Like many music and tech enthusiasts, I subscribe to a bunch of music services. But my music set-up includes Amazon’s Echo speakers and other connected speakers all over the house, and my one regret has been that I haven’t been able to stream Spotify to my multi-room set-up. To be sure, Amazon’s own Prime Music should be enough and so should the other services it supports, Apple Music, JioSaavn etc, but somehow it isn’t.

Each music service seems to have its own strengths and there are a few things about Spotify that I find difficult to let go of: music recommendations based on what I listen to are really powerful, and there just happen to be tracks available there that I don’t find elsewhere. There have been workarounds to stream Spotify on Amazon devices, but those are not legal and perhaps not worth the trouble.

From today, however, Amazon has made it possible to add Spotify to the list of services you can hear on its Echo speakers. Here’s what users have to do, if they have a subscription to Spotify, of course:

  • First, make sure the Alexa app is updated. The update has been rolled out .
  • Next, open the Alexa app on your phone or tablet and head to Settings.
  • Scroll down until you see the Music tab.
  • Tap on Link New Service and choose Spotify. You will be prompted to enter or approve your ID and password for Spotify. It will now show up in your list of linked services.
  • You can choose to make it your default music services, or leave it in the list.

Now, ask Alexa to play your Spotify music. This feature will now support any speaker groups you have as well as individual speakers, so, yes, I promptly heard some songs not on Prime Music on my Everywhere group and was accordingly delighted. The neighbours were not.

A big bonus is the ability to hear Spotify’s Daily Mix, a personalised playlist the service creates for each user. You can also stream your favourite podcasts, if you happen to have collected them, on Spotify.

From the Spotify app, you can also select the Echo speakers or groups you want to play to as well. In addition, the Prime Music app will continue as it is, so you can switch between the two easily, with voice commands or from each app. You can just say “Alexa, Spotify Connect on (your name for the speaker)”.

Spotify streaming will soon be available for devices other than the Echo speakers, such as Fire TV. Now, all I want for Christmas is to be able to stream YouTube Music on my Alexa speakers.

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