Alexa is one of the fastest growing audio platforms in the market today and a new way for radio to return to the kitchen, living room and even the office desk. Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Echo View sales are booming and do you know what the number one thing users are asking Alexa to do is? “Play…” as in play music. If they ask Alexa to pay your station now, you may come up under the Tune In skill, or you may not come up at all. And if you do play under Tune In, you have no control over your branding, your interaction or your ability to monetize your stream over Alexa.

Have You Heard?

Alexa sold three times more smart speakers than Google in Q3 2019!

With the rush to own an Alexa device also comes the rush to claim your name in this new digital space. Amazon calls theirs apps “skills” and each skill must have a unique name. That means there can only be ONE “The River” and one “Sunny 101”.  There are also “squatters” who are creating skills for the sole purpose of grabbing a popular names in hopes of selling it back to you for a high price, mush like domain name squatters do. It’s important to grab your unique skill name now, before it’s gone. Otherwise you could end up with a clunky, harder to remember name over the one your listeners might naturally search for you by.

For just $99* Radioservers will create a basic Alexa skill allowing you to quickly claim your unique skill name and get your own skill on the Alexa devices right away. Further, your skill will have the ability to play a pre-roll, 15 second introductory message before the stream starts. This could be special imaging to set up the stream, a unique welcome to your Alexa listeners or a paid sponsorship to help monetize your skill.

Did You Know?

118 millions smart speakers in US alone and 100 million are Alexa!

Radioservers skills come with a subscription to our RSMediaserver, which will allow you to schedule pre-roll audio files ahead of time like spot-schedules on the radio- you can even rotate multiple spots! Your monthly subscription of $20 includes skill updates if required and access to our media server.

To sign up for an Alexa skill and claim your unique name before someone else does, sign up below today!

  • You can search the skill store to see if your name is taken, or anything like it, here: https://www.amazon.com/b?node=13727921011
  • This will be the description that appears in the skill store.
  • This image must be a minimum of 512x512 pixels and will be displayed as a 512x512 Large icon and a 108x108 icon in the store and app.
    Accepted file types: jpg, png, Max. file size: 10 MB.
  • Note- this must be the direct stream URL. It should not be a link to your website or popup player. It should link directly to your icecast, shoutcast. etc. If you are not sure what this is, ask your streaming provider. This must be a secure URL, beginning with HTTPS.
  • Attach an mp3 file for your initial pre-roll file. You will be able to change this later after the skill is complete. This canbea short welcome or jingle/ID, or a paid sponsorship of the skill.
    Accepted file types: mp3, Max. file size: 32 MB.
  • Amazon Alexa requires developers to submit a letter on company letterhead, signed by an official party, stating you have given us permission to submit a skill on your behalf. We will give you an example to look at via email, then you will need to return a PDF of said letter.
  • Submit and Purchase

    upon submission you will be transferred to rsmediaserver, our partner site that manages pre-roll audio. Here you will sign up for your new account. Choose the $20/month option. The $99 initial payment is for development of your skill while the $20/mo is for hosting of your skill, pre-roll management, etc.

Wait, there's more!

We can also build you custom skills for your video feeds (for video Alexa devices) and multi-source audio skills. For example, your station might offer more than one stream, or a stream and a podcast, or a mix of multiple sources. We can build them all!