Alexa is bringing the AI revolution into users' ears. On Tuesday, the company announced that its upgraded AI assistant Alexa+ has officially launched on Amazon Music's iOS and Android apps, available first to "Alexa+ Early Access" users. This feature not only moves music discovery from "on-demand" to "conversational," but also demonstrates the huge potential of generative AI to reshape music consumption, with three times the song exploration rate of the previous version and a nearly 70% increase in recommended listening.
Unlike the previous Alexa, which could only perform basic commands like "Play Jay Chou," Alexa+ has true natural language understanding and context-based conversation capabilities. Users can ask highly specific or even niche questions, such as: "Which movie does the lyric 'fire in the rain' come from?" "Which 1960s singers influenced Lana Del Rey?" or "Help me find a new song that makes me seem knowledgeable about music without making my daughter think I'm outdated." The AI can not only answer accurately but also actively recommend, creating an immersive music exploration experience.
Even more powerful is its personalized playlist generation ability. Users just need to say something like "Create a playlist of songs from the 2010s that make me run faster, starting with a song by Nicki Minaj," and Alexa+ will understand rhythm, era, mood, and artist preferences to automatically generate a smooth transition playlist. This "intent-driven" creation method far surpasses traditional algorithmic recommendations based on tags or popularity.
Alexa+ was first introduced in February 2025 at Amazon's hardware launch event and was positioned as one of the first consumer-facing AI agents. In addition to music scenarios, it can also help users with real-world tasks such as ordering meals or shopping. Although still in the early access phase, it has already reached over a million users, with feedback data far exceeding expectations.
This move is also seen as a precise strike against Spotify. Not long ago, Spotify announced a deep integration with ChatGPT, allowing users to create playlists through AI. Amazon Music takes it a step further, embedding AI natively throughout the entire listening process — in addition to Alexa+, the platform has launched weekly AI-generated playlists, AI-assisted search, and **"Explore" artist deep analysis** features, building a full-chain AI music ecosystem.
At a time when growth in streaming music is slowing down, AI has become a new battlefield for major players to compete for user time and emotional connection. Amazon has demonstrated with Alexa+ that the future of music services is not just about library size, but about who can better "understand you," chat with you, and spark curiosity. And this conversation has just begun.
