Starting this fall, you’ll be able to ask Alexa to stream tunes from Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, and more to select Yamaha home audio devices.
More than 15 MusicCast-enabled Yamaha audio products, ranging from wireless speakers and A/V receivers to soundbars and even a turntable, will soon receive (or might already have received) a firmware update that will let you control supported streaming music services via Alexa, while also adding Amazon Music to the mix. Amaon Music HD, on the other hand, is only in the “evaluation” stage, according to Yamaha’s press release.
Prior to the update, Yahama’s MusicCast devices already supported such streaming music services as Spotity, Pandora, SiriusMX Internet Radio, Deezer, Gimmie Radio, TIDAL, Napster, and Qobuz.
Once installed, the update will let you control streaming tunes playing on a compatible Yamaha audio device by asking Alexa on one of your Echo devices.
Among the Yamaha products slated to receive the update are the MusicCast 20 and 50 wireless speakers, MusicCast BAR 400 (YAS-408) and ATS-4080 soundbars, a bunch of AV receivers (such as the RX-Ax80 series, the RX-Vx85 series, the RX-S602 slimline AV receiver, the TSR-7850, and the CX-A5200 AV preamp/processor), the XDA-QS5400 MusicCast Multi-Room Streaming Amplifier, and the MusicCast Vinyl 500 turntable.
Yamaha
The Vinyl 500 turntable will be among the Yamaha audio products slated to receive the Amazon Music and Alexa firmware update.
For now, “enhanced” Alexa voice control options are only coming to the U.S. and Canada, and only in English, while support for additional regions and languages is set to arrive by the end of the year, Yamaha said.
The MusicCast mobile app will let you know if a firmware update is available for any of your Yamaha devices.
Besides their Alexa compatibility, Yamaha’s MusicCast audio devices also offer Google Assistant support, along with AirPlay 2-enabled Siri support.