- This will be especially useful for those who can’t afford Spotify Premium or Apple Music, as both services cost $9.99 a month to maintain. However, Amazon Music is completely free through Alexa.
- Can you play free Spotify on Alexa? Yes, there is a way to use Spotify with Alexa even if you don’t have a Premium account. To do it, you just need to have the Spotify app in your smart phone or computer, and connect it with your Echo device using Bluetooth. You will have to pair the two devices and play the music in your phone or computer.
Streaming has changed how we listen to music. Where once you had to store your music library as files on your computer, phone or MP3 player after buying songs online or ripping your CD collection, nowadays online streaming services give you instant access to millions of songs, so you can listen to new music or enjoy some old favourites - wherever your mood takes you.
With more than 75 million subscribers around the world, Spotify is the undisputed king of music streaming services. It’s compatible with Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant, so if you have a compatible device, you can stream a song just by asking for it, and play songs, compile playlists, search for artists or find a public playlist - all using just your voice.
It only takes these simple steps to open up a whole world of hands-free music streaming.
Spotify streaming services subscribers are allowed to connect Spotify account to the Amazon Echo devices and tell Alexa to play anything on Spotify. And the new users also receive a one-month free trial which enables users to access the music service fully and test the Amazon Echo devices. Spotify is one of the most preferred music streaming services across the globe and Alexa is one of the most used virtual assistants, that works with a variety of OS, including the Echo range of.
Note: You’ll need a Spotify Premium account to control Spotify with Alexa: if you only have the free Spotify account, voice control is not available. We’ll explain the difference between the types of account in step 2.
Step 1: Set up your Amazon Echo speaker
For this you’ll need the Alexa app, which you can download for both iOS devices and Android devices. Setting it up is pretty straightforward – for your complete step-by-step guide, from getting it out of the box to mastering all its tips and tricks, check out our guide to setting up Amazon Echo.
Step 2: Download Spotify
The Spotify app is free to download for iOS and Android devices – you can find it on the Apple App Store or in Google Play. The basic version is free to use, but it’s a limited service – you can only skip so many songs at a time, for example, and you can’t pick which song plays when on a playlist. You’ll also have to listen to adverts between songs – these can’t be skipped.
If you pay £9.99 a month, you’ll get no adverts, unlimited skips, the ability to listen offline and to pick which song plays when. You’ll also get higher quality audio. This is known as Spotify Premium.
Premium is cheaper for students. There’s also Premium for Family, which gives access to up to six people living at the same address. This costs £14.99 a month.
Whichever option you choose, the Spotify app is free to download, so you don’t have to worry about being charged anything. But as we said earlier, you'll need Spotify Premium in order to control it using Alexa.
Step 3: Log into Spotify
Now it’s time to log into Spotify. Just enter your email address/username and password when prompted.
Not used Spotify before? No problem. You can sign up in just a few seconds.
Step 4: Link your Spotify account
Within the Alexa app, go to Settings (the cog icon in the bottom right corner of the screen) > Music & Media> Spotify. Tap the link to Link account on Spotify.com and you’ll be prompted to log into Spotify.
It will then alert you that Alexa will be able to receive this Spotify account data – this includes the proviso that your information may be transferred outside the EEA. If you’re OK with that, tap Okay.
Your Spotify account is now linked with your Amazon Echo speaker.
Step 5: Make Spotify your default music service
It’s all well and good having Spotify linked to your Echo speaker, but it’s a pain having to request Alexa to open the programme each time you want to play a song.
Thankfully there is a way around that – make it your default music service. That way, you can just say “Alexa, play pop” and it’ll start blasting out the hits of the day directly from Spotify.
To make Spotify your default music service, go to Settings> Music & Media within the Alexa app, then tap Choose Default Music Services. By default, your default music service is Amazon Music. Just tap the Spotify box to change it to Spotify, then tap Done.
Alexa And Spotify
Step 6: Start controlling
Now it’s time to start using Spotify hands-free on your Echo speaker. You have a ton of voice commands at your disposal: most of them are pretty obvious but some are a little more niche.
The basics include “Play”, “Pause”, “Shuffle” (and “Stop shuffle”) and “Resume”, all of which are self-explanatory.
You can also be more general with your requests, for example “Play some music”, “Play what’s hot in Brazil” and “Play songs similar to the sixties.”
You can be more specific, too. These controls include “Play [song/album/artist]”, “Play [name emotion] music”, “Play [radio station name]”, “Play [playlist name]”. You can create playlists, add songs/albums/artists to an already existing playlist, and block songs with explicit lyrics, all by asking. You can also request information by asking questions like “Who’s the lead singer for [band name]?”
Which devices support Alexa control for Spotify?
A range of Alexa-compatible devices support hands-free Spotify control. These are: the Amazon Echo, Echo Show, Echo Dot, Echo Spot, Amazon Tap (which isn’t currently available in the UK), Fire TV Cube (again, not yet available in the UK) and Sonos One smart speaker.
