both Amazon offerings does not mean that they are the same thing.
No, see above.
It has nothing to do with objecting to anything. It has to do with expending time, effort and resources (including money) developing, maintaining and supporting a piece of functionality that is of extremely limited use relative to their user base as a whole.
I don't have a problem with saying -- better to say speculating, since I'm not privy to Amazon's thoughts -- that there's no print function because Amazon had other priorities. You did, however, suggest that a print function was not only low on their list of priorities, but inconsistent with Amazon's vision.
I don't know that I'd describe a 9 year-old online service as being "very new".
Point taken. I've only been using the app since the introduction of the unlimited service, and that's why I mistakenly said it's very new. However, isn't it true that voice command of the Amazon Music service -- which is what the OP and I are talking about -- is only about 2 years old?
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Amazon boasts something like 2 million songs that's available to Prime members. The songs in that list changes just about every single day. I've had some songs that I played a month ago and now it's no longer available. I suspect it's licensing issues. Once that license expires, then it's up to Amazon to decide whether to renew it.
By the way, you can print out of list of songs that's in your playlist. If you added songs to your playlist, then you can view that playlist on your computer and print it out.
But if you're talking about the 2 millions songs that's available to Prime members, forget about it. Amazon won't let you print it out or even tell you a fraction of what songs they have. It's like Netflix. They will not reveal to you their entire catalogue of movies that they have available.
See this page to find out more about your Amazon playlist:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201379470
Just keep in mind that whatever songs you add to your playlist today might not be there tomorrow. That's happened to me numerous times. I originally thought there was something wrong with my Echo. When Echo encounters a song that doesn't exist any more, it just stops playing. It will not continue to the next song on your playlist.
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By the way, you can print out of list of songs that's in your playlist. If you added songs to your playlist, then you can view that playlist on your computer and print it out.
Do you know of a way to do this other than print screen?
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I just asked one of my Dots to play music by "Hank Williams" and it replied "Shuffling music by Hank Williams Senior". Duh.
No one here is trying to discourage people from printing out reams of paper full of Amazon song titles, (except maybe tree huggers!) It's just not found in the Easy Department. Everyone who wants this capability is FREE to contact Amazon with this request, but spare the rest of us your rationale for wanting this. I hardly ever print anything any more as there are better ways to store information today tnan on paper.
And, guess what; the Amazon Echo is really not for everyone. Heck, I need to use a magnifying glass to see my alexa app on phone, but it beats nothing, and when I need to look at a clock I just ask Alexa the time vs struggling to see a clock!
The number of whiners in this forum have increased greatly over the past few months. Not everything can be done using an Echo; deal with it.
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I just asked one of my Dots to play music by "Hank Williams" and it replied "Shuffling music by Hank Williams Senior". Duh.
I just did the same. Alexa said, "Shuffling music by Hank Williams Senior," but played a song performed by Hank Williams, Jr. Did your Dot actually play a performance by Hank Williams, Sr.?
Granted, he was performing a song made famous by the original Hank Williams, but still not what I was after. Duh.
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>>> I just did the same. Alexa said, "Shuffling music by Hank Williams Senior," but played a song performed by Hank Williams, Jr. Did your Dot actually play a performance by Hank Williams, Sr.?
Dunno; wasn't paying much attention, but it could have being playing songs made famous by Hank Sr. I do recall the last line of last song played,"If you don't like Hank Williams, you can kiss our ass!" Don't think it was sung by either Hank, and at that point I told Dot to stop.
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By the way, you can print out of list of songs that's in your playlist. If you added songs to your playlist, then you can view that playlist on your computer and print it out.
Do you know of a way to do this other than print screen?
On a Mac....
Command+Shift+4+Shift keys. Move the cross hairs over the area you want to print. The "snap shot" will appear on your desktop.
Open in Preview & print from there.
HTH
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I agree totally with Lennon2. I have NO idea why anyone would give her grief for such a simple request. The screenshot idea is at least a start, but I would also like to have a printout just to glance at for a choice. My memory isn't what it used to be.
Also don't give me a hard time about myself and technology. I don't and never will own a smartphone. I'm perfectly fine with my emergency flip phone and my land line.
BTW: I've been a computer tech for almost 20 years now and Service Manager for a photocopier dealer for 17 years before that.
I'm just looking to print a list.......
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Today a smartphone is minimally a "phone", and is basically a pocket computer that can also make phone calls.
Printing a long list of ANYTHING on to paper is soooo yesterday. Use and learn the new technology or face the consequences of not doing so. Defending the "buggy whips" of the computer age is ridiculous.
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first do the followingmusic you uploaded should already be in your music or some other folder. download any music you purchased, the following are different ways to print
1. once you have all your music then import the files into a music manager. you can print your list from most music managers, including itunes.
2. if you have excel though it looks like it can be used with most spreadsheet programs.
see the following http://smallbusiness.chron.com/copy-list-files-windows-folder-excel-list-40032.html
3. or you can just print from folder by - in Windows (or File) Explorer, hold down the SHIFT key as you right-click the folder. Select Open command window here. This opens the DOS-like command window. Type dir > printit.txt , then press ENTER