- Alexa App Link New Service Spotify Network Down On Fire Stick
- Connect Spotify To Alexa
- Alexa App Link New Service Spotify Network Down Now
To add a new device, open the Alexa app and tap Devices Add. Try powering down the devices. Amazon's Alexa speakers are capable of streaming music from third-party services like Spotify. Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon, and made popular by the Amzon Echo. Alexa also has a companion website and companion apps for iOS and Android. I have a problem with Alexa. On the Amazon Alexa app on your mobile device: Tap the three lines menu on the top left Settings Music & Podcasts. F ind Spotify in the list and click Enable to Use. In the authorization screen, double check that you're trying to log in with the correct Spotify account and click Agree.
With Amazon Alexa in the house, you now can issue a voice command to order up whatever music you feel like hearing, all without moving an inch from where you are. Playing music is one of most popular Alexa skills.
How to play music through Alexa
On the Amazon Alexa app on your mobile device: Tap the three lines menu on the top left Settings Music & Podcasts. F ind Spotify in the list and click Enable to Use. In the authorization screen, double check that you're trying to log in with the correct Spotify account and click Agree. Using Spotify with Alexa. Here's how to connect Spotify to Alexa, through your smart speakers. Open the Alexa app. Tap the Play icon from the bottom and you'll be in the Music & Books section. Scroll down and tap the More Music Streaming Services / Manage Your Services tile. The Alexa service can provide your skill with information about the audio playback’s state, such as when the track is nearly finished, or when playback starts and stops. Alexa can also now send requests in response to hardware buttons, such as those on a remote control. Enabling Audio Playback Support in Your Skill. Spotify asked me to change my password this week, which I did. Since then Spotify dropped off Alexa. I went into the Alexa app / Link Service / Music Setting, and the Spotify link is a dead link. Apple, Pandora, Tidal all work, but Spotify is unreactive.
The first thing you have to decide is how you want to play your music through Alexa. You have two choices:
- Use a music service provider. This is a third-party service that supplies you with music, sometimes for a fee. Examples include Amazon Music and Spotify.
- Use your mobile device music. If your music is stored on a smartphone or tablet, you can stream that music through your Alexa device using a Bluetooth connection.
How to link Alexa to a music provider like Spotify
Alexa doesn’t have access to music on its own. Instead, you need to connect Alexa to whatever music provider service you use. The services supported by Alexa depend on where you live, but common providers include Amazon Music, Spotify, and TuneIn.
Some music providers require you to have a special type of account or subscription before they’ll let you connect to Alexa. For example, you can only connect Spotify to Alexa if you have a Spotify Premium subscription.
Before Alexa can use a music provider, you need to give Alexa permission to access your account on that provider. This is called linking your account, and you need to link each music provider you want to access through Alexa. (The exception here is Amazon Music, which is automatically linked to Alexa when you log in to Amazon using the Alexa app.) Follow these steps to link a music provider to Alexa:
- In the Alexa app, choose Menu → Settings.
The Settings menu appears. - Tap Music.
The Alexa app displays the Music Services screen, which looks similar to the following figure. If the service you want to use requires permission to allow Alexa to access your account, you see a link to the right of the service. In the figure, for example, you see “Link account on Spotify.com” next to the Spotify service. - Tap the link to the right of the service, and then follow the instructions that appear.
In most cases, you need to log in to your music service and then tap the link or button that authorizes Alexa to access your account. - When the link is complete, tap Close (X) in the upper-right corner of the app.
The Alexa app displays a notification to let you know that you can use Settings to change the default music provider. - If you want to change the default provider, tap the notification’s Go to Settings.
Set up a default music provider, like Spotify, for Amazon Alexa
When you connect the Alexa app to your Amazon account, you get automatic access to Amazon Music, which Alexa sets up as your default music provider. Here, “default” means that when you ask Alexa to play, for example, a song or an artist, Alexa retrieves that music from the default service.
Note, too, that just because you set up one music service as the default, it doesn’t mean that you can’t ever use some other service. For example, if you’re using Amazon Music as the default provider, but you also have your Spotify account linked to Alexa, you can still play something from Spotify by including the service name as part of your voice command. For example:
“Alexa, play Camera Obscura from Spotify.”
If you’re cool with using Amazon Music as your default provider, there’s nothing to see here, so feel free to move on to the next section. If, instead, you want to use a different provider as the default, you need to follow these steps to set up that provider as Alexa’s default music service:
- In the Alexa app, choose Menu → Settings.
