Amazon said its Amazon Music streaming service is adding new-release notifications. If you tell Alexa you want to follow your favorite band, the digital assistant will tell you whenever a new song or album is out.
Tidal will be the first company to use a new music API from the company, which is a set of programming guidelines that let partners take full advantage of Amazon's service and products, the giant e-tailer said at an event in Seattle. Amazon said the event would include the largest number of devices and features it has ever launched at one time.
After Amazon first introduced the original Echo in 2014, the device became a hit for the company and helped usher in a new era of voice computing. Now Apple , Google , Samsung and Microsoft are racing to build up their own voice assistants and integrate them into more devices to catch Amazon . To stay one step ahead, Amazon aggressively expanded its line of Echo devices, pushed Alexa into hospitality and office spaces, and integrated Alexa with over 20,000 kinds of devices.
Along with the Echo, Amazon has seen success in its equally unflashy but low-priced Fire tablets and Fire TV video streamers. Its rare miss was with the Fire Phone, which quickly failed after coming out in 2014.
As of Thursday morning before the event, Amazon had 11 Alexa-powered gadgets in all: the Echo, Echo Plus , Echo Dot , Echo Show , Echo Spot , Echo Dot Kids Edition, Echo Look , Fire TV Cube , Amazon Tap , Echo Connect and Echo Buttons .
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