Can You Use Spotify Free With Alexa

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.

What you’ll need: your new device, the Amazon Alexa app on your smartphone or tablet, and your Spotify login info. Here’s how to connect Amazon Alexa to Spotify: First, download the Amazon Alexa app from the Google Play or App store, and follow the prompts to set up your new Amazon Echo or Echo Dot.

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.

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.

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.

Alexa With Spotify

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!

References for How to Get Alexa to Play Spotify Playlists

Revision History

2020-07-17: Tweaked the targeting.
2019-02-21: Added tags.
2019-01-25: Added key phrase targeting.
2017-12-27: Originally published.

Alexa, play Summer 2018 playlist.

Set-up (~1 minute)

First, link your Spotify account to Alexa

Open the Alexa app
Tap “More” on the bottom navigation bar
Tap Settings
Tap Music
Tap Spotify under the Manage Services section
Tap link account
Follow simple instructions on account linking page

Second, make Spotify the default music service

That way if you want to play Cardi B on Spotify, you can just say “Alexa, play Cardi B,” and Alexa will automatically play it from Spotify. With Spotify selected as the default, you don’t need to say “Alexa, play Cardi B on Spotify.”

Follow steps 1 – 4 above to get back to the main Music settings tab
Scroll to the bottom to Account Settings and tap Default Services
Select Spotify as your Default Music Library

How

“Alexa, play [insert playlist name] playlist”

Pro Tips

Pro Tip #1: How to play your Liked Songs

To play your Liked Songs (the ones you tap the heart icon for), say “Alexa, play my Liked Songs on Spotify.” You can even “like” a new song and add it to your Liked Songs list via Alexa just by saying “Alexa, like this song” while the song is playing.

Even if you’ve made Spotify your default music provider, for this Alexa command you still have to include the “on Spotify.”

Pro Tip #2: How to play your Discover Weekly and Daily Mix

Discovery weekly: Just say “Alexa play my Discovery Weekly playlist.”

Daily mix: Just say “Alexa, play my daily mix [insert number] playlist.”

Pro Tip #3: Sometimes it’s easier to listen to playlists via Alexa routine

When I listen to music, I generally listen to my favorite playlist of the moment. But I can never remember the exact Spotify playlist name to summon it with Alexa.

My solution: I created an Alexa routine that turns on the Spotify playlist whenever I say “Alexa, playlist.”

Plus, you can easily change the routine to play a different Spotify playlist (for when your favorite playlist inevitably changes).

Pro Tip #4: Why not create a few Alexa routines for different playlists?

If you want to easily summon multiple playlists, create a few routines with different Alexa command triggers. For example, “Alexa, morning playlist,””Alexa, relaxing playlist,””Alexa, energize playlist,” etc.

Pro Tip #5: Get more Spotify tips & tricks

Check out VoiceBrew’s Ultimate Spotify Alexa Guide for everything you need to know about playing Spotify on Alexa.