Ridiculous Alexa question

[Remy7]

Since yesterday Alexa will only play XX "and similar artists" when I ask her to play an artist. Call me old fashioned but sometimes I just want the one artist 😂
Anyone know why or how to fix it?!
I've looked in the settings and there's nothing obvious. We have 4 Alexa devices and it's all of them.
#FirstWorldProblems I know

Purchased music is working back to normal now. Can't speak for what I used to use on Prime because I've ended the subscription. So at least I haven't lost the purchased stuff.

I just had a chat with customer service and apparently it’s global and “they’re working to fix it”. So not a permanent issue according to the guy I spoke to.

It seems a bit much of a coincidence given the email that came out announcing the new policy. Maybe customer service are just trying damage limitation following the backlash. I can accept that they didn't intend to mess with purchased music as well as Prime.

In any case, the TV library on Disney+ is huge (catching up on the Drain the Oceans documentaries), and alongside my old purchased albums, Youtube Music has plenty available for free - I'm not finding the handful of adverts too obtrusive. So I'll save my money.

I think Bezos has enough of my money. I tried to play my beloved Incubus after a stressful Teams meeting and it played one track and the rest, apart from Pearl Jam, was absolute rubbish. My mothballed CD player is starting to look good right now. At least I have a remote control for that and can switch tracks without having to shout at the speaker...

I've done a lot of shouting at it this week.
So frustrating 🙄
I definitely think it's damage limitation. It now says 'you can listen exclusively to this artist with unlimited for only the cost of an extra kidney a month'.
Annoyed at myself for paying 12 months up front but I'll learn.

I’d like to know too. It’s really, really annoying. It’s even on an album I own!

Also, they’ve limited the number of skips per hour to 6.

I feel like I’m being bullied into buying music unlimited as well as Prime which I originally only took out because it said I would still have all the music as well as the buying advantages.

Really annoyed.

It's a stupid change.

They might not even play the song you request. Just plays a similar song and then decides what other songs you might like.

Albums should be played in order .Not randomly.

Even with albums I own, it shuffles them (though Sonos is behaving itself again so controlling the device using your phone may work again for owned albums).

I've found YouTube Music quite good, the adverts aren't too intrusive. I'll pay for a month of Prime when the next series of Clarkson's Farm is out, but until then they're not getting a penny.

And to add insult to injury I cannot repeat a song. When you ask her to repeat a song she says “this stream cannot be repeated”. When I like a song I will repeat it over and over until I learn the words. I am not a young kid I am 73 years old. I used to enjoy listening to music on my Alexa every night. Now it is a nightmare. As others have said you can only 6 skips an hour!!!!!! And she now plays songs from artists I have never heard of.

As a work around, if you own Spotify, then just say "Alexa play <artist> on Spotify"

Thank you all for this very enlightening thread. I am so glad I never went down the Alexa route.
Although, about 3 years ago I was at my sister's in the UK and we were chatting in her sitting-room. All of a sudden the Alexa in the kitchen started playing a song (nobody had asked it to do that). One of the topics of conversation was holidays and, in particular, holidays in Austria. Imagine my surprise when I returned home to Europe and all the "ads" on newspaper sites etc. were for holidays in Austria 😳(not just any holidays, either, but cycling holidays, which we had mentioned).

It's like going to a wine bar, ordering a specific wine, and getting a random collection of similar wines instead of the one you asked for.

They say you have more choice. Well, that's true. 100 million vs 2 million. But I would prefer a reduced choice but for it to play the song or album I requested. If they don't have it, I can live with that.

Poxy contraption won't turn my kitchen lights on or off now. I can dim them, I can turn on or off any of the other three switches on the same device (not to mention the other ones in the home) but apparently that one switch "doesn't support this". It worked fine until yesterday.

Same experience tried everything but good old Alexa keeps playing similar artists as well it's so frustrating. Contacted customer service their response was didn't answer my question. Tried again today with a request for songs by Peter Gabriel and the first 'similar' artist was a rap singer !!!

I've still got Prime for a few more weeks so it will be interesting to see what it thinks is a similar song.

Sounds like I've been lucky! Possibly due to my useless "Virgin on the Ridiculous" broadband all 6 of my Alexa units have just started this annoying trait!
I'm a Prime member and in many cases have actually already bought the album etc from Amazon so they're having their cake & eating mine as well.... NOT IMPRESSED!
Come in Amazon! We want to listen to the music WE like, not your random choices!