Using voice commands to control your players

Players as devices in Alexa

One way of controling the players in Alexa is to adress them by their names. In general the players appear automatically in the Alexa App once the skill has been activated and the account has been connected. If this fails or you want to add an additional player later, you can always start the search for new devices with the following voice command:

Alexa, discover my devices

In order for all possible voice commands to work using the device names you need to connect the Alexa devices with the player devices in the Alexa App. You find this connection function in the details page of the player device once it has been found. Then you need to connect all Alexa devices you want to be able to use the commands from.

After the player devices have been found and the controling Alexa devices have been connected we can start controling the players

Basic commands can be adressed to a player using only the player name.

Alexa, turn <Playername> on.

  • Alexa, turn <Playername> on.
  • Alexa, turn <Playername> off.
  • Alexa, set the volume of <Playername> to 20.
  • Alexa, increase volume on <Playername>.
  • Alexa, decrease volume by 5 on <Playername>.
  • Alexa, next on <Playername>.
  • Alexa, previous on <Playername>.
  • Alexa, turn on channel 1 on <Playername>.
  • …

More complex commands require the skill to be called

In order to initiate more complex commands you need to call the skill using the invocation name of the skill. In our case the invocation name is “music control”.

Alexa, open music control.

You can also call the skill and hand over a command in one go. For this you combine the call of the skill with the invocation name with the command. Here an example

Alexa, tell music control play the album Abbey Road in the living room

But voce recognition is better if you first call the skill and then hand over the command:

Alexa, open music control

The skill answers:

What can I do for you?

And now the voice command:

Play the album Abbey Road in the living room

Define a standard room to avoid always having to adress the room or player

Now it is a little bit lengthy to always give the room name in every command so you can define a standard room or player for the commands. This can be achieved by using the command:

Alexa, tell music control the standard room is <room name>

or

Alexa, I am within earshot of <player name>

After this command has been activated the standard room has been defined and every command where no room or player is given is adressed to this player.

With the command

Alexa, tell music control delete the standard room

the standard room can be deleted as well.

Play favorites

The possible commands to play a favorite are

Alexa, tell music control play <favorite name>

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, tell music control play the favorite <favorite name>
  • Alexa, tell music control favorite <favorite name>

Get information on the music library

In order get a list of the albums of a certain band/group or singer you can use the command

Alexa, which albums of <artist/band> do I have

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, what are my albums of <artist/band>
  • Alexa, what are my recordings of <artist/band>

Play music

The possible commands to play an album with a specific name are

Alexa, tell music control play the album <album name>

an alternative command is

  • Alexa, tell music control album <album name>

The possible commands to play an album by a specific artist/group are

Alexa, tell music control play the album <album name> (by/from/by the singer/by the group <artist/group>

an alternative command is

  • Alexa, tell music control play the album <album name> (by/from/by the singer/by the group <artist/group>

The possible commands to play a specific title by giving the title and artist are

Alexa, tell music control play the title <title> (by/from/by the singer/by the band/by the group) <artist/band>

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, tell music control Alexa, tell music control play the song <title> (by/from/by the singer/by the band/by the group) <artist/band>
  • Alexa, tell music control Alexa, tell music control song <title> (by/from/by the singer/by the band/by the group) <artist/band>
  • Alexa, tell music control Alexa, tell music control title <title> (by/from/by the singer/by the band/by the group) <artist/band>

The possible commands to play a specific title by giving the title name

Alexa, tell music control play the song <title>

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, tell music control song <title>
  • Alexa, tell music control play the title <title>
  • Alexa, tell music control title <title>

The possible commands to play song by a specific artist or band

Alexa, tell music control play music (by/from/by the singer/by the band/by the group) <artist/band>

an alternative command is

  • Alexa, tell music control play something (by/from/by the singer/by the band/by the group) <artist/band>

Get the information what is currently playing

The possible commands to ask Alexa what the current title is are

Alexa, ask music control which song is this

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, ask music control which song
  • Alexa, ask music control which title

Group the players to play together

The possible commands to group players of different rooms are

Alexa, tell music control play music from <room name>

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, tell music control follow <room name>
  • Alexa, tell music control play music from <room name>
  • Alexa, tell music control play the music from the <room name>
  • Alexa, tell music control play <room name>

to end the grouping of the players use the commands

Alexa, tell music control end music synchronisation

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, tell music control do not follow
  • Alexa, tell music control sync off
  • Alexa, tell music control synchronisation off
  • Alexa, tell music control music synchronisation off

Transfer music between rooms

To transfer the current playlist and playing position from one room to another use the following commands

Alexa, tell music control transfer the music from <room name/player name>

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, tell music control transfer the music from the <room name>
  • Alexa, tell music control transfer <room name>
  • Alexa, tell music control catch <room name>
  • Alexa, tell music control catch music from <room name>

Basic commands as alterntive to adressing the player directly

Turn the music on and off

The possible commands to turn the music on or off are

Alexa, tell music control start music

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, tell music control play music
  • Alexa, tell music control play
  • Alexa, tell music control music
  • Alexa, tell music control start

The possible commands to turn the music off are

Alexa, tell music control stop music

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, tell music control end the music
  • Alexa, tell music control stop
  • Alexa, tell music control music stop

Set the volume

The possible commands to raise the volume are

Alexa, tell music control volume up

an alternative command is

  • Alexa, tell music control turn the volume up

The possible commands to reduce the volume are

Alexa, tell music control volume down

an alternative command is

  • Alexa, tell music control turn the volume down

The possible commands to set the volume to a certain value are

Alexa, tell music control set the volume to <value>

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, tell music control set the volume level to <value> ein
  • Alexa, tell music control volume level to <value>
  • Alexa, tell music control volume level <value>
  • Alexa, tell music control volume <value>

The volume can be raised multiple times by using one voice command. the possible commands are

Alexa, tell music control volume <amount> times up

an alternative command is

  • Alexa, tell music control turn the volume <amount> times up

or reducing the volume multiple times is possible as well, of course

Alexa, tell music control volume <amount> times down

a alternative command is

  • Alexa, tell music control turn the volume <amount> times down

Control your play list

The possible commands to jump to the next title in your playlist are

Alexa, tell music control next

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, tell music control next title
  • Alexa, tell music control Lied next song
  • Alexa, tell music control forward

The possible commands to jump to the previous title in your playlist are

Alexa, tell music control previous

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, tell music control previous title
  • Alexa, tell music control previous song
  • Alexa, tell music control backward

The possible commands to get the length of the current playlist are

Alexa, ask music control how long is the playlist

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, ask music control how long
  • Alexa, ask music control how many titles
  • Alexa, ask music control how many

The possible commands to get the current position in the current playlist are

Alexa, ask music control which position in the playlist is currently playing

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, ask music control where am i
  • Alexa, ask music control position
  • Alexa, ask music control which position
  • Alexa, ask music control which number

The possible commands to jump to a specific position in the current playlist are

Alexa, tell music control go to position <title number>

alternative commands are

  • Alexa, tell music control number <title number>
  • Alexa, tell music control position <title number>
  • Alexa, tell music control go to <title number>
  • Alexa, tell music control go to position <title number>
  • Alexa, tell music control play number <title number>
  • Alexa, tell music control play title number <title number>
  • Alexa, tell music control play song number <title number>
  • Alexa, tell music control play position number <title number>
  • Alexa, tell music control play position <title number>
  • Alexa, tell music control jump to position <title number>
  • Alexa, tell music control jump to <title number>