In a bid to compete with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music, Amazon has launched an on-demand music streaming service called Amazon Music Unlimited. The brand hopes to carve out a competitive chunk of the growing market by positioning their offering as more ‘conversational’ and attractive to the casual listener, namely through clever use of voice control technology.
Utilising the recently released Amazon Echo ‘Alexa Voice Service’, Amazon Music Unlimited will allow users to access over 40 million songs without having to move more than their vocal chords. Siri and other voice activation software already allows this, but what makes Amazon Music Unlimited unique is that it has been designed specifically with this technology in mind. Singing a few lyrics of a song will bring it up ready to be played, and a simple command of “Play some jazz” will theoretically begin a playlist of jazz tailored to your tastes.
Amazon Music Unlimited is a great example of a brand utilising recent advances in technology to fight its way into a market many people would regard as inaccessible. Clever use of voice control technology means that Amazon’s service has the potential to offer a far more relaxed and natural user experience. It aims to take the effort out of putting on music, perhaps leading to an increase in usage. I still have doubts over whether Amazon can effectively compete with the extremely well establish and advanced Spotify and Apple Music, but if they’re going to be late to the party, bringing a party trick like voice control technology certainly won’t hurt.
(Credit all images: Amazon)