I get that there are three things this site will think I should be ashamed of:

1. Using Alexa
2. Using Spotify
3. Being a Collective Soul fan

I will accept criticism of the first two, but not the third. I’m a loud and proud Collective Soul fan, I’ve been to at least 10-12 of their concerts, they rock

We have an Amazon Echo. My wife got one and loves it as do my kids so I’m stuck with it. I hate Spotify as the CEO is a huge Zionist. I plan on migrating to Deezer or something once I get around to copying my playlists.

Anyway, since I was cooking I grudgingly decided to use Alexa to play some Collective Soul. Shouldn’t be a problem, they just had the most #1 Alterative Rock hits on Billboard during the 90s (not a typo) and over 3.8 million monthly users.

I said the precise statement into the Echo speaker:

“Alexa, plays songs by Collective Soul on Spotify”

The response was “playing songs by Machine Soul Collective”

I tried a few different variations of the same statement, and each time Alexa directed me to this Machine Soul Collective “band”.

Turns out it’s just AI generated slop “music” with only a few thousand monthly listeners.

So what gives here? Why is Alexa not playing music from a major band and instead directing me to AI slop? Is this intentional? Do they make more money by not paying royalties to an actual band? I don’t know but this is really bugging me.