Learn how to make it your default streaming service and much more
Alexa speakers play nicely with a host of music services, and that includes Spotify.
By default, Alexa speakers such as the Amazon Echo and Echo Show will turn to Amazon Music to handle your entertainment requests. However, you can instead connect Spotify to Alexa and make it your default music service. Not only can you use Alexa to request tunes with your voice, but Echo devices also support Spotify Connect, letting you stream tunes manually.
Connecting Alexa to Spotify offers full control of playback and your music library, an Alexa EQ feature to fine-tune audio, and there are tons of commands available to seamlessly control your music.
But how does it all work? Let’s get into it.
Using Spotify with Alexa
Here’s how to connect Spotify to Alexa through your smart speakers.
1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Tap the ‘Play’ icon from the bottom and you’ll be in the ‘Music & More’ section.
3. Scroll down and tap the ‘Link New Services’ tab.
4. Choose Spotify.
5. Log in to your Spotify account with your credentials.
6. Link your accounts.
Can you use Spotify Free with Alexa?
You can. An update from the streaming giant means that Spotify Free users can play their favorite music on even more smart speakers; not only Amazon Echo speakers, but Sonos and Bose ones, too.
Spotify Free on Alexa is now available in numerous countries around the world, too, including the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Austria, India, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Mexico.
How to set Spotify as the default music service for Alexa
It’s great that Amazon is open enough to let you set Spotify as an Echo speaker’s default audio provider.
To set things up, just fire up the Alexa app and follow these steps:
1. Tap ‘Play’ in the bottom bar.
2. Hit the settings icon in the top corner.
3. You’ll see a section called ‘Your Default Services’ – select it.
4. Tick Spotify on both ‘Music’, ‘Artist And Genre Stations’ and ‘Podcasts’ to make it your go-to music platform for everything.
Can you use multiple Spotify accounts?
If you want to use multiple Spotify accounts on your Amazon Echo speaker, things get complicated.
It’s not really possible to do this, but you can kind of fudge it. The Amazon Echo lets you switch between user profiles, so, if you associate two Amazon accounts with different Spotify ones, you can get the desired effect.
To add additional accounts, you’ll need to log in to alexa.amazon.com and head to Settings > Account > Household Profile. You can jump between them simply by saying, “Alexa, switch profiles”.
Using Spotify Connect
Your Amazon Echo speakers all support Spotify Connect, which means you don’t always have to use your voice.
Choosing music can be easier using a phone or tablet, and means you don’t have to just pluck ideas from the tip of your tongue.
In a Spotify app – on a tablet, smartphone or laptop – you will see your Echo speakers listed among the sources.
Essential Spotify Alexa commands
So, you’ve got started with playing back music from Spotify – but what do you say to Alexa? Here are some essential controls, and some you might not realize you can use:
Choosing music
The following will work without adding “from Spotify” if you’ve set the service as your default music player.
- “Alexa, play [title/artist/album] from Spotify.”
- “Alexa, play from Spotify.”
- “Alexa, play [genre] from Spotify.”
Playing music
- “Alexa, play.”
- “Alexa, stop.”
- “Alexa, pause.”
- “Alexa, Volume up / down.”
- “Alexa, set the volume to level [number].”
- “Alexa, shuffle.”
- “Alexa, stop shuffling.”
- “Alexa, who is this?”
- “Alexa, what song is this?”
- “Alexa, when did this album come out?”
- “Alexa, what year was this song released?”
Spotify Podcasts on Alexa
It’s super simple to play Spotify Podcasts using Alexa. If you’ve already got your Spotify profile linked, then simply ask Alexa for podcasts as you would a song, playlist or album.
However, just because you have Spotify selected as your default music streaming platform, that does not mean you’ll automatically have it set as the default podcast playback option.
You’ll have to either change the default Podcast provider to Spotify or just add “on Spotify” to the end of your podcast requests.