Reddit mentions: The best music & audio alexa skills

The main thing that sold me on Sonos was something like, "It's so easy my wife can use it." Not to say the other vendor's systems are hard to use per se, but that Sonos hits a sweet spot in usability once you are fully engrossed in the system. That ease of use and cohesiveness is what sold my wife (a technophobe) on the system.

For me, the killer features are a combination of the following.

1. The lack of wires: I have 10 speakers taking up 10 different outlets. If I added other voice assistant speakers, like an Echo or Google Home to the mix, I have to take up additional plugs on one of those 10 outlets. Why is this a problem? Well some of the outlets are highly visible (like the kitchen counter) or need to be used for something else (next to the bed) and I don't want to add additional clutter adding a power trip/surge protector.
   
   
2. Lack of physical things: Complementing the above lack of wires is the fact that there are less physical things taking up space in my house. The TV soundbar (Playbar or Playbase) and each speaker is self contained and there is no need for a receiver. Not having to have another Echo or Google Home or HomePod means less physical counter/table space taken up and less clutter.
   
   
3. Changing speaker groups via voice: This is not officially supported by Sonos right now but is accomplished using the Speaker Groups Alexa skill and to me is a killer feature that distinguishes Sonos from the other competitors right now. I can say something like, "Alexa, tell Speaker Groups to play what's on in the living room in the office" and it will automatically group the living room and office speakers together. Later I can say, "Alexa, tell Speaker Groups to stop the living room" and then the living room will be disconnected from the speaker groups and paused, leaving audio playing in the other rooms.
   
   
4. Voice assistant agnostic (hopefully): Sonos announced that it is going to add support for Google Assistant in the future. It is a nice addition in case I do not want to fully rely on Alexa. For instance, if I wanted to add tasks to my Google task list.
   
   
5. Sounds great: For someone that is not an audiophile, an entire home Sonos system is going to sound great.
   
   
6. Spotify Connect support: I can seamlessly transition using just the Spotify app between my computer, my phone, and my Sonos speakers. This is not unique to Sonos, but it is a necessary feature.
   
   
7. Support for tons of audio sources: It supports lots of streaming services. I don't use anything more than Spotify and Pandora though, but having this many sources appeals to a wider group of people.
   
   
8. Stream TV audio: It is really nice to be able to stream my TV audio. I like to stream Twitch from my Xbox and soccer games from my cable box to different rooms.
   
   To understand how this all works together, imagine me and my wife's typical use case: I start playing music in my car, then I transition it to my phone and walk to my house, then I transition it to my home theater, and finally transition it to my office (turning off the home theater). To do this, I use the Spotify app to start the music, switch to the home theater using Spotify Connect and leave my phone on the counter. Since Sonos utilizes Wifi, it isn't making my phone battery go down. As I walk through the house I can use the voice assistant part to play songs, change tracks/volume and if I move to a new room, I can use the Speaker Groups skill (item 3) to change audio groups using voice, all without picking up my phone or any other remotes.
   
   It is a bummer you got two Sonos Play:1s instead of two Sonos Ones. I think the latter are a better indication of what the whole Sonos ecosystem is capable of.

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I guess it depends on what specifically you would like to do. Windows has speech recognition which is actually something separate from [Hey] Cortana. It allows you to navigate and click things in apps, but the app has to be designed in a way that accessibility tools can work. I don't know how well it works with Plex, but I'd guess its not a great experience.

I think the best setup would be either an Amazon Echo or Google Home paired with a Logitech Harmony Hub. The Harmony Hub has a pair of skills that let you control various aspects of your home theater via Alexa or OK Google. Once you teach the Harmony Hub about your HTPC/Plex, TV, A/V receiver, etc its a pretty neat experience.

If you really just want to control only Plex Media Player then an Amazon Echo with the Plex skill might be enough.

I'm working on a pet project -- an Alexa skill for Old Time Radio called Radio Fun Time.

