Echo & Alexa Forums
General Category => Amazon Echo Discussion => Topic started by: terrypin on March 05, 2017, 07:28:54 am
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Hi,
First post, having just received gift of ECHO Dot from one of my sons. Have set it up and Alexa is answering simple questions such as
"What's the weather today?" and "What's the capital of Germany?", etc.
After some very brief googling I fear a disappointing answer, but I'll ask anyway. Can I now move on and get my existing MP3 files played by Alexa at my request? ("Alexa, play Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley".) Or is the only way via a subscription service like Amazon Prime?
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
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You can pair your Dot by bluetooth to your smart device and play your collection from there.
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You can pair your Dot by bluetooth to your smart device and play your collection from there.
Thanks strayfish, appreciate the fast reply.
But my 10,000 tracks are on my PC upstairs, and the DOT is in the lounge. I could (and occasionally do) copy some across to my iPad and I can play them from that, anywhere, with no DOT needed. I was hoping to do so via Alexa in the way I described.
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
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I'm not sure if this is possible because I've never needed to do it, but I think I've heard you can pair your Dot with a bluetooth-enabled PC. If that's the case and yours is enabled, you could probably play your collection on your Dot that way, and the Dot speaker is, to my ears, better than that of an iPad. I'm not sure how much voice control you'd have over it though.
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Amazon will let you upload your music to your account cloud. You then have access to it.
Also, if it isn't working already, www.plex.tv has a Alexa skill and will stream your audio or video library. Works great to stream movies from your server to a video device like a roku or to fire stick.
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Terry,
Forget the Dot for a moment, and let's talk about the iPad. You don't need to copy music to it to play it on pad. You could have been using bluetooth all along to send/stream and play music to it. Figure this out, and it is the same principle of using BT to send to Dot, OR if you have the right equipment and network setup and apps you could deliver you music to lots of different devices via wireless or BT.
All my media files are on a NAS server connected to my network; my preferred way is to send music directly to my stereo via gadgets plugged into it, or for portability, to a decent BT speaker. The LAST place I want to send music to is the Dots, because the speakers ar low quality, only suitable for voice i.e. Alexa's.
Your best course of action is to get a quality BT speaker and use it (not Dot) to listen to your streamed music. In fact, you should have had a BT speaker a long time ago.
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Thanks all, much appreciate the further advice.
Mike: That's particularly interesting and I'll explore a similar DOT-free approach.
I guess I was influenced while staying with my son and family in Carlsbad, California at Christmas. I'm a gadget lover and he's plainly developed the trait too. Glass of wine in hand, being able to say "Alexa, play me some Frank Sinatra music" has great appeal to me! Even if I know I could acomplish the same end result by a few taps on my iPad or iPhone. :)
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
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Amazon will let you upload your music to your account cloud. You then have access to it.
Indeed you can upload up to 250 songs for free on your Amazon Cloud
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201562930
Or pay a subscription to allow up to 250 000 songs.
(NB : personally I've never been able to vocally invoke one of my 'personal' track/playlist on that cloud through my Echo but that's another story (http://www.echotalk.org/index.php/topic,1458.msg8958.html#msg8958))
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Terry,
>>> say "Alexa, play me some Frank Sinatra music"
You can do this now; Alexa has playlists of all the famous artists.
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Hi Terry,
I'm with you all the way on the music side. I've got a collection of over 700 music videos where these have been cropped from TV home recordings. Dating back to the 50's 60's 70s' etc
Firstly I bought an old supermarket touch screen you can get them for around £50, I wrote a small PC app that presented all of the tracks on the touch screen broken down by era. Touch any number of them and they all stack up and start playing across several large TV's around the house absolutely magic with headphones on whilst playing pool and having the vids in the background.
It is also possible to get Alexa to select any of them to play as well I've just got the Echo and Dot to send content to any screen in the house, specifically to a particular screen for one task and a different screen for another. I can send the touch screen to tablets and phones through Alexa so that you then just touch to select whatever you want to play. I'm about to upload a new update within the next few days .... I believe Mike was looking at this but not sure if he gave any feedback ... take a look at the applications first release and watch out for the next ....