All of these have Alexa built-in, so you can control your Spotify just by speaking. To get set up on any of these devices, just follow the steps above.
What if I don’t want to control Spotify by speaking?
No problem. You can connect to your Echo speaker over Bluetooth and use the Spotify app on your phone to control it remotely.
“Hello, can you connect Spotify to Alexa? I would like to listen to Spotify music over the newly purchased Amazon Alexa speaker but have no idea how to add Spotify to Alexa. Someone suggested me that I need to upgrade to Spotify Premium before I could play Spotify on Alexa speakers. It would cost me a lot per month. So, is there any other way to help me connect Spotify to Alexa speaker without paying every month? How to play Spotify on Alexa without Spotify Premium? Please show me an effective solution. Any advice would be highly appreciated.”
Generally known as Alexa simply, Amazon Alexa is virtual assistant smart speaker that is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other real-time information, such as news. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system. Users could install “skills” (additional functionality developed by third-party vendors, in other settings more commonly called apps such as weather programs and audio features) to extend the Alexa capabilities.
Playing music over Amazon Alexa music has been a main popular feature for all Amazon Alexa speaker owners. As one of the most popular online music streaming services, Spotify has been widely accepted and poplar in the world. People could now actually to connect Spotify to Amazon Alexa-enabled devices to listen to Spotify music over Amazon Alexa. In the following content, we would like to show you how to connect Spotify to Alexa so as to let you play Spotify music over Alexa enabled devices with and without upgrading to Spotify Premium. Check the detailed guide below and choose the solution that meets you more.
Part 1: How to Connect Spotify to Alexa-Enabled Devices with Spotify Premium
As a popular online digital music, podcast and video streaming service platform, Spotify gives you access to millions of songs and other content from artists all over the world. We all know that Spotify has both Free plan and Premium plan, both of which enable people to:
1. Use the internal Browse and Search features to choose what you want to listen to.
2. Get recommendations from personalized features like Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and Daily Mix.
3. See what friends, artists, and celebrities listen to.
4. Create your own Radio stations and build collections of music.
However, with Spotify Free plan, you have to listen to Spotify music with ads, which appear every 3 or 4 songs. That would be quite bothering. If you upgrade to the Spotify Premium plan, you could listen to ads-free Spotify music on any Spotify enabled devices and players as you like. Meanwhile, you could also download Spotify music to no more than 3 devices for offline listening, have unlimited skip during Spotify music playback, enjoy non-stop music without ads, etc. What’s more, the Spotify Premium plan allows you to connect Spotify to many voice speaker devices such as Amazon Alexa.
The below steps would show you how to connect Spotify to Alexa enabled devices with Spotify Premium plan by using Spotify Connect, a Spotify remote control that enables you to listen to Spotify on speakers, TVs, and other devices using the Spotify app.
1. Connect your Alexa enabled device and Spotify app to the same WiFi network. Make sure your apps are all up-to-date.
2. Open Spotify and play something.
3. Click “Connect to a device” icon (on your computer or web player) or Devices Available (on your phone or tablet) in the bottom-right.
4. Tap the Amazon Alexa enabled device you want to play Spotify music to.
Then, the playing Spotify music would be streamed over your Amazon Alexa enabled device. Try switching off the “Show local devices only” setting if you can’t see your Alexa enabled devices
This method helps you easily play Spotify on Alexa enabled devices, however, you need to upgrade to Spotify Premium for $9.99 per month. That would be a big cost.
Use Spotify Free On Alexa Echo Dot
Part 2: How to Connect Spotify Music to Alexa Enabled Devices with Spotify Free Plan
Is there any way for you to play Spotify music on Alexa speaker if you are using Spotify Free plan? Of course yes. Leawo Prof. DRM could perform as a professional Spotify DRM removal and Spotify music downloader to help you remove DRM protection upon Spotify songs, and download and convert Spotify music to MP3, AAC, M4A, M4B, WAV, FLAC files, so you could easily import the downloaded Spotify songs to your Alexa enabled devices for playing Spotify music over Alexa speaker freely, no matter you are using Spotify Free or Spotify Premium plan. It could even allow you to adjust the output MP3 profile parameters like codec, bit rate, sample rate, etc. for high quality Spotify music downloading and converting.
Download and install Leawo Prof. DRM on your computer. The below steps would show you how to download and convert Spotify songs for playing over Alexa.
Note: You need to download and install Spotify app on your computer.
Step 1: Open Leawo Spotify DRM Remover
Launch Leawo Prof. DRM and then click the “Spotify DRM Remover” option on the main interface. Once you open this Spotify DRM Remover, it will automatically help you open the Spotify app.
Step 2: Add Spotify music to Spotify DRM Remover
Then, directly drag and drop Spotify songs one by one or drag and drop the album/playlist at once to Spotify DRM Remover for downloading and converting.
