Billie Eilish has managed to amass legions of fans during her short career, and now those who love her music can choose to buy a limited-edition Amazon Echo Studio wireless smart speaker with Eilish’s face on it. The Billie Eilish Limited Edition Echo Studio costs $230 ($30 more than the regular Studio) and you can pre-order it right now, with deliveries beginning on October 14.
The special version of Amazon’s largest Echo smart speaker is decorated with the cover art from Eilish’s recently released second studio album, Happier Than Ever. In addition to Eilish’s face being on full display, the speaker comes with a six-month Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. You’ll need that if you want to hear the new Eilish tracks in spatial audio via the Studio.
And, because the Echo Studio is an Alexa-powered smart speaker, you’ll be able to play those tracks using hands-free voice commands, like:
- “Alexa, play the Billie Eilish Takeover on Amazon Music.”
- “Alexa, what can I ask Billie Eilish?
- “Alexa, play Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish.”
- “Alexa, play that song that goes ‘Try not to abuse your power.’”
- “Alexa, play Getting Older by Billie Eilish.”
Not that the Echo Studio and Amazon’s music service are the only way to hear Happier Than Ever in spatial audio. Apple just updated the latest beta software for its now-discontinued HomePod smart speaker to work with Dolby Atmos Music, and Eilish’s album is available on Apple Music in this 3D music format.
Amazon hasn’t said if it will follow in Apple’s other spatial audio footsteps by making Amazon Music Unlimited’s Dolby Atmos Music tracks available on headphones like its second-gen Echo Buds, but you can bet it’s working on it.
Amazon’s Eilish Echo Studio announcement comes at a curious time. The company is holding an event on September 28 to introduce its latest devices. Previous events have showcased new Echo speakers, but if the company has just created a limited edition of its Echo Studio with Eilish’s face, that suggests the Studio will not be one of the speakers that will get a new version.
This week, Amazon debuted the newest version of its Kindle Paperwhite e-reader, which suggests that the company won’t be showing off new Kindle hardware at the forthcoming event, either.
