How do I search on Amazon Music app?

The Amazon Music app allows users to stream and download music from Amazon’s extensive catalog of songs and albums. It offers various subscription plans like Amazon Music Unlimited and Amazon Prime Music which provide unlimited, ad-free access to a library of over 90 million songs.

A key feature of the Amazon Music app is its powerful search capability. You can search for artists, albums, songs, playlists and stations using keywords or voice commands. The app will return relevant results from Amazon’s catalog, making it easy to find the music you want to listen to. This guide will provide an overview of how to effectively search for music using the Amazon Music app.

Accessing Search

To access the search feature in the Amazon Music app, simply tap on the magnifying glass icon in the upper right hand corner of the app screen. This will open up the search bar where you can enter in keywords, song titles, artists, albums etc to search the Amazon Music catalog.

You can also swipe down from the top of the screen to reveal the search bar. This allows quick access to search without having to navigate to the icon.

Once the search bar is open, you can tap inside it and enter your search query using the on-screen keyboard. As you type, suggestions will appear below the search bar to help auto-complete your search.

The search feature allows you to not only search for music, but also playlists, stations, podcasts and more. It provides a quick and easy way to find content within the vast Amazon Music library.

Search Syntax

By default, searches on the Amazon Music app will look for literal keyword matches in content like song titles, album names, artist names, etc. This means typing a specific song, album, or artist name into the search bar will return results directly related to those keywords.

For example, searching “Hello” would return the song “Hello” by Adele near the top. Searching an artist name like “Ed Sheeran” would bring up his artist profile, albums, and songs.

Searches are case-insensitive, so capitalization does not matter. However, spelling does matter since Amazon Music looks for literal matches. To find best results, use the proper spelling and capitalization of song and artist names.

According to the Amazon Music Developer API documentation, searches will scan track names, album names, and artists names for matches first before looking in additional metadata.

Keyword Searching

One of the most straightforward ways to search on the Amazon Music app is by using keyword searches. You can search for specific songs, albums, artists, playlists, or stations by entering relevant keywords. Here are some examples of keyword searches you can try:

To search for a song, enter all or part of the song title, artist name, or lyrics. For example:

“happy pharrell”
“umbrella rihanna”
“imagine dragon believer”

To search for an album, enter the album title or artist name. For example:

“thriller michael jackson”
“lemonade beyonce”

“folklore taylor swift”

To search for an artist, enter the artist’s full name or part of their name. For example:

“adele”

“drake”
“ariana gr”

The Amazon Music search engine will return results that contain your keyword terms, prioritizing the most relevant matches. You can then browse the search results and select the exact song, album, artist, or playlist you want.

Voice Search

The Amazon Music app includes a voice search feature that allows you to search for music hands-free using voice commands. To activate voice search, tap the microphone icon in the search bar. You can then speak your search query, such as an artist name, song title, or playlist. Amazon Music will analyze your speech and display search results based on what you said.

According to Amazon Music’s Voice Control Feature, voice commands you can use include:

“Play [song name]”

“Play songs by [artist name]”
“Play [genre] music”
“Play my playlist”

“Skip” to go to the next song
“Stop” to stop playback

Voice search makes it easy to quickly find music without typing. It allows you to navigate and play music hands-free just using your voice.

Search Filters

Amazon Music allows you to filter your searches by various criteria to help you find exactly what you’re looking for. Some of the key filters available include:

Genre – You can limit your search results to specific genres like rock, pop, hip hop, classical, and more. This is helpful if you know you want to find music in a particular style.

Release date – Search by release date range if you want to find new releases or music from a certain era. You can filter by the last month, year, or decade for example.

Explicit content – Enable the “Explicit” filter if you only want songs marked as explicit, or disable it to filter out explicit content (source).

Prime status – Search only Prime music or only non-Prime music depending on your subscription status.

Duration – Filter by song length, so you can find only short tracks or long tracks for example.

You can combine multiple filters for very targeted searches. On mobile, tap “Filters” at the top of the search screen to access available filters (source). On desktop, expand “All Filters” on the left sidebar. Understanding these filters can help you efficiently find the music you want.

Search History

The Amazon Music app saves your recent searches so you can easily access them again. Your search history can be accessed by tapping on the search icon in the upper right corner of the app and selecting “Recent” at the top of the search screen.

Up to 50 of your most recent searches are stored in your history. These searches remain accessible unless you manually clear your search history.

To delete your search history, tap on the search icon, then tap on “Clear recent searches” at the bottom of the screen. This will remove all stored search terms from your history. Just be aware that clearing your history cannot be undone.

Having quick access to your search history can save you time when looking up the same artists, songs, albums or playlists repeatedly. The search history retention allows you to conveniently pick up where you left off in your musical discoveries.

As noted in this Reddit discussion, the search history capability makes it simple to rediscover searches you’ve done in the past when using the Amazon Music mobile app.

Search Recommendations

Amazon Music provides recommendations based on your searches and listening history to help you discover new music. The more you use the search feature and listen on Amazon Music, the better the recommendations become at surfacing relevant artists, albums, songs, and playlists.

When you conduct a search on the Amazon Music app, you may notice recommendations show up below your initial results. These are tailored specifically to that search term and meant to help expand your discoveries.

Similarly, the homepage “Recommended for You” section surfaces recommendations based on your recent activity. The more diverse your searches and listening, the more variety you’ll see recommended.

If you want to improve the relevance of recommendations, try searching for new genres, artists, or eras of music to indicate your interests. The more data points the algorithm has on your preferences, the better it can suggest music you’ll enjoy.

You can also follow playlists related to your favorite music on Amazon Music to further improve recommendations. Amazon Music leverages both searches and listening habits to suggest music.

According to discussion on Reddit (source), recommendations are unique to each user based on individual activity in the app.

Troubleshooting

Sometimes you may encounter issues while searching on the Amazon Music app. Here are some tips for fixing common search problems:

If searches are not returning expected results, first make sure you have the latest version of the Amazon Music app installed. You can update the app in the App Store or Google Play store. Clearing the app cache can also help resolve search issues. On Android, go to Settings > Apps > Amazon Music > Storage > Clear Cache. On iOS, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage, select Amazon Music, then tap Offload App.

Check your internet connection. Streaming music requires a stable high-speed internet connection. Connect to a strong WiFi network or cellular data. Also try force stopping the app and restarting it. On Android, go to Settings > Apps > Amazon Music > Force Stop. On iOS, swipe up to close the app, then launch it again.

If voice search is not working properly, check the microphone permissions for Amazon Music in your phone’s settings. Make sure the app has permission to access the mic. Also speak slowly and clearly into the mic, and try varying your voice pitch.

As a last resort, uninstall and reinstall the latest version of the Amazon Music app to potentially resolve persistent search issues.

See Amazon’s help documentation for additional troubleshooting tips: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G52KX78SNQZSXBJ8

Summary

The Amazon Music app provides several powerful ways to search for music and podcasts. To recap, the main methods covered in this guide include:

Keyword searching – You can search by song title, artist name, album name, lyrics, etc. using the search bar at the top of the app.

Voice searching – Tap the microphone icon in the search bar to search hands-free using your voice.
Filters – Narrow results by playlists, stations, recent searches, genres, moods, and more using the filter icon.
Personalized recommendations – The app suggests music and playlists tailored to your listening history and tastes.

Search history – View your recent searches under “Recent Searches” in the search menu.

With all of these robust search capabilities, you can easily find songs, albums, artists, podcasts and more on the Amazon Music app. Just tap into search whenever you want to find that perfect tune or podcast episode.