Amazon Echo gen2 speakers in paired stereo configuration and thumbs up/down and what song? commands

[tr888]

I have been streaming a Pandora radio station I created over 10 years ago to my Amazon Echo 1st-generation speaker for almost as long.  I have been able to give songs thumbs up or down ("Echo, thumbs up"), ask for the title of the current song ("Echo, what song is this?") and skip to the next song ("Echo, next song").  Recently I bought two second-generation Echo speakers in order to set up a paired stereo configuration, which Gen1 Echo did not support. I have the speakers successfully paired, and am able to stream my Pandora radio station, but the thumbs up/down command and the which song is this?  commands  always fail.  The Alexa voice always says words to the effect "nothing appears to be playing".  Sometimes the error starts with "Sorry, ..." , sometimes with "Hmmm, ....".  I'm wondering if there's anything in the Pandora file stream that would prevent the "Pandora Skill" on Amazon's second-generation speakers from working properly when they have been  paired in a left-right stereo configuration.  Is the metadata identifying  the current song not being supplied at the start of the song, so that Alexa has a NULL object reference or something like that?

P.S. I just changed the command to "Echo, thumb up this song" and it worked. But ""Echo, what is playing?" gets an error "Hmmm. I'm not sure what you mean. I don't see anything playing".

[TannerPandora]

Hi @tr888 

Welcome to the Community!

Thank you for reaching out and for such a detailed explanation of what you’re experiencing. I’m sorry for the trouble with the voice commands on your Echo speakers, especially after having everything work so smoothly for so many years on your 1st-generation devices.

I also appreciate the update that adjusting the command to “Echo, thumb up this song” worked. That’s really helpful insight and tells us the skill is at least partially responding in your new devices.

There shouldn't be anything within the Pandora stream itself that should prevent thumbs feedback or track identification from working with Echo speakers. Though as you mentioned, there could be a metadata issue, or (and I'm shooting in the dark here) Alexa may be losing track of the active media session in the playback. Since it should function the same way as it did on your previous device, so I’m happy to pass along your experience to our engineering team to take a closer look.

In the meantime, could you please confirm that Pandora is set as your default music service provider in the Alexa app?

You can check by going to:
Alexa app > More > Settings > Music & Podcasts > Default Services

Thanks again for taking the time to share such thoughtful troubleshooting details.

[tr888]

Thanks for passing the issue along.  

I checked the Default Settings as you said to do, and they were set to Amazon Music.  I've changed all of the settings related to music and podcast to Pandora, but I still get the "Hmmm. I'm not sure what you mean. I don't see anything playing error".  And now, when I say "Echo, thumbs up" I get an error that I can only set thumbs up or down "on a song playing on a custom radio station" even when playing my Pandora station, although "Echo, thumb up this song" works as expected.  I'm also told that "similar feedback" has already been set on the song when that is indeed the case. So some metadata is definitely coming across.  I wonder if it's the wording  of the command?  If I say, "Echo, is my Pandora radio station playing?" Echo responds, "Shuffling your stations from {my username}'s Pandora".

[TannerPandora]

Thanks for the follow up, @tr888 !

I really appreciate you testing those settings and sharing the detailed results.

It is interesting that the voice commands are producing different outcomes based on slight wording changes. Have you always used the wake word as "Echo" or have you used "Alexa" in the past?

Could you try and use the following command and let me know how Alexa responds when music is currently playing, "Echo/Alexa, what's playing?"

[tr888]

I changed the wake-word to "Echo" on day one, but with the new Gen2 paired stereo setup, I've given each speaker different wake-words. The wake-word doesn't matter; same results regardless of which speaker is involved. 

After starting my Pandora radio station:

"Echo, what's playing?"

--  "Hmmm. I'm not sure what you mean. I don't see anything playing".

After stopping the radio station:

"Echo, is anything playing?"

-- "Here's [my user name]'s Pandora."  [and the music of my usual station starts up]