Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Studio and other smart speakers. Alexa app also works on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android and can be used even if you don’t have an Amazon device. You can ask Alexa to play Apple Music just like you use Siri.
Amazon Alexa possesses many skills, but its ability to play music is among its most important. You can listen to music in a variety of ways, though the process will differ depending on whether you want to hear your own media library or stream songs from a specific service.
The easiest way to play music with Alexa is to listen through a music streaming service. By default, Alexa is linked to Amazon Music, but you can also connect to other popular music services and even wirelessly stream from your mobile phone, tablet, or computer. Here’s how.
The answer is yes. Although an Amazon account is required for activation, maintenance, and use of the Alexa app, Echo devices, and Alexa functionality on other smart home tech and Televisions, it doesn’t need to be a prime account. This account is free, and it’s the same Amazon account you’ll use to shop on Amazon.com. As long as you have an Amazon account – whether free or prime – Alexa will work.
If you don’t have Amazon Prime, you can still listen to music on Alexa from Amazon Music and other music streaming services.
After you set up your Amazon Echo or Fire TV, you can link several different music services, including Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Pandora, SiriusXM, Spotify, Tidal, TuneIn, Vevo, and Global Player. You will need an account with each service before you can access it through your Echo/Fire TV. If the service offers a free tier, you can still listen (in a limited capacity). To play music through your favorite streaming service, you first need to link it in the Alexa app. Here are some free music streaming services you can use on Alexa.
Supported devices
Related: 6 Ways To Fix Alexa Not Playing Spotify
Amazon offers an ad-supported free tier of its Music service, allowing users to access thousands of stations, top playlists, and millions of podcast episodes. Similar to Spotify’s free version, you cannot request specific songs through Alexa. Instead, you can enjoy playlists and stations by saying commands like “Alexa, play the Michael Bublé station,” “Alexa, play the Top Pop station,” or “Alexa, play the All 80s station.”
To explore the wide range of playlists and stations available, users can visit music.amazon.com (or the appropriate country-specific website) and sign in to their account. It’s important to note that this free tier has certain limitations, such as the ability to listen on only one Echo device at a time, no support for HD or Ultra HD quality, and the absence of spatial audio. A detailed comparison of Amazon Music tiers can be found here for further reference.
For users who opt for Amazon Music Unlimited, a paid subscription, they gain access to a vast catalog of over 100 million songs with on-demand play capabilities. Amazon Music is the default music service for Alexa. After setting up your Echo device, Alexa should comply with your music requests seamlessly.
If not, follow the steps mentioned earlier and also check the Music & Podcasts settings to ensure that Amazon Music is set as the default service for music. Additionally, you have the flexibility to set different default services for Music, Artist and Genre Stations, and Podcasts.
Apple Podcasts for Alexa is available only in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States.
Say something like “Alexa, play Wow in the World on Apple Podcasts.” If you don’t want to say “on Apple Podcasts” each time, you can make Apple Podcasts your default podcast service.
Alexa also allows you to play your own MP3s (or music encoded in other formats, such as FLAC) on the Echo or other Alexa-compatible speakers with Plex or My Media Server for Alexa, both of which allow you to stream songs you’ve stored on another device. These services aren’t as full-featured or as easy to use as Amazon Music was, but at least they still let you access your music collection with voice commands.
How to enable Plex on Alexa?
1. Search for “Plex” under the Skills section of the Alexa mobile app.
2. Sign into your Plex account, then hit the “ENABLE TO USE” button.
3. Now, you can use Plex to play your music collection on the Amazon Echo. Plex’s support page has a list of voice commands you can use, but here are some useful ones:
My Media for Alexa lets you control and stream music from your home media collection to your Amazon Echo or Amazon Dot using your voice. Here’s how to get started:
In this way, you can listen to Spotify free and Amazon Music Free on Echo on demand and ad-free even if you only have a free plan, as Pazu Spotify Converter allows you to download any songs, albums and playlists to MP3 with either Spotify free or premium account.
With Pazu Spotify Converter, you can download pretty much anything on Spotify for offline listening, including specific songs, full albums, playlists, and podcasts even with Spotify free.
To download Spotify songs without Premium, you can try a smart Spotify music downloader — Pazu Spotify Converter. It is specially designed for both Spotify Free and Premium users to download all Spotify songs/playlists/albums for offline listening. It’s able to extract Spotify music and convert them to MP3, M4A, AIFF, WAV, FLAC and AAC. With Pazu Spotify Music Converter, you can easily save Spotify music as local music and play them on the Echo or other Alexa-compatible speakers with Plex or My Media Server for Alexa.
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