The Amazon Echo has changed the way we enjoy our music by enabling us to simply ask Alexa to play our favorite tunes from popular free and subscription-based streaming services. As you’d expect with a voice-forward experience, you can ask Alexa to play music by genre, artist, or song name, and Alexa is always adding new ways to discover new music and enjoy streaming media. With Amazon Music Unlimited, you can ask Alexa to play a song even if you don’t remember the name – just speak or sing the lyrics, and Alexa will respond instantly.

Today we’re excited to announce two new developer tools that bring enhanced music experiences to wireless and connected speakers. Read the full press release for more information. Devices makers can leverage these toolkits to offer customers rich voice-forward music experiences.

Connected Speaker APIs

The Connected Speaker APIs, available in developer preview today, enable device makers to connect their cloud-based services to AVS. This means that customers can ask Alexa to play music on their favorite wireless or multi-room speakers including brands like Sonos, Sound United, Bose, and Samsung. With the Connected Speaker APIs, device makers can leverage their own proprietary or licensed multi-room synchronization protocols to provide consumers multi-room music experiences that can be controlled by Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo Dot.

Multi-Room Music SDK

For those device makers without their own multi-room music solutions, the AVS Multi-Room Music SDK extends the new synchronized music capability from today’s Echo Family of Devices announcement to third-party device makers, enabling customers to group multiple Amazon Echo and other third-party Alexa-enabled products together for “whole home” music experiences. The SDK is available to device makers building Alexa-enabled products early next year.

Commercial device manufacturers can request access to the new AVS developer tools by signing up here.

What Is the Alexa Voice Service?

The Alexa Voice Service (AVS) enables developers to integrate Alexa directly into their products, bringing the convenience of voice control to any connected device. AVS provides developers with a full suite of resources to quickly and easily build Alexa-enabled products, including APIs, hardware development kits, software development kits, and documentation. Through AVS, device makers can add a new intelligent interface to their products and offer customers access to a growing number of Alexa features, smart home integrations, and skills. Just ask, and Alexa will respond instantly.

Have questions? Visit us on the AVS Forum to speak with one of our experts.