Here's a few things that the new release now does all through Alexa,
Performs cross search engine browsing
Includes its own webserver and can be called up on any device using just an IP address (NEW)
Fires off PC applications either individually or groups of apps (Improved)
Changed the way that it reads from Alexa (Massive improvement)
https://youtu.be/X-dOkuFGWSc (https://youtu.be/X-dOkuFGWSc)
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>>> I've got a collection of over 700 music video
So how are you getting these videos to play on Alexa? from a home network or drive collection, and are you using bluetooth? Your response doesn't make this clear, but one thing for sure, you are not telling Alexa to play any of them.
I can send soundtrack of any video to Alexa, if it is played on a device (e.g. iPad) that sends audio to Alexa; this is nothing special nor tricky to do.
I told Terry to send his audio files to Alexa via bluetooth. That is all there is to it.
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>>> you are not telling Alexa to play any of them <<<<
Not true, to clarify,
The echo and the dot are exceptional voice recognition devices, but about as much use as a chocolate tea pot in a noisy environment like a party or when you're playing loud music. So I write applications to mix it all up a bit and make something that can be used in everyday life not just something to turn a light on and turn it off again.
My application can detect which echo or dot actually heard the question/request so it can then 'Automatically' send a visual response to the nearest tv or monitor to you. Putting your coat on in the hall and asking about traffic on a particular road might then return a 'Live' traffic camera video to a small screen in front of you. No keyboard, no mouse, just ask.
Playing loud music or in my case selections from my private music video collection, I could ask for an actual track and it would play on any number of TV's instantly. This is not Bluetooth but WiFi. Why would I do this when I can't then select more tracks whilst something is playing, Alexa is now deaf. Instead I ask Alexa to bring up my jukebox on a touch screen, I select the tracks & they stack up and play on one or more TV's simultaneously. The music can be from your own home server, simple PC drive or the cloud. Why would I want to use the cloud and pay someone else to listen to my own collection? You can also ask for the jukebox selector to be sent to any mobile device too without installing any apps on the mobile device.
The echo and dot are (at present) pretty useless at interpreting what you meant, to the point where you could actually set volume to '0' and create your own responses using TTS (Text to speech) at least that way you wouldn't keep getting, 'Sorry I didn't understand that' or 'Cant find a device named ....'. Your PC can actually be configured to interact with possibly all or most of the hubs meaning that your home automation could take on a totally different path. Wait till the AWS Skills are no longer free ... or every time you use one you're attacked with in-app-purchases that you have to buy to stop the ad-nags.
I've also created a games table (Monitor under glass top) so you can simply say two words and get one of hundreds of board games appear on that one monitor alone, e.g.
Alexa .... Scrabble, Alexa ..... Monopoly, Alexa ... Cluedo etc. All you need then are a few counters/tiles under the table and you're ready to go.
By my bar I might ask, Alexa .... Cocktails, this brings up a list of different cocktails. 'SAY' any one of them and that cocktail recipe loads on screen ... more of a party trick really where everyone has to be quiet again.
Can also say, Alexa .... Word ... spreadsheet ... Notepad ... Calculator and all of these PC applications open on screen in a screen position and size of your choice.
To me, this is real home automation, I will continue to develop it but not given up the day job yet.
Jez.
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Jez,
You are the (software engineer) guy who posted here he has an application for asking Alexa about anything, and it would look it up on a half dozen search engines and post the response on a half dozen monitors in your Bat Cave and elsewhere. This is great that you have put together a "Geek's Dream Home Automation System", it sounds cool and useful for you. But, it is not "real world" for the masses who can't do this. So, for you to bring this up in a simple discussion of "how do I play my own music on Echo" was a bit of overkill to a guy who had not even been using BT to stream music to anything. You come across as a bit elitist with this latest reply. If you want to brag about your system (which is cool with me) why not place your own thread, instead of in a simple thread as this one began?
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Cheers Mike but I think you're forgetting that this is a forum where we all throw in ideas and alternatives. What I've created anyone can use & I mean anyone. Let them decide if it's not for them or if it inspires them to look into it further and not just end the comment with 'I told him to do it my way and that is all there is to it' like he was only asking you and you alone. Seriously unbelievable.
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Key phrase in first posting, 'Or is the only way via a subscription service like Amazon Prime?' NO it's not the only way, there's a much cheaper, more reliable and easier way.
