iWorld
Amazon Prime Music launches innovative voice controls powered by Alexa to further enhance Prime members’ music listening experience
MUMBAI: Amazon Music today announced the launch of more innovative voice features on Alexa- available only on Amazon Prime Music – both in its mobile app as well as on Echo family devices. Amazon Prime Music listeners can now simply use voice to ask Alexa to play their favorite songs that they haven’t heard in a while. Also launching today is the ability to easily create new playlist(s) or add to the existing playlists just by asking, no searching or browsing required.
Amazon Prime Music now makes it easier to go back and listen to music from an earlier point in time by asking Alexa, eliminating the need to remember specific track titles or look back through listening history. Listeners can easily ask for their recently played songs or even those they haven’t heard in a while by artist, genre or time to make the listening experience even easier, including “Alexa, play music that I was listening to last week” or “Alexa, play me the Arijit Singh song I was listening to three weeks ago”. Also launching today is the ability to ask, “Alexa create a new playlist from this song” or add a song from their play queue to an existing personal playlist, making it easier to track and explore music while significantly enhancing the day-to-day listening experience.
Sahas Malhotra, Director, Amazon Prime Music India, said, “At Amazon, we constantly listen to our customers’ feedback and innovate to serve their needs in the best possible ways. With the launch of these new ways to discover music, we have made it easier than ever to make the music listening using your voice simpler and easier with Alexa being more like your best friend who understands you well and knows what you want to listen to – all just by asking! With the ad-free music streaming now coupled with the power and simplicity of Alexa Voice controls, Amazon Prime Music will continue to offer simpler, easier and more fun ways to listen to your favourite music.”
Now, simply ask for recently played music by artist, genre, or time to make the listening experience even easier. For example, say:
• “Alexa, play me songs which I recently played”
• “Alexa, play me the Arijit Singh song I listened to last month”
• “Alexa, play me hip hop music I was listening to three weeks ago”
• Or even try, “Alexa, play music that I was listening to earlier today”
Rediscover your favourite songs you haven’t played in a while, and enjoy without the need to manually scan the search bar or listening history, just try:
• “Alexa, play songs I haven’t heard in a while”
• “Alexa, play Rihanna songs I haven’t heard in a while”
• “Alexa, play rock songs I haven’t heard recently”
• Don’t know what to ask? Just say, “Alexa, play something I haven’t heard in a while” and let her take you down the memory lane.
While listening to Amazon Prime Music on Echo family devices, add a new song to a playlist, or create a new one by asking:
• “Alexa, create a new playlist”
• “Alexa, create a workout playlist”
• “Alexa, create the playlist ‘My favorite hits’”
• “Alexa, add this song to my playlist”
Learn more at https://www.amazon.in/newwithalexa
Amazon Prime Music is an ad-free service launched as a Prime benefit at no additional cost to the annual membership of INR 999/- and monthly membership of INR 129/-. Amazon Prime Music includes tens of millions of songs across major International and Indian music labels in over 10 languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu and more. Amazon Prime Music is available on Android and iOS mobile phone apps, Desktop app and Web player, Amazon Fire TV sticks and Amazon Echo devices.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