The Settings menu appears. - Tap Music.
The Alexa app displays the Music Services screen. - Tap Choose Default Music Services.
The Alexa app prompts you to choose a default music library and radio station service, as shown in the following figure. - Select a music service under the Default Music Library section.
- Select a music service under the Default Station Service section.
- Tap Done.
The Alexa app updates your music settings.
Voice commands for controlling music on Amazon Alexa
Okay, now it’s time to get down, get funky, or get wherever you end up when you listen to your favorite music. Alexa has an extremely long list of voice commands for playing and controlling music.
Some notes to bear in mind as you work through these commands:
- Not all these commands will work on all music services. Almost all of them work as advertised on Amazon Music, but your results will vary if you try them with another provider (such as Spotify).
- Except where noted, all these commands work on the default music service. To run a command on another service that you’ve linked to Alexa, follow the command with “on [service],” where service is the name of the music provider (for example, “on Spotify”).
- You can replace the word song with track or
- You can replace the word music with
How to play music by song, album, or artist
Here are some commands to order up music by song title, album title, or artist name:
- “Alexa, play the song [title].”
- “Alexa, play the song [title] by [artist].”
- “Alexa, play the album [title].”
- “Alexa, play music by [artist].”
- “Alexa, play popular songs by [artist].”
- “Alexa, play the latest [artist] album.”
- “Alexa, play that song that goes [lyrics].” (For example, “Alexa, play that song that goes ‘Who let the dogs out.’”)
- “Alexa, play the song I just bought.”
How to play music by genre
To get Alexa to play songs from a particular music genre, use the following command:
“Alexa, play [genre] music.”
For genre, there are dozens of possibilities, but here are the most popular:
| Acoustic | Electronic | Metal |
| Alternative | Folk | New age |
| Blues | Gospel | Opera |
| Broadway | Hard rock | Pop |
| Children’s | Hip hop | R&B |
| Christian | Holiday | Rap |
| Classic rock | Indie | Rock |
| Classical | International | Soundtracks |
| Country | Jazz | Vocal |
| Dance | Latin | World |
| Easy listening | Meditation |
How to play music by mood and/or activity
One of Amazon Music’s most interesting features lets you request music to suit a mood (such as mellow or upbeat) and/or an activity (such as relaxing or running). Although no definitive list exists, Amazon claims that it supports more than 500 moods and activities. Here are some commands you can use:
- “Alexa, play [mood] music.”
- “Alexa, play [activity] music.”
- “Alexa, play music for [activity].”
- “Alexa, play [mood] [activity] music.”
For the mood, you can try just about any mental state, including angry, chill, energetic, feeling good, happy, joyful, laid back, mellow, relaxed, romantic, sad, or upbeat.
For the activity, try describing just about anything you’re currently doing, including cleaning, cooking, eating dinner, going to sleep, meditating, partying, reading, relaxing, running, studying, waking up, working, or working out.
This feature generally works only on Amazon Music. Also, not every mood, activity, or mood/activity combo works. Alexa tries to match your request with an existing playlist that’s been created by Amazon, and if no such playlist exists — for example, if you ask for “energetic going-to-sleep music” — then Alexa will tell you it can’t find any music to satisfy your request.
How to play and control playlists
Alexa offers a few commands for creating, populating, and playing custom collections of songs, otherwise known as playlists:
- “Alexa, create a playlist named [title].”
- “Alexa, add this song to a new playlist named [title].”
- “Alexa, add this song to the playlist named [title].”
- “Alexa, play my playlist named [title].”
- “Alexa, shuffle my playlist named [title].”
How to get information about music
If you want to know information about a song, album, or artist, Alexa can help. Here are a few commands to try:
- “Alexa, who sings this song?”
- “Alexa, who sings the song [title]?”
- “Alexa, who is in the band [artist]?”
- “Alexa, what year did [artist] release [song or album]?”
How to discover new music on Alexa
If you’re in the mood for something new, here are a few commands you can use to listen to music that’s new or outside of what you normally play:
- “Alexa, play new music.”
- “Alexa, play new music by [artist].”
- “Alexa, play new [genre] music.”
- “Alexa, play the song of the day.”
- “Alexa, play [artist] station.”
- “Alexa, play some music.”
- “Alexa, play more songs like this.”
- “Alexa, play songs similar to this.”
- “Alexa, play songs similar to [title].”
