Amazon has given Echo and Echo Dot users a big boost ahead of Christmas after announcing that Alexa has been updated to support music alarms.

Instead of just asking Alexa to set an alarm for you, you can now request certain songs, playlists, artists or genres are played at a specific time.

The new music alarm feature went live on Amazon Echos and any Alexa devices on Monday.

The feature pulls music for your alarm from a number of supported services such as Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora and TuneIn.

You can set music alarms with commands such as “Alexa, wake me up at 7am to Madonna” or “Alexa, wake me up at 8am to 80s music”.

Alexa users can also ask the smart assistant to play music based on a mood, like ‘relaxing’, or find a wake-up song by saying the lyrics.

The news comes after Amazon slashed the price of the Echo Dot as part of their Last Minute Christmas deals.

The Amazon Echo Dot usually costs £49.99, but Amazon on Monday slashed the price by £15 to just £34.99.

The Amazon Echo Dot was the online retail giant’s best selling product globally over the Black Friday 2017 weekend.

The Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice controlled device, with similar far-field voice recognition to Amazon Echo. 

The Alexa-powered device can be directly connected to speakers with a 3.5mm audio cable or via Bluetooth.

So the Echo Dot can easily add smart speaker capabilities to an existing Hi-Fi set-up.

The Echo Dot can be used in the bedroom as a smart alarm clock, to set timers in the kitchen and control smart home devices around your home.

Amazon’s Last Minute Christmas deals promotion runs from December 11 to 22, with Deals of the Day and Lightning Deals also available.

The Amazon Echo Dot, available in pre-Christmas sales, is available to buy in a Black or White colour scheme.

If you want to customise the look of your Echo Dot, you can also get six different cases with either a woven fabric or or full-grain leather look.

The model on sale is the second-generation version of the Echo Dot, and is the smallest member of the Amazon Echo family. 

Earlier this year, Amazon launched the All-New Echo. In our glowing review, Express.co.uk said “you're fast running out of reasons not to own one of these speakers”.

We said: “The new Echo keeps the charms of the original Amazon smart speaker, whilst also benefiting from a stylish redesign.

“The second-generation hardware looks great in the flesh, and the myriad of colour options are a welcome addition.

“Granted, the sound quality is still nothing to write home about.

“However, the fact the Echo has dropped from £149.99 to £89.99 takes most of the wind out of that qualm, since its comparable in quality to most speakers in that price bracket.

“Alexa has seen a number of improvements in the last year, both in terms of its own in-built functionality, and the number of brands embracing the platform.

“The Amazon Echo was our favourite consumer technology gadget last year, and now it’s even better.

“The almost-impulse buy price, design improvements and advances to Alexa means Amazon is steadily whittling away any excuses you might have not to own one of these brilliant smart speakers.”