There is no doubt among the variety of features that Amazon Echo devices offer, playing music is on top of everyone’s list. Music is a great way to set the mood for a party or dinner with friends. And if you’re hosting, you don’t need to worry about what music to play. You can simply let your guests take control of the playlist on Alexa.
In order to start playing music on Amazon Echo or other Alexa-enabled speakers you need a music streaming service first. There are plenty of options available to choose from, but Spotify is arguably the best. It’s a music streaming service that you can use to listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks on demand. You can also create your own playlists with songs you like.
By default when you ask Alexa to play music, it will play the songs from Amazon Music. But this behavior can be easily changed as Amazon has decided not to limit its users to its own music service. So you can simply link to your preferred music streaming platform, in this case Spotify, and choose it as your default player.
How to Connect Spotify to Alexa
If you’re an Amazon Alexa and Spotify user, you’re in for a treat. You can link your Spotify account to your Amazon Alexa and play music all hands-free while enjoying being part of the world’s most popular music streaming platform in the world!
To connect Spotify to Alexa, you need to have an account on both of the services. Then, you need to link your Spotify account with your Alexa account via the web app for either service. Finally, you will need to enable Spotify on your Echo device and set it as one of the sources for your music.
- Go to Settings
Open the Amazon Alexa app on your phone. Tap on “More” from the sticky navigation on the bottom, then choose “Settings”.
- Go to Music & Podcasts
Swipe all the way down to the “Alexa Preferences” section. Now select “Music & Podcasts” from the menu.
- Link New Service
If you can’t find Spotify below the “Services” in the newly opened panel, tap on the “Link New Service” to connect Alexa and Spotify.
- Enable Spotify service
There are plenty of music/podcast services you can integrate with your Alexa app. Tap on the Spotify logo, then select “Enable To Use” to redirect you to Spotify.com
- Grant access to Alexa
Spotify will ask you whether to login with your credentials or create an new account. If don’t have an account with Spotify yet tap on “Sign Up For Spotify” to create one. It’s pretty easy and straightforward. Finally you will be redirected to a page where you must agree to Alexa’s privacy policy. Tap the big green “Agree” button and wait to redirect back to the Alexa app. Now you should see a message confirming your Spotify account has been successfully linked.
- Set Spotify as your default music streaming service
Now that you have successfully connected to Spotify, Amazon asks you whether you want to choose it as the default music service. To do so, select “Visit Music Settings”. In the new page you can change your default services. Under the “Music” section, tap “Change” and choose Spotify as your default service. You can do the same for “Artist and genre stations” and “Podcasts” if you want to.
In case you don’t want to change the default streaming service, you can still use Spotify by using the “Spotify” word in your commands. For example:
- Alexa, Play Spotify
- Alexa, play today’s top hits on Spotify
- Alexa, play Discover Weekly on Spotify
- etc.
Why You Should Switch to Spotify
- Everyone is on Spotify: Spotify is a music streaming service with over 140 million active users around the world that has been around for a while and has a huge library of songs. This could be the main reason why people want to use it instead of Amazon Music. It offers a better user experience and more song selection.
- Spotify Connect: It is a feature that lets you stream music from your phone to compatible speakers, TVs and other devices. The feature is designed to be used in the same room as the speaker or TV. It can also be used to play music in different rooms of the house if you have a smart speaker like an Amazon Echo.
- Spotify’s algorithm for discovering new music: It is based on a number of factors, including your listening history, what you’ve liked and shared, and your location. The algorithm also takes into account the listening habits of other Spotify users who have similar taste to you. Based on all of this data, Spotify creates a personalized Discover Weekly playlist for you every Monday, full of new tracks that it thinks you’ll enjoy.
- Last.fm integration: The benefit of connecting Spotify to Last.fm is that it allows Last.fm to keep track of the music you listen to on Spotify and provide you with customized recommendations and suggestions based on your listening habits. Additionally, connecting Spotify to Last.fm can also help improve your Last.fm profile by adding your Spotify playlists and listening activity to your profile.
- Individual EQ: Spotify’s Individual EQ is a setting that allows users to adjust the equalizer for each individual song. This can be useful for customizing the sound of a particular song, or for compensating for poor audio quality.
Final Thoughts
While the Alexa has a built-in integration with Amazon Music, you can still switch to Spotify and make it your default music service to run when asking your Echo speaker to play some music. You will just need a free/paid Spotify account to link to your Alexa app. The procedure is pretty much straightforward and when this setup is complete you will have access to a large play list offered by Spotify and can benefit from it’s special features, like Spotify Connect.