Spotify has worked with Amazon Echo speakers since 2016, but until now it has been one of the rapidly diminishing number of benefits Premium subscribers had over those who choose to access without. Spotify is the best way to listen to music and podcasts, free with Alexa. Before you start, please make Spotify your default music streaming service so you don't have to say 'on Spotify' every time you ask Alexa for your favourite music. Ask Alexa for any playlist, artist or album.
Spotify has announced that its premium and free tier users can now stream their music and podcasts directly on your Amazon Echo devices. The company claims that users will now be able to request Alexa in English, Hindi or Hinglish to play music by artist, album, track, genre, curated and personal playlists, as well as podcasts from their Spotify accounts.
How to get Spotify on your Amazon Echo smart speaker
Amazon Echo Play Free Spotify Download
* Open the Alexa app linked to your Echo device on your phone.
* Now head over to the Settings Menu.
* Select the ‘Music’ option.
* Tap on the ‘Link New Service’ button.
* This will bring up a list of services. There you need to tap on Spotify.
Also Read: Spotify turns to Warner Bros DC superheroes for new podcasts
* Now you will be required to enter your Spotify username and password.
* After signing in, select the ‘Default Services’ button to set Spotify as your default music service.
After the connection of your Spotify account with your Amazon Alexa account is complete, you can request Alexa on your Echo device to play music or podcasts from Spotify. You can control music playback with voice commands like “Alexa, play Badshah songs on Spotify”, “Alexa, play meditational music on Spotify” and more.
Also Read: How to get Spotify Premium free for three months
You can also control music playback from within the Spotify app. You are just required to say “Alexa, Spotify connect”, after which your Echo device will be discoverable in the Spotify app. You can select it and control music playback from your phone.
Spotify has also announced that it will soon be bringing support to other Alexa powered devices like the Fire TV and mobile devices. However, the company has not given a timeline as to when this feature will be made available to customers.
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Here, we cover hot to get Alexa to play Spotify playlists. You can ask an Amazon smart speaker to play any public playlist on Spotify, as well as playlists that you’ve created in your own Spotify account. Further, you must link that account to your Amazon account via the Alexa app. Once that’s done, you may ask to hear your Spotify playlists in your Spotify account by issuing voice commands to your Echo, Echo Dot, Tap, or Show devices. Or you can do it in the Spotify app itself. We describe both methods below.
Please see our Spotify Setup Instructions on Amazon Echo Alexa Devices post for detailed instructions on how to connect your Amazon smart speakers to your Spotify account. Do this prior to following the procedures below.
How to Get Alexa to Play Spotify Playlists
Method One: Asking the Alexa Speaker to Play a Spotify Playlist
With your smart speaker turned on and connected to your Amazon and Spotify accounts, ask Alexa to play a Spotify playlist as follows. We asked for one we created named Tom’s Christmas as follows:
- Alexa, play the Tom’s Christmas playlist on Spotify.
- Alexa shuffle the Tom’s Christmas playlist on Spotify.
Your speaker then says something like “[Playing / shuffling] Tom’s Christmas playlist from Spotify.” The shuffle playlist feature does not work as of this writing, as the playlist still plays in the order that songs were added to it when created, though the shuffle command is accepted. To shuffle play the playlist, use method two, described next.
How to Get Alexa to Play Spotify Playlists via the Spotify App
1. Find the Spotify App on your Tablet or Phone
In this demo, we’re running it on an iPad Air, as shown in the next screenshot.
2. Run the Spotify App
Spotify then displays a home screen that looks something like that shown next.
3. Tap the Your Music Link
It’s the one pointed at by the blue arrow in the previous screenshot. Spotify then displays the Your Music screen as shown next.
4. Tap the Playlists Choice to Continue with How to Get Alexa to Play Spotify Playlists
Find the Playlists option at the far left edge of the Your Music screen, which the blue arrow points at in the previous screenshot. The system then displays a list of all the playlists currently saved in the current Spotify account. We currently have four playlists saved in ours, as shown in the next screenshot. In this demo, we’ll be playing the Tom’s Christmas playlist.
5. Tap the Playlist you’d Like to Hear on your Alexa Speaker
As mentioned, we’re going to play the Tom’s Christmas playlist in this demo. So, we tapped that one, pointed at by the blue arrow in the previous screenshot. This brings up a sort of playlist editor screen named after the chosen playlist, as shown in the next screenshot, which lists the songs in that playlist.
Amazon Echo Spotify Free
6. Start your Selected Playlist Playing
You can have Spotify play the list sequentially from beginning to end by tapping the first song in the list as pointed at by the leftmost blue arrow in the previous screenshot, or you can tap the green Shuffle Play button, which plays the listed songs in random order. In either case, the listed songs begin playing on the current speaker (usually the mobile device on which you’re running the Spotify app), and the playlist editor screen changes to show the Devices Available link, as shown in the next screenshot.
7. Tap the Devices Available Link to Continue with How to Get Alexa to Play Spotify Playlists
This takes you from the playlist editor screen to the Playing From Playlist screen, as shown next. This is a more graphical representation of the previous playlist editor screen, showing a picture of the album from which the current song is taken. This screen also provides controls for pausing playback, skipping ahead to the next song, and skipping back to the previous song in the current playlist. There’s also a progress slider that shows the current position in the song currently playing, and you can also select the speaker or speaker group that Spotify will play through.
Amazon Echo Play Free Spotify Playlists
8. Again, tap the Devices Available Link
The Devices Available option is pointed at by the blue arrow in the previous screenshot. This brings up a menu style list of available speaker devices and groups that have been set up in the current Spotify account (ours in this demo). This menu is called Devices.
9. Tap the Alexa Based Speaker you Wish to Play the Playlist Through
Select this speaker from a list like the one shown above. You may have to scroll the list to find it if you have lots of devices configured in your Spotify account. In our case here, we want the playlist to play on our Office speaker. Thus, we tapped that entry.
The Devices menu then disappears, taking you back to the Playing from Playlist screen as shown next. Play then stops on the currently playing speaker and moves to the speaker or speaker group just picked.
Also, note that the Devices Available link is replaced by the name of the speaker now playing. You should now be hearing your Spotify playlist on the Amazon Alexa speaker you selected in step 8 above. Enjoy!
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Revision History
Spotify On Echo
- 2020-07-17: Tweaked the targeting.
- 2019-02-21: Added tags.
- 2019-01-25: Added key phrase targeting.
- 2017-12-27: Originally published.