Or, you could click “Add Files” button to add Spotify playlist for downloading. Just copy and paste URL of Spotify playlist or song here and then click “OK” button to download Spotify music playlist or single songs.
Step 2: Set output format and audio quality
Click the pencil icon in each loaded Spotify music title to enter the “Edit” panel to choose output format from MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, etc. in the “Format” box and adjust audio parameters including Channel, Sample Rate, and Bit rate. Click “Apply to All” button afterwards for time saving.
Step 3: Set output directory
Set output directory in the “Output” box to save final downloaded Spotify music files.
Step 4: Start to download and convert Spotify songs
Finally, press the blue button “Convert” at the bottom right. This Spotify DRM Remover would start to download Spotify music and convert Spotify songs to chosen audio file format. The DRM removal happens in the background. Transfer the downloaded Spotify songs to your Alexa enabled devices for unlimited playback after downloading completes.
Leawo Prof. DRM is not only a Spotify DRM Remover, but also a comprehensive DRM removal and converter tool to help you convert iTunes DRM M4V video to DRM-free MP4 video, convert iTunes DRM M4P music to DRM-free MP3 file, convert iTunes/Audible audiobooks to DRM-free audiobooks, and convert eBooks from Kindle, Kobo and Adobe Digital Edition.
Part 3: A Comparison between The Above 2 Solutions
The below content shows you the differences and detailed features of each methods mentioned above.
Spotify Connect | Leawo Prof. DRM | |
Play Spotify music over Alexa speakers | Yes, for Spotify Premium plan users only. | Yes, for both Free and Premium plans. |
Play Spotify music over other speakers | Yes | Yes |
Download and convert Spotify music | No | Yes |
Convert iTunes DRM video, music and audiobooks | No | Yes |
Convert Audible audiobooks | No | Yes |
Convert eBooks from Kindle | No | Yes |
Convert eBooks from Kobo | No | Yes |
Convert eBooks from Adobe Digital Editions | No | Yes |
Retain subtitles and audio tracks for iTunes videos | No | Yes |
Select audio parameters | No | Yes |
Download and install | No | Yes |
Cost | Free | Starting from $19.95 |
Part 4: Some Voice Commands of Amazon Alexa
If you're stuck for the best Alexa commands to really start using your Amazon smart speaker to the max, we've got you covered below with some wonderful voice commands of Alexa as extended knowledge. Check them below and experience them yourself.
Your first Alexa commands
'Alexa, play [artist] name.'
'Alexa, set timer for [xx] minutes.'
'Alexa, what's the weather today?'
'Alexa, set an alarm for [time].'
'Alexa, play [radio station].'
'Alexa, set timer for [xx] minutes.'
'Alexa, what's the weather today?'
'Alexa, set an alarm for [time].'
'Alexa, play [radio station].'
Use Spotify Free On Alexa Fire Stick
Essential Alexa music commands
'Alexa, play [genre]'
'Alexa, play from [music service].'
'Alexa, play the latest [artist name] [album/song]'
'Alexa, play Sunday morning music'
'Alexa, who sings this song?'
'Alexa, pair my phone'
'Alexa, louder'
'Alexa, set volume to 6'
'Alexa, turn this off in [xx minutes].'
For Sonos users with Sonos skill installed: “Alexa, play [song] by [artist] from [service] in the [Sonos device name]”
'Alexa, create a '[xxx xxxx]' playlist.' [change name as appropriate]
'Alexa, play from [music service].'
'Alexa, play the latest [artist name] [album/song]'
'Alexa, play Sunday morning music'
'Alexa, who sings this song?'
'Alexa, pair my phone'
'Alexa, louder'
'Alexa, set volume to 6'
'Alexa, turn this off in [xx minutes].'
For Sonos users with Sonos skill installed: “Alexa, play [song] by [artist] from [service] in the [Sonos device name]”
'Alexa, create a '[xxx xxxx]' playlist.' [change name as appropriate]
Alexa movie/TV commands
“Alexa, what is the IMDb rating for [show/movie]?”
“Alexa, tell me about the movie [whatever it’s called]”
“Alexa, who starrs in [show/movie]?”
“Alexa, tell me about the movie [whatever it’s called]”
“Alexa, who starrs in [show/movie]?”
Checking calendars and reminders
'Alexa, what's on my schedule?'
'Alexa, add an event on my calendar'
'Alexa, add features meeting to my calendar on Thursday at 4.30'
'Alexa, what am I doing tomorrow?'
'Alexa, add hair cut to my to do list'
'Alexa, what's on my to-do list?'
You could get more voice commands of Amazon Alexa from Amazon communities.
'Alexa, add an event on my calendar'
'Alexa, add features meeting to my calendar on Thursday at 4.30'
'Alexa, what am I doing tomorrow?'
'Alexa, add hair cut to my to do list'
'Alexa, what's on my to-do list?'
You could get more voice commands of Amazon Alexa from Amazon communities.