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Jez, I just said this was not the sort of info to give Terry; because he sounded like a "newbie" of sort, and suggested a more appropriate place to get geeky and techie. I think what you have made is cool, though.
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Hi,
Or is the only way via a subscription service like Amazon Prime?
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
If you have iTunes installed on your comp, it will do what you want through BT.
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Hi,
First post, having just received gift of ECHO Dot from one of my sons. Have set it up and Alexa is answering simple questions such as
"What's the weather today?" and "What's the capital of Germany?", etc.
After some very brief googling I fear a disappointing answer, but I'll ask anyway. Can I now move on and get my existing MP3 files played by Alexa at my request? ("Alexa, play Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley".) Or is the only way via a subscription service like Amazon Prime?
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
Hi terry
You might be interested in a skill I'm developing that interfaces Alexa with Squeezebox devices for audio playback.
One of the features I'm working on is allowing the echo itself to play back audio streams from the users local library.
You'd need to add Logitech Media Server (free) somewhere on your system but that could run independently of anything else.
Keep an eye on www.hab-tunes.com (http://www.hab-tunes.com) for project updates.
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Interesting.
I have a question about a common situation:
All my media is on a My Cloud NAS connected to my network. I can easily play my media on many different devices, except Alexa gadgets. The only way to do this is to play music on phone using BT and streaming it via BT to Alexa device. Do you know of any way that we can say, Alexa play music (song, album) from my NAS on Echo? Are there skills, IFFTs etc that can do this? Do you want to create a skill like this? THIS would be a very useful skill.
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Google "my media Alexa" you will find a solution to streaming your own music to Echo
https://www.mymediaalexa.com/
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OK, I'm not an audiophile and I don't know diddly about 90% of everything mentioned here. Playing music on the AIs has not been high on my list of must haves. So, please explain this to me like I'm 6. Wait, a 6 year old may know far more than when I was six. 'splain it to me like I'm 4 :)
My PC is BT enabled.
Sidenote: Photobucket isn't happy with me embedding MY photos from their website so this won't be as convenient as usual. Sorry.
Alexa says "You're connected to Monica PC"
These two screen shots show my BT software has connected to the Alexa Dot
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m595/monicakm1/Clipboard01_zpsirdpg3bt.jpg (http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m595/monicakm1/Clipboard01_zpsirdpg3bt.jpg)
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m595/monicakm1/Clipboard02_zps51vhcryv.jpg (http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m595/monicakm1/Clipboard02_zps51vhcryv.jpg)
When I play a song from my PC, the audio comes from the PC speakers :( What else do I need to do for my Dot to play the music instead of the PC speakers?
Thank!
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ps...in case it matters, Amazon Alexa on line is showing that Alexa found both my PC bluetooth and my Jambox with Monica PC being connected.
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Google "my media Alexa" you will find a solution to streaming your own music to Echo
https://www.mymediaalexa.com/
Are you employed with the company that created this product? If so, here is a question: Instead of accessing my PC, can I have the media server access my NAS where all my music is stored?
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Monica, are you trying the 7-day trial of this app; if so are you stuck somewhere trying to get it to work for you?
Although I have quite a few ways to get "My Music" to the Echos and GH devices, I will likely buy the $5/yr Basic subscription since it has some unique features to work with Alexa, AND to reward these talented geeks for doing something cool with the Echo! It's about time someone did this.
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No, I'm not stuck in a trial subscription. I've had this program for years. It came with the USB BT adpater. It works with my Jambox, tablet, and our cell phones.
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You are talking about the My Media program, right?
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Remember, I'm 4 years old Mike! I have no idea what you're talking about..."My Media" program. I don't have a "My Media" program on my Windows 7 PC. Did you see the BT screen shots and that I said Alexa announced it's connected to Monica's PC?
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Sorry, you are not making complete sense to me with this discussion.
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You said "Monica, are you trying the 7-day trial of this app?; if so are you stuck somewhere trying to get it to work for you?" I don't know what "this app" you're talking about. It's not making sense to me.
I asked what else do I need to do for the music on my PC to BT to Alexa. I've got Alexa saying she's connected to Monica's PC. I've got my PC's BT program showing it's connected to Alexa. Yet the music from my PC is still playing from the PC, not Alexa. I don't understand why both devices (my PC and Dot) say they are connected to one another but music is not being played thru Alexa. If I have to change the default speakers to Alexa, I don't know where.
