Alexa always chooses obscure cover versions of titles

[migueldei]

I have a couple of days struggling with this... I found a workaround for those who need/wish to play an specific song:

Go to Spotify and create a Playlist containing only the song you want to play. Name the playlist after the song, and you can have Alexa playing the song directly by commanding it to play the song and adding " playlist" to the voice command.

Still, you need to add "playlist" whenever you request to play the song, but that is definitely better than having an obscure remix that you would never ask for.

I hope this helps, until either Amazon, or more likely Spotify, gets it fixed.

[jennabmacd]

I constantly have this issue when requesting songs from Alexa. What baffles me is that Alexa hears my command properly, but still won’t play the most popular version (the one that you’d get as the top search result if you typed that exact same command into the Spotify app). I usually get fed up and disconnect Alexa from Bluetooth and then reconnect my phone to play through the Bluetooth so that I can control Spotify through the app on my phone. I’d love it if Spotify would address this issue. I’m tempted to leave the platform because I just don’t use Spotify as much as I’d like to anymore. 

[alexworden]

Amazon is doing it on purpose. I replaced my Alexa with a Google Home device instead that's also connected to Spotify. It plays the correct songs every time. 

Of course, Alexa plays the right songs if you use Amazon Music - except that Amazon Music Unlimited doesn't have all the songs that Spotify does and doesn't make good recommendations either. 

Amazon are a pretty evil company. They know exactly what they're doing... a little like Apple. 

[gpgaal]

I really doubt that it's Spotify at fault, here. It is far more likely
Amazon that has Alexa screw with your obvious selection choice. I've tried
Amazon music with Alexa. The results were really pretty interesting...

Alexa will be much more chipper and upbeat sounding when responding to a
request for music from Amazon Music (weird, right?). But, more importantly,
you will get the most obvious (and desired) result from your music request.

Anyway, it's just Amazon trying to degrade Spotify and make its own music
service seem more appealing. Screw it, I still prefer Spotify!

[gpgaal]

Another option, if you're musically very knowledgeable, is to request:

SONG_NAME "from the album" ALBUM_NAME

That will get you the original (non-remastered) version of the song.

[alexworden]

Maybe... but you have to know the album. Even if you state the artist the
Alexa still plays a cover version! Try “Good Day Sunshine by The Beatles”
and you get a crappy cover version. Amazon is evil.

[rpiaggio]

Please fix. I just spent 10 minutes trying to play the regular, studio version of Life on Mars?, which is the first hit when you type that on Spotify.


If no artist was specified, Alexa would play a crappy cover. If I did say "by David Bowie" I got a live version (which doesn't even appear when you search for the song on Spotify unless you specify "live").

[rpiaggio]

Of course, with Amazon Music it gets it right the first time.

This is so frustrating.

[migueldei]

 The only workaround that I found is to create a playlist with the sole song that I wanted to play... This will help if it is a frequent song. 

BTW, the issue is not on Spotify, as (reportedly) with G00gle devices it works better. It seems to be an Amzn thing.

[Benito_Martin]

IS IT THAT DIFFICULT?

NOVEMBER 2020, ISSUE STILL NOT FIXED:

SPOTIFY, PLEASE TALK WITH AMAZON-ALEXA AND GET IT DONE!!

WE WANT THE MOST POPULAR TRACK UNLESS REQUESTED OTHERWISE!!!

If you are in the Spotify Support Team reading this, please don't answer with: "It is an Alexa problem". (I already contacted Amazon and they replied my it was Spotify's issue, not theirs) Please talk with your supervisor. IT IS A HUGE PROBLEM, and it has been going on for YEARS.