British Music Stars Host New Alexa Music Quiz ‘Number One Fan’ Starting With Tom Walker
Sony Music UK has debuted the first of a series of daily quiz questions through Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant hosted by the subject of the questions. The new Number One Fan skill is limited to Alexa devices registered in Britain and will involve a chance at winning exclusive prizes.
Tom Walker Asks
To kick off the quizzes, Sony Music UK recruited popular performer Tom Walker, who asked his first question on Monday. When gans enable the skill on Alexa, Walker will explain the quiz and how to answer the questions. The quiz only has one question a day and will cover facts about Walker’s music, his early life, and his touring career. After 30 days of questions by Walker, participants will be part of a raffle for prizes. Walker was chosen to be first for the quiz as part of the promotion for his new single, Wait For You. The British singer’s songs have been streamed more than two billion times globally, and he was one of the top-selling artists in the UK last year.
“Really excited to be part of this campaign with Sony Music UK to be the first artist to host the Number One Fan music quiz,” Walker said in a statement. “I had a lot of fun recording these questions and I know you’ve all been enjoying quizzing under lockdown so I hope you enjoy this one, it’s all about me haha!”
Musically Skilled
Amazon has been pushing Alexa’s place in the music scene for some time, and artists and labels are starting to take advantage of its possibilities as the new quiz indicates. That’s especially true during the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, which led Sony to put together the Hand Wash Tunes Alexa skill with musical timers for washing hands performed by various artists. Sony also worked with singer Paloma Faith to create the Paloma’s Bedtime skill, designed to help children fall asleep at night. Alexa has also become the source of music announcements, like when it revealed the release date of Katy Perry’s new album. Amazon also made the voice assistant more proficient with music in general, with the ability to distinguish requests for different variations on a song from Amazon Music earlier this year. The voice assistant understands when a user requests a live version of a track, as opposed to the standard recording, or even an instrumental cover. Alexa can even switch from one variation to another mid-song, such as a remix to an a capella option.
“As voice technology becomes more sophisticated and ubiquitous, conversational interfaces will transform how we market artists and facilitate music discovery,” Sony Music UK vice president of digital and audience development Dorothy Hui said. “Sony Music UK is continuing to build our learning agenda in voice technology and Number One Fan is the next phase in this venture.”
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