Do