That is what I started to feel. Those of us with lifetime passes leaving is nothing but GOOD for them, as it removes our cost without losing them any money.
On a side note, I have been looking into writing an Alexa skill to replace this skill. Using Q, the AI seems to think that it is laughably easy to set up a personal Alexa skill, for free, that can do what this does already. It wouldn’t be published to the store, so I can hard-code my credentials into it and keep using it. To top it all off, I plan to use the same wake command “Alexa, ask Plex to…” once the old skill is gone. The skill appears to want to use “Lambdas”, but you can get a free AWS account that can do 100K lambda requests per month without it costing.
It’s possible that this Lambda use (one to retrieve an HTTPS URI to your media from your server, then another to send to the echo to play the file) is what costs Plex to maintain the skill.
I moved over to Plex (Lifetime pass) from Emby (Lifetime pass). Emby worked well with my TV tuners but was difficult to get working with Alexa to play MP3’s, and it couldn’t shuffle the playlists. Most of our music is from CD’s, and I found the Plex Alexa app worked really well for us.
“Alexa ask Plex to shuffle playlist soul music”. Practically perfect with hundreds of songs in a playlist. So easy it got 100% WAF which is vital.
So what now ? Well the music is on a Synology NAS and the Synology “Audio Station” app has an Alexa skill and can shuffle playlists. Time for some more learning ?
I would be MUCH happier if PLEX could carry on working
Here’s what Home Assistant/Music Assistant can do in the near future, breaking down the wall-gardened barriers that prevent Airplay, Google Cast, and Ama$on Echo from being used in a mixed proprietary platform home environment.
These corps need to stop having world domination on their minds because annual pay walled features and subscriptions will truly be the end of them. We’re tired of being locked into ecosystems that don’t play nice.
Oh great. Yes the app is quite flaky at times, but 95% of of my Plex use is through Alexa.
The cynic in me thinks it’s something to do with Alexa+ rolling out - but either way, it’s really frustrating. I assume no refunds on the subscription. Not impressed, Plex people…
I think that Plex spends more of their time trying to bankrupt the company. They obviously don’t give a damn about the features that Plex Pass customers PAY for. They continuously remove features that Plex Pass pay for. Plex is on its last days of business as the employees have a business model of failure.
Yes it seems a great shame that Plex have decided to get rid of one of their best Music related features but I have just tried the My Media for Alexa app and, so far that seems to be great in dealing with a large music library. Very simple to install their tiny server app that you just point to your media library then add the My Media for Alexa skill to your Alexa app and of you go!. I didn’t have any issues with Flac files or AntiVirus but they do seem to have published so help ideas if you do. So far all is going great and, I think their app is well worth the small annual fee. Well done Bizmodeller Limited. (I’m using Win 11 as a Media Server, Amazon Alexa Spot and a Polk React sound bar with Alexa built in)
Yet another example of Plex removing functionality without consultation and sufficient notice, the loss of the Plex skill is devastating to the people who used it. It looks like I’m going to have to install a Jellyfin or Emby server and point it to the same library to emulate what it could do (My Media for Alexa has a lot of functionality but I mainly used the Plex skill to play videos on attached players)
Over the years, (since Plex began) I have had several go-rounds with them. For me, its only use was so I could access my music collection that dates back to 1970 without putting the collection in any cloud. Using it to stream is about the most useless ideas because there are hundreds of services that can do that. Collections not only are groups of songs or albums; they carry memories. In the mid 2000s, they started to branch out into video and radio, although you could not use the best paid on line stations. Their responses to my emails were cute and vacuous. Nevertheless, they improved. I still have direct access to my personal servers just by opening certain ports, etc. Amazingly, it’s even working somewhat in our new car here in Spain. We just moved here and the house is quite techie - I was looking forward to using Plex with Alexa because, for better or worse, Alexa handles the various home sub-eco-systems better than most. The mymediaalexa skill had promise. But, the developer stopped working on it about 8 years ago. My entire collection is well organized and tagged…I keep it on a Synology sever and back that up to another device. I just renewed Plex on a monthly basis but maybe it’s time to change. I have heard good things about the Jellyfish and Emby… it’s a hassle but I am no longer interested in playing IT/networking games.
If you were using the Alexa app primarily for music take a look at My Media for Amazon Alexa . Cost is less then $10 annually. You can have it play a specific track, artist or album. Or create playlists.
So I had a look at Emby only to find that the skill is a Premium feature with a monthly cost attached – for me it’s not worth paying for.
Jellyfin doesn’t seem to have a specific native skill for Alexa and seems quite complex to set up at first glance.
Ended up with MyMedia which installed well and linked to my Amazon account. The web UI is quite intuitive and for less than £1 a month seemed the obvious choice considering the alternatives.
Mymedia was the route I went too. So far, so good, with very few hiccups. The Alexa skill was the main reason I chose Plex, and paid for the lifetime. I guess I’m going to start looking somewhere for a more permanent solution. 95% of my plex usage was through my echo edvices..