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Some time ago I recall a discussion that the Echo Dot is a BT transmitter, not a receiver. That means it can play audio to a BT speaker. It cannot play audio on its own speaker from another device, such as a phone or PC. For that, you need the full sized Amazon Echo.
Maybe what I am saying above has changed. So I don't know if this applies now. But it would make sense that your PC reports being connected to your Dot via Bluetooth. But it just isn't using the Dot as an audio output device.
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Make sure your DOT & speaker are "paired" w/your computer. Then go to your Alexa.app>Settings>Devices>your device>Blutooth>Blutooth Devices. If your BT speakers and comp are not showing, you need to pair through the app.
I have a Mac. All of my personal music are in iTunes. This how I listen to music on my DOT.
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I remember this distinction. too, but cannot remember if it became a RX as well this past year when Amazon made the Echo a RX. I've never sent BT music to a Dot, (to an Echo, yes) so I cannot test this, but the Help page for devices at Amazon may mention it.
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OK, I had to try this and it works. The Dot is also a BT receiver. I played music on my iPad, but I also had to pair the Dot to iPad and music from iPad then played on the Dot.
Pairing must be done between PC's BT and Dot and it should all work as it did for me.
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Thanks AB. My Jambox and Monica PC are both showing under BT devices in the app but still not working. It's no big deal. My computer's speakers are awesome, GH speakers are more than enough for my needs, I have a BT speaker (Jawbone Jambox) and really the only time I listen to music is when I think of a song or artist from my past. Can you say Engelbert Humperdinck? ;D
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Didn't work here Mike. So far the common denominator for this to work is an Apple device.
My kitchen Dot says it's connected to my PC and shows to be in the Alexa app. Certainly not a
big deal tho. I'll find something else to fret over ;)
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Key phrase in first posting, 'Or is the only way via a subscription service like Amazon Prime?' NO it's not the only way, there's a much cheaper, more reliable and easier way.
Holy crap dude!! Your program is awesome!! Do you have tutorial on everything we can do? OR complete list of commands? Can I use this to control my tv? I have smart tv with web browser. Oh I have my PC connected to my smart tv actually. Yeah my smart TV is a genius. LOL.
I have seen your thread before but skeptical. I used the browser help instead. I am disabling that skill now. Yours is way better. Thanks for this. Out of curiosity what did you use to make this? I mean programming language?
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It WILL work with a PC as well as an iPad. It will work with anything that is a BT transmitter like a PC can be.
OK, as it turned out I had connected to a few of my Dots via BT in the past -- except the one I tried a while ago, so first I had to pair them. Next time I want to reconnect I have to have the BT transmitter on (either PC or iPad), and tell the Dot to "connect bluetooth" Dot says its searching and then says it is connected to my iPad or PC. Now, play music. When finished tell Dot to "disconnect bluetooth" and it will tell me it disconnected from the device. I also turn off BT on my iPad or PC.
Easy.
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I am operating my PC music via the Alexa app (pic below) with BT connected only it's playing on the computer LOL I'm changing songs, playing, pausing.
(http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m595/monicakm1/Screenshot_20170804-115815_zpsttyb8exg.png~original) (http://s1133.photobucket.com/user/monicakm1/media/Screenshot_20170804-115815_zpsttyb8exg.png.html)
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Key phrase in first posting, 'Or is the only way via a subscription service like Amazon Prime?' NO it's not the only way, there's a much cheaper, more reliable and easier way.
Holy crap dude!! Your program is awesome!! Do you have tutorial on everything we can do? OR complete list of commands? Can I use this to control my tv? I have smart tv with web browser. Oh I have my PC connected to my smart tv actually. Yeah my smart TV is a genius. LOL.
I have seen your thread before but skeptical. I used the browser help instead. I am disabling that skill now. Yours is way better. Thanks for this. Out of curiosity what did you use to make this? I mean programming language?
I actually downloaded the app and started to create an account and chickened out. Uninstalled it.
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I am operating my PC music via the Alexa app (pic below) with BT connected only it's playing on the computer LOL I'm changing songs, playing, pausing.
115815_zpsttyb8exg.png.html](http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m595/monicakm1/Screenshot_20170804-115815_zpsttyb8exg.png~original)[/URL]
I guess this means you got it to wor with my instructions.
