Use voice commands to control music and podcasts with Amazon Alexa!
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Spotify is NOT showing up under Music and Services, Music Services, Books and Music, nothing! Meaning, that I can't link my premium Spotify account to Echo, which means I can't stream music from spotify on my amazon alexa!
- However, at the weekend all the multiroom groups are not showing in Spotify Connect. I have 1 Echo and 2 Echo dots. All three are showing in Spotify Connect. Within the Alexa app, I've setup various groups - an everywhere group (for all three echos) and a downstairs group (for two echos downstairs).
- Spotify app on iOS, displaying its -Your Music- screen, with the -Playlists- option highlighted. 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.
Download the Alexa app, open it, and link your Spotify account with these steps:
- Tap the menu in the top-left.
- Tap Settings, then Music & Podcasts.
- Select Spotify, then Link account to Alexa.
- Enter your Spotify account details.
Set Spotify as your default service for music and podcasts so you don’t need to specify “on Spotify” at the end of your voice commands to play music:
- Tap the menu in the top-left.
- Tap Settings, then Music & Podcasts.
- Tap Choose default music services.
Note: To set Spotify as your default podcast service, tap Choose default podcast service. - Select Spotify and tap DONE.
Note: You still need to say “on Spotify” at the end of commands to play podcasts.
Now just ask Alexa to play something! E.g. 'Alexa, play Discover Weekly'. Check out the Amazon help site for supported languages.
Supported devices
Amazon Echo, Amazon Echo Dot, Amazon Echo Spot, Amazon Echo Show, Amazon Tap, Amazon Fire TV Cube, and all Sonos players.
Need help?
For help setting up and troubleshooting, go to the Amazon help site.
Check out other articles on our support site for help with your Spotify account and payments, listening offline, or if you can’t play music.
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
Spotify Not Playing On Alexa
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
Alexa Not Showing Up On Spotify App Download
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 Not Showing Up On Spotify App Windows 10
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.
Alexa Not Showing Up On Spotify App Android
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
- 2020-07-17: Tweaked the targeting.
- 2019-02-21: Added tags.
- 2019-01-25: Added key phrase targeting.
- 2017-12-27: Originally published.