- “Alexa, play songs similar to [artist].”
- “Alexa, play some other music I like.”
- “Alexa, play songs I haven’t heard.”
- “Alexa, play [artist] songs I haven’t heard.”
How to rate music on Alexa
Alexa can make better recommendations if you tell it which songs you like and which ones you dislike. Here are some commands that’ll help:
- “Alexa, thumbs up.”
- “Alexa, I like this song.”
- “Alexa, thumbs down.”
- “Alexa, I don’t like this song.”
How to play popular music on Alexa
If you want to hear the most popular songs, here are some commands that will get you there:
- “Alexa, play the top songs.”
- “Alexa, play the top [genre] songs.”
- “Alexa, play the top songs from the [decade].”
- “Alexa, play the top songs in [country].”
How to control the volume of music on Alexa
To get the music volume just right, here are some commands you can use:
- “Alexa, volume up.”
- “Alexa, increase the volume.”
- “Alexa, raise the volume.”
- “Alexa, louder.”
- “Alexa, volume down.”
- “Alexa, decrease the volume.”
- “Alexa, lower the volume.”
- “Alexa, softer.”
- “Alexa, set the volume to [number from 1 through 10].”
- “Alexa, volume [number from 1 through 10].”
- “Alexa, mute.”
- “Alexa, unmute.”
How to control playback of Alexa music
While Alexa is playing music, you can use the following commands to control the playback:
- “Alexa, stop.”
- “Alexa, pause.”
- “Alexa, play.”
- “Alexa, resume.”
- “Alexa, next.”
- “Alexa, previous.”
- “Alexa, turn shuffle on.”
- “Alexa, turn shuffle off.”
- “Alexa, turn repeat on.”
- “Alexa, turn repeat off.”
- “Alexa, skip back [number] seconds.”
- “Alexa, skip forward [number] seconds.”
- “Alexa, restart song.”
- “Alexa, restart album.”
- “Alexa, restart playlist.”
How to access Alexa via the Amazon Music app
If you get your jams through Amazon Music, not only can you access your music via any Alexa device, but you can also access Alexa via the Amazon Music app, which is available for iOS and Android. This means you can use all the preceding voice commands to control the Amazon Music app. Here are the steps to follow to get started:
- Install and then start the Amazon Music app.
The app asks you to sign in to your Amazon account. - Type your Amazon email address (or mobile phone number, if you have a mobile Amazon account), type your Amazon password, and then tap Sign In.
- If you have two-step authentication turned on, enter the code you were sent and then tap Sign In.
- Tap the Alexa icon in the bottom toolbar.
The first time you access Alexa, the app asks your permission to use your mobile device’s microphone. - Tap Allow Microphone Access.
- Tap OK (iOS) or Allow (Android).
The Amazon Music app is now ready to accept voice commands. Either say, “Alexa,” or tap the Alexa icon, and then say your command.
If you want, you can play Amazon Music content through your Alexa device. Here are the steps to follow:
- Tap the Menu icon (the three vertical dots) in the upper-right corner of the Amazon Music app.
- Tap Connect to a Device.
The Amazon Music app displays a list of available devices, which includes any Alexa devices on your network, as shown. - Tap the Alexa device you want to use for playback.
Your Amazon Music content now plays through your Alexa device.
The downside to playing your Amazon Music selections through an Alexa device is that you forgo the ability to use Alexa in the Amazon Music app. To get Alexa back on the job in the Amazon Music app, you must disconnect from the Alexa device. To do that, choose Menu→ Connect to a Device, and then tap the Disconnect button next to your Alexa device.
How to play third-party music through Alexa devices
If you have a third-party music provider linked to Alexa, you normally ask Alexa to play music from that provider either by specifying the provider name in the voice command (for example, “Alexa, play the Chill playlist on Spotify”) or by setting up that provider as the default.
However, there’s a third method available: You can use the music provider’s app to select your Alexa device as the playback device. For example, in the Spotify app, if you choose Settings → Devices→Devices Menu, you see the Connect to a Device screen, which offers a list of available devices that you can use for playback. This list will look similar to the one shown here, which you can see contains a couple of Echo devices and a Sonos speaker. Tap the Alexa device you want to use and then any music you crank up in the app will play through your Alexa device.