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uh, no. Did you read the text above the picture? It's been connected since yesterday. I'm just not getting any sound out of the Dot. I can control the music on my PC via the Alexa app but it's playing from the computer not the Dot.
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I've created a monster! Echo won't stop connecting to my computer even after I disconnect it. I turned off the BT radio on my computer. That didn't stop it. I finally "forgot" the connection on the Alexa App. My computer asked me if I wanted to let it connect :o
Things seem quiet for now but I'm going to turn on BT radio again. I usually keep it on because I use it for transferring images from my phone to computer or vice versa. As soon as I turned it on, it asked if I wanted to connect to Echo. I'm deleting the Echo connection from the BT software. Maybe everything will return to normal now!
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Yep. I have had issues with PC BT, it is one of the reasons I don't use this BT, Tablets and phone work better.
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The Amazon Music Storage subscription plans (free and paid) are being retired. Beginning January 15, 2018, no new subscriptions will be accepted.
~HolySmoke
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Like the OP, I have a zillion of my own MP3/iTunes stuff on my PC (well, NAS for me).
To me, Alexa is just a voice command system, it'll take a few more pieces.
Like most folks say, hook your Dot to a "real" speaker so it sounds better. Bluetooth or a cable to your old stereo would work. Unagumented Dots are good for rooms where you just want voice commands. Echo is for rooms where you want it to sound good (mileage may vary). Problem is Dots are cheap, so they're more likely given as presents to parents (such as yourself). Plus side is, they make good starters, and you can move them to secondary rooms as you expand your Alexa Empire. :)
Next getting Alexa access to those files.
I hear Amazon is phasing out their Drive system, so uploading MP3 to Amazon is both limited and might not stick around.
So, I got Plex. It's free (the free version is all you need for this). Install it on your PC with all the music. Let it find everything.
Now install the Plex skill on your Alexa and link it to your Plex account.
Then say "Alexa, ask Plex to play XYZ" where XYZ is something you own in your collection.
It is mostly that easy. Getting your files to Amazon would give you a more direct command "Alexa, play Fulsome City Blues" but if you've got a huge collection like I do (got a huge stack of CDs in my closet), it doesn't scale well.
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For detailed instructions of how to do above, and pluses and minuses, see this link:
http://www.echotalk.org/index.php?topic=3323.0
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You can pair your Dot by bluetooth to your smart device and play your collection from there.
I have paired my Echo (not the Dot). to my iPhone, but I can’t get Alexa to play the music from my phone. No sound comes from either. I unplugged the Echo for a few minutes as someone suggested - it made no difference.
Obviously I’m doing something wrong. What?
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You can pair your Dot by bluetooth to your smart device and play your collection from there.
I have paired my Echo (not the Dot). to my iPhone, but I can’t get Alexa to play the music from my phone. No sound comes from either. I unplugged the Echo for a few minutes as someone suggested - it made no difference.
Obviously I’m doing something wrong. What?
Alexa won’t play music on your phone. You play the music using your phone, and using Bluetooth you will hear it on your echo device.
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The problem is, I don’t hear it. I’ve paired my phone, selected the music, pressed “play” on the phone, can see the progress bar on the phone, but I don’t hear anything.
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Not only do you need to pair phone BT, and you also need to CONNECT the phone and Alexa BT so the BT setting of the phone shows CONNECTED to the appropriate alexa device.
With the phone BT on, say to alexa "Alexa connect bluetooth" and you should see that it is connected together in phone BT settings.
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I had done that, and my phone showed that the Echo was connected. I then discovered that it was a matter of volume. I had to ask Alexa to turn the volume up, then I could hear my music! Of course, when I wanted her to tune in to the radio or play other music, for example from Prime Music, I then had to ask her to turn it down. Not terribly satisfactory.
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Well then, it does sound like all is working correctly. Yes, often times the volumes are not in sync. This is why we keep the volume of the ALexa devices at a our normal listening level around mid-point (around the 5 level point.) In your cas of using Bluetooth of phone you should always adjust the volume level of phone to be higher (or lower) so that after using the BT function the volume level of Alexa device is ready for TuneIn, and such..
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The MediaServer skill for Alexa supports streaming from Logitech Media Server (free) to your Echo devices.