It started out as a simple, private toy to allow my mother-in-law to easily listen to a few of her favorite public domain old time radio shows hosted at Internet Archive...but I kept building on it, and now it's got a sqlite database of over 24,000 programs, caches your current saved-spot to Redis, you can search for shows, ask what's playing, rewind/fast-forward a user-designated number of seconds, ask it for a recommendation from a bunch of different genres (like kids, detective, true crime, etc), and my favorite for exploring what's out there, "Alexa, ask Radio Fun Time to recommend a random program."

Definitely recommend developing Alexa skills as an educational project...you start thinking you're going to write this very basic, simple script very quickly, and the next thing you know...you've gone nutso full-stack...

> Around Halloween, it would turn on by itself and play this strange medley of growling, children singing, piano music, etc. It was usually at full volume and would turn off on its own. One time I was able to ask, “Alexa, what’s playing right now?” And the response was that it was “Creepy Halloween Sounds.”

Could be a software "easter egg" (a secret feature put in a piece of software just to amuse people), or an app such as this one (I don't have one of these devices so cannot test if the sounds in this app match what you describe), or even just an ordinary sound file playing. Highly unlikely that this is anything paranormal as the sounds described are very cliche.

> I theorized that maybe a neighbor was playing these sounds at their house nearby (on their porch, or for a Halloween party, etc) and that ours somehow picked up the signal.

This is not technically possible with devices of this kind. This kind of thing used to happen with analog radios, two-way radios, wireless microphones or headphones, and so on. Digital systems such as modern cellphones and WiFi and bluetooth devices cannot "interfere" like this.

> The very last incident was a bit different. My grandma passed away around that time. A couple of days after her passing, the Echo turned on (when I was alone) and started playing “Mandy,” by Boston. I had never heard that song before and had never played it on the Echo. My grandma was the only one who called me Mandy.

That could've been your grandmother, if the paranormal is real. These devices are very sensitive and don't require a loud voice, just a clear one (Google Now on an Android phone can actually be triggered with an electrical signal corresponding to a sound volume that would normally be inaudible, if you give it the right signal), so I imagine that it would be quite easy for spirits to talk to the device (similar to an EVP recorder).

This goes to show how poorly information about skills is made available. There is a skill that does this:

It seems like a no-brainer, and is a problem I worked on (to play iTunes music and watch Kodi movies as well as control your computer) and found a solution, but Amazon would not approve my skill, claiming it promotes piracy. I am assuming this is in reference to Kodi support, which was only selected because it can be scripted (and thereby controlled).

https://www.amazon.com/bizmodeller-My-Media/dp/B06XPP135L/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-skills&ie=UTF8&qid=1498148119&sr=1-1&keywords=my+media

I am not associated with these guys at all. But, it is inexpensive. This does not access your iTunes in the cloud, so you need your MP3's (in non protected format) on your computer, which it will then stream to your Echo. It doesn't even need iTunes.

I hate the idea of paying for a subscription as well. I can't figure out for the life of me why I can't use Spotify on the Echo for free when I can do so on both my phone and my PC. Pretty lame.
This is not exactly what you've requested, BUT, it's the closest thing I've found to making use of the Echo to control my own music collection. I also haven't set this up yet, but I will be in the next couple of months. From what I understand, if you buy "J. River Media Center" and install the "House Band" Alexa skill (https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Creations-House-Band/dp/B01ATZM6N4), you can tell Alexa to play anything from your library as well as control playback over any of your zones. The downside is that I don't think it'll stream over your Echo device. The Echo is used only for control and you need to have a PC running your media player, hooked up to an amp or some other sound system like a Sonos speaker. J. River sells media devices that are essentially power-efficient mini computers with their software installed and a hard drive to store music if you don't like the idea of running a media PC all the time. Good luck!

Yes, it's possible.
I've recently created the Alexa skill that allows you to stream your own music, audio books or anything else in MP3 format from your Google Drive.
I were aiming for creating a streaming solution to play audio books. But as I said with that skill you can stream anything in the MP3.

This is the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y8B87HC

Please let me know if you need any help.