How to adjust Alexa’s music quality
Amazon Echo devices come with a feature sure to warm the cockles of audio-geeks’ hearts everywhere: an equalizer. If you’re not an audio aficionado, an equalizer is a device for adjusting the sound quality by controlling different sound components. Real-world equalizers bristle with obscure settings, but Echo devices mercifully support only three:
- Bass: This component controls the lowest tones in the music.
- Treble: This component controls the highest tones in the music.
- Midrange: This component controls all tones in the music that lie between the bass and treble tones.
You can use Alexa to control each of these settings as follows:
- “Alexa, increase the bass.”
- “Alexa, increase the midrange.”
- “Alexa, increase the treble.”
- “Alexa, decrease the bass.”
- “Alexa, decrease the midrange.”
- “Alexa, decrease the treble.”
- “Alexa, set the bass to maximum.”
- “Alexa, set the midrange to maximum.”
- “Alexa, set the treble to maximum.”
- “Alexa, set the bass to minimum.”
- “Alexa, set the midrange to minimum.”
- “Alexa, set the treble to minimum.”
- “Alexa, set the bass/midrange/treble to [number from –6 through 6].”
- “Alexa, reset the equalizer.”
If you happen to have the Alexa app open, you can also use it to make equalizer adjustments. Choose Devices →Echo & Alexa, tap the Echo device you want to adjust, and then choose Sounds→ Equalizer. Use the Bass, Mid, and Treble sliders to adjust the settings as needed.
If you have an Echo Show or Echo Spot, you can mess up, er, sorry, mess around with the sound quality by opening Settings and then choosing Sounds→Equalizer. Use the Bass, Mid, and Treble sliders to adjust the settings to taste.
You may wish unlink your Spotify account from an Alexa host device because,
- You’re giving an Echo Dot to your child. Do, you wish to keep him / her from listening to adult stuff on Spotify. But you still allow her access to other features of your Amazon Alexa account.
- You cancelled your Spotify subscription. So you want to clear it our of your Alexa settings to cut clutter.
- You like other versions of music than what Spotify offers. Thus, you remove Spotify from your list of Alexa music sources. This way, Alexa does not find songs you request on Spotify. Instead, she gets them from your other active music services, which DO offer the versions you want.
How to Unlink Spotify from Alexa
Get tablet ready for this. Be sure to install Alexa app and link it to the right Amazon account (probably your Amazon account). This account should have the Spotify account you wish to unlink. Then, perform the following steps.
1. Find the Alexa App on your Mobile Device
On our iOS based iPad, we find the Alexa app page three of the Home screen. See this in the next picture.
2. Run the Alexa App
Tap the Alexa app icon on the tablet home screen.
The Alexa app Home screen then displays, as shown next.
3. Tap the Settings Link
Located in black and white menu at left side of the Alexa app home screen.
The Alexa app then shows its Settings screen, as seen next.
4. Tap the Music & Media Link to Continue with How to Unlink Spotify from Alexa
pointed at by the pink arrow in the just previous picture.
The Media Services screen then displays, as shown next.
5. Tap the Spotify Item in the Media Services List
as displayed in the previous picture.
Alexa App Link New Service Spotify Network Down On Fire Stick
Then, you get the Spotify Settings screen as shown next.
6. Tap the Unlink Spotify from Alexa link.
The Unlink Spotify Confirmation Prompt screen should then appear, as follows.
7. Finally, tap the Unlink Button to Continue with How to Unlink Spotify from Alexa
in that confirmation window.
Connect Spotify To Alexa
This removes your Spotify account information from the Alexa app.
Then Alexa returns you to the Media Services screen, as displayed in the next step.
You might receive an error message though. Why? Because someone else who shares your Amazon account may have already deleted your Spotify profile.
8. Check that you Indeed Unlinked your Spotify Account
On the Media Services page, find the Spotify entry and look to the right of it. If there’s a blue Link Account on Spotify.com option, then your Spotify account info has been successfully deleted from Alexa.
You can also see that Alexa no longer plays music on Spotify. Try asking for a song on Spotify. For example, say something like
- Alexa, play Hey Brother by Avicii on Spotify.
If you successfully removed your Spotify profile the Alexa assistant, she’ll say back,
“To play Spotify, first link your premium account using the Alexa app.”
9. Done with How to Unlink Spotify from Alexa !
But if you change your mind, and would like to reinstate Spotify access on your Amazon smart speaker devices, then simply add back your Spotify account info in the Alexa app, as we explain how to do here.
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Revision History
Alexa App Link New Service Spotify Network Down Now
- 2017-01-14: Originally published.