Monster headphones with Melody voice assistant arrive this month

Monster has announced the upcoming launch of is new MonsterTalk headphones, a variety that will sport a voice-powered assistant. This will mark the first time a voice assistant has been available on premium headphones, the company claims. No doubt the move aims to capitalize on the growing popularity of mobile assistants like Alexa, though in this case it is dedicated to playing whatever music the headphones' owner prefers.

Monster says these new headphones feature the Melody Personal Music Assistant, which itself supports things like playing a certain song, a specific playlist, or an artist. It seems the voice assistant will only support Spotify Premium and iHeartRadio initially, but Monster plans to introduce support for alternatives like NPR news brief, TIDAL, and local music on iTunes. The Melody AI assistant, meanwhile, comes from Speak Music.

The Melody assistant will be offered on multiple products under the company's MonsterTalk lineup. In the line will be Elements headphones, as well as the iSport Freedom V2 fitness unit, among others. It doesn't appear there are any new audio products themselves being launched, but rather just new versions of some existing Monster audio gear that include the new voice assistant functionality.

Monster explains that its new MonsterTalk product lineup will launch later on this month. The company explains that using Melody won't require a WiFi connection, as long as you have mobile data available. Android and iOS users will need to download the free Melody mobile app to use the feature.

In addition to finding and playing music, Melody can control whatever is playing by skipping to a different track, pausing, playing, or adjust the volume. Whether the new models will cost more than the non-voice assistant versions isn't stated.

SOURCE: Monster