"Alexa, let"s launch Echo and Prime Music in Canada today, eh?"
Amazon is bringing its popular voice assistant and the compatible Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Plus line to the Great White North today, complete with a Canadian accent. The new units have been programmed with Canada-specific knowledge, and boast apps from Canadian developers and businesses, such as Air Canada, CBC, and Bank of Montreal.
“Tens of millions of customers are already using Alexa, and today we’re excited to bring her to Canada with an experience designed from the ground up for our Canadian customers,” Tom Taylor, senior vice president of Amazon Alexa, said in a statement.
Of course, you can"t have Alexa without having access to an Amazon Prime music library, so the company has launched the streaming music service in Canada today as well. The service will have its usual offerings while adding mixes exclusively featuring Canadian artists, such as "Made in Canada: Rock and Alternative, Quebec Country Now, Acoustic Commute, and Chanteuse Québécoise.
"Music plays such an important role in our customers" lives, and we"re excited to provide an even better Prime experience for Canada with the launch of Prime Music," Mike Strauch, Country Manager for Amazon Canada, said in the press release. "The combination of music and natural language voice controls with Alexa, paired with playlists and stations developed uniquely for our customers, further highlights the value of Amazon Prime membership."
Prime Music will launch on December 5, with the Echo units starting to ship on the same day. To celebrate, the Echo and Echo Plus will be discounted by C$30 to C$99.99 and C$169.99 respectively, while the Echo Dot will sell for C$49.99, a discount of C$20.
Canada is the third country in the last month to get the services. India got its devices and services last month, while Amazon announced their services for Japan last week.