Voice skills are supposedly the new apps. However, we’ve witnessed the debut of 80,000 Alexa skills and we still haven’t had a hit. Especially nothing comparable to the early successes on the iPhone app store like Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, and Words with Friends. That’s why I think the first “hit voice skill” will come from a completely different line of thinking than what produced the first 80,000 skills.

Right now, we’re largely focused on using voice skills to augment daily habits; these are your audible light switches, shopping list apps, weather apps, calendar apps, games like 20 Questions and Jeopardy, etc… 

Instead of augmenting habits, though, if developers created a voice skill around a grandiose, non-regular experience, that might be the ticket to having an absolute hit.

That’s why I’m intrigued by the idea of personalized concerts on Alexa.

Even though music has already been one of the staple features of smart speakers, I’ve yet to even hear the idea of an artist (or label) creating a voice skill – let alone creating a skill that allowed their listeners to experience the artist’s sounds in a “choose your own adventure style”.

There are two reasons why I think personalized concerts on Alexa would be a hit:

• It creates a more personal concert.
• Economically and at scale it could be better for the artist (or label) if they were to utilize some type of micropayment solution.