Yes, You need to enable the skill and link your Plex account.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NBB1INY

Example: Alexa ask plex to play "More than a feeling" .... Alexa responds with "Playing More than a feeling by Boston"

You can also create Playlist and have ask to play them.

Yeah, it looks OK. I'm not crazy about having to stand-up (yet another) server port on my HTPC box, but meh... Would be really nice if the folks at Plex would build something native for Alexa or Google Home, but I'm not counting on that!

EDIT: Looks like Alexa has a Plex Skill.

/r/https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07GZK94K7/

Nature Sounds will put you at peace and help you to sleep, relax, meditate, relieve stress, or block out unwanted noises. It will rejuvenate your body, mind and spirit. Nature Sounds are perfect musical accompaniment for meditation, yoga, healing and complete mind and body relaxation

That would be a sweet feature... I use an app to tap to get the bpm, timing it with the beat in my head.

Okay, so I found this, but it doesn’t seem like it works very well:
https://www.amazon.com/Rain-Labs-Music-Tempo/dp/B075Y65S4C/

And here’s a metronome:
https://www.amazon.com/semidigitali-My-own-Metronome/dp/B07MW9BXJM/

Take a look at the House Band skill for JRiver Media Server. Requires JRiver, about $50 US (free trial available), but well worth it and highly recommended.

House Band

JRiver

Quick demo

A friend and I made a skill on a whim a couple weekends ago. You can stream classic MLB baseball games from 1934-1973 through your echo. We've been enjoying it in the office as background noise while we work. You can enable it here.

"Alexa, play W Z I D on TuneIn" just worked perfectly for me first try. Also, I found an Alexa skill specifically for this station (although 2 people think it sucks).

https://www.amazon.com/Saga-Communications-95-7-WZID/dp/B072KHYGJZ

It’s working this morning! I received an official email from Amazon’s PR agency about Apple Music on Alexa in Australia and it’s working at long last!

The app still showed no Apple Music icon in then settings, but the press release had a link to the skill which I then enabled:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Apple-Inc-Music/dp/B07LCQ5JT7

It will presumably be in the Skills section of the Alexa app too

Happy Apple Music listening on your Alexa devices!

Amazon Echo has a skill called Background Baseball which is very similar and is absolutely awesome to listen to when doing chores around the house.

If you have an Alexa device, check out the Arcade Party skill which will make the room sound like a busy arcade.

​

https://www.amazon.com/Puzzling-Plans-LLC-Arcade-Party/dp/B0795CQY43

This is definitely not a solution if you are looking to control streaming content through Sonos. But if you are looking to control your local music collection:

https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Creations-House-Band/dp/B01ATZM6N4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-skills&ie=UTF8&qid=1480192306&sr=1-1&keywords=house+band

You can group speakers with Alexa now, saying (for example) “Alexa, play Jazz everywhere.” That command puts all of your speakers into one group.

There are also third-party Alexa skills that allow for other speaker groupings:

https://skills-store.amazon.com/deeplink/dp/B071YW8F1R?deviceType=app&share&refSuffix=ss_copy

https://skills-store.amazon.com/deeplink/dp/B07HGQGT6P?deviceType=app&share&refSuffix=ss_copy

I was actually just looking into this because I listen to a lot of podcasts. "AnyPod" looks like it supports a ton of podcasts, it has a lot of good reviews, and the dev seems to replay to requests to feeds that people ask for to it. I enabled the skill but I haven't tried it out yet.

Here's a link https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072HY3T7Y

> Pocket

Behold! Pocket Casts :)

Dave wants to share this Alexa Skill from Amazon https://skills-store.amazon.com.au/deeplink/dp/B07LCQ5JT7?deviceType=app&share&refSuffix=ss_copy

House Band skill + JRiver Media Center(not free) does this:

https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Creations-House-Band/dp/B01ATZM6N4

and eventually some of us hope SONOS will access our personal libraries...

You can also use mine: https://www.amazon.com/ControlAV-My-Speaker/dp/B071YW8F1R/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=my+speaker&qid=1566746710&s=digital-skills&sr=1-1

Then "alexa, tell my speaker to play Adele everywhere" will work.