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.

It is important to mention that in order to use Alexa and Spotify together, you need to have a Spotify Premium account. If you have never used Spotify before, you may get the free trial (it lasts for 3 months now) and explore all that this music streaming service has to offer, and all of that using Alexa. 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.

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.

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.

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.

As a handy speaker for playing tunes at home, Amazon Echo has native support for various music applications, such as Amazon's own Prime Music, Pandora, Apple Music and Spotify. For Spotify's premium user, Spotify allows you to easily connect Spotify to Amazon Alexa app so that you can play the Spotify songs on Amazon Echo speakers using Alexa voice commands.

In case you are not yet familiar with the process to stream Spotify to Amazon Echo, we are listing the whole steps here to show you how to set up Spotify on Alexa easily and quickly. Meanwhile, we'll provide the solution to Spotify free users so that you can also play Spotify on Amazon Echo even without premium. Here we go.

Part 1. Spotify Premium: Play Spotify on Amazon Alexa

If you have subscribed to Spotify premium plan, to set up Spotify on Amazon Echo, you need to connect your Spotify account to Amazon Alexa. You can do this by either asking Alexa to play something from Spotify, which will take you through the steps, or:

Step 1. Open the Amazon Alexa app on your smartphone or mobile device. Tap the Menu button in the top-left corner. Under the list of Alexa Devices, you'll see Account. In the Account list, tap on Music & Media.

Step 2. Now tap on Spotify. You can either link your existing Spotify account or sign up for one. Tap the link highlighted in blue, where it says link account on Spotify.com.

Alexa Not Playing Spotify

Step 3. Log into Spotify by entering your username and password, or tap Log in with Facebook if you have an account created through Facebook.

Step 4. Tap OKAY and your Spotify will be connected to Amazon Alexa.

Step 5. Now you can start playing any Spotify music on Amazon Echo using Alexa.

Whenever you want to listen to a song or a playlist from Spotify on Amazon Echo, you can simply tell Alexa something like, 'Play Ariane Grande on Spotify' and it will shuffle through vario

Can You Use Alexa With Spotify Free