I get that Sonos didn't launch with the ability for Alexa to use your music library. But why hasn't it caught up? If I look at the Alexa app, it knows everything that is in my (largish) library. Especially with the latest Alexa extensions, I'm really frustrated with not being able to play my library (and my Sonos playlists). What's so hard here???
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Is this a local music library or in the cloud?
If you subscribe to an Amazon Music streaming service already ...
You could upload your music (250,000 track limit) to Amazon servers for an additional cost of £24.99, as long as you do it prior to the cut off date of 29 April 2018 (not much time left though to do that).
Then in your amazon account online, goto music settings and choose 'Keep my Music'... it’s important to do this !
After the end of April cut off date, your files will transfer to your Amazon library in the cloud and you should be able to voice control them with Alexa.
You do however need to continue to subscribe to their streaming music service to do these things and if you stop the streaming service you may lose those uploaded tracks, once 29th April 2019 (anniversary date) has passed... but according to Amazon support if you stay with their music service, your uploaded files will remain there indefinitely.
Also for liability purposes, this isn't advice. Consult your local support/electrician/building inspector/power company/lawyer/doctor/dentist etc. before doing anything I said. I believe however the above will work for an Amazon subscriber, going forward.
Like billkuhn2 I didn't get that Alexa couldn't be used to access my local music library until after I'd spent a load of money which can't be refunded because 'there isn't a fault with the Sonos speakers' My android and Windows apps can both see and access the music library, so why not Alexa ? Not good enough Sonos. I feel like I've been ripped off. This is exactly why I bought the Sonos, so that I could easily listen to, enjoy and switch between all the music I've collected over the years around the house.
And, Ken Griffiths, I've spent enough money on my music (and now the Sonos kit), and I have perfectly adequate local storage for it. I'm not about to pay Amazon a premium for something which should be perfectly achieveable locally.
And, Ken Griffiths, I've spent enough money on my music (and now the Sonos kit), and I have perfectly adequate local storage for it. I'm not about to pay Amazon a premium for something which should be perfectly achieveable locally.
You can use IFTTT to create triggers, which can be called via Alexa, that link to your locally stored Favorites. Very easy to set-up.
That service has been discontinued by Amazon anyway. When you initiate the playback in the Sonos app, then Alexa will be able to take over from there.
General playback commands
Alexa, pause/stop/resume in the (room name)
Alexa, pause/stop/resume the music in the (room name)
Alexa, skip/next in the (room name)
Alexa, play the next/previous song/track in the (room name)
Alexa, pause
Alexa, resume on (room name)
Alexa, next song/track
Alexa, previous song/track
Alexa, stop
Alexa, skip
Alexa, skip song/track
Alexa, what's playing in (room name)?
General volume commands
Alexa, turn it up/down in the (room name)
Alexa, louder/quieter in the (room name)
Alexa, set the volume to 3 (30%) in the (room name) [0-10 volume levels]
Alexa, softer in the (room name)
Alexa, mute the (room name)
Alexa, unmute the (room name)
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3514?language=en
There are 3rd party solutions to playing your Sonos Library via Alexa.
Smilja - The whole point for me was that I wanted to be able to use Alexa to select the track that I wanted to listen to. Starting from the app really doesn't do it for me, not even remotely. And then the commands give you no control beyond the basics, i.e. stop/start/next/last etc. If I get a subscription to a streaming service I can select whatever I want (artist/track) directly via Alexa. So it's do-able. But I've got all the music I could ever want locally so why would I go somewhere else (and use bandwidth/data allowance as well).
controlav - thanks, more info please - although tbh I'm really trying to persuade Sonos that their product is deficient and that they should do it, not me.
controlav - thanks, more info please - although tbh I'm really trying to persuade Sonos that their product is deficient and that they should do it, not me.
update - signed up for IFTTT but can't find an applet that allows Alexa to select and play local music library tracks on my Sonos. Or did you mean I have to write one ?
You are making the assumption that the Sonos/Amazon architecture supports this functionality... Amazon only supports streaming services on their devices.
The trigger is found here: https://ifttt.com/applets/YAaxFveK-play-a-favorite-with-amazon-alexa
controlav - thanks, more info please - although tbh I'm really trying to persuade Sonos that their product is deficient and that they should do it, not me.
It should be noted that these 3rd party skills are not smart skills like the Sonos skill. That is to say that you must specifically reference the skill when utilizing it. For example "Alexa, ask MySpeakerSkill to play music from my library." Obviously, Sonos could follow the same strategy, but would be confusing to alot of users...and already done by 3rd party skills. They can't do a full smart skill with Amazon getting invovled and doing the coding on their end. Since Amazon has little motivation to enable your local library, and customers aren't rushing to use local libraries over streaming...the outlook isn't great.
My opinion, if the Google Home integration allows for local libraries, as competitive advantage over Amazon integration perhaps, that's your best bet. If you don't like Google, if the feature is really useful, Amazon will be pushed to implement it.
[quote=melvimbe]It should be noted that these 3rd party skills are not smart skills like the Sonos skill. That is to say that you must specifically reference the skill when utilizing it. For example "Alexa, ask MySpeakerSkill to play music from my library."
Actually much of this is possible with a 3rd party skill now, though it was not when I originally created mine. When I get the time I will try and update it for this.
Actually much of this is possible with a 3rd party skill now, though it was not when I originally created mine. When I get the time I will try and update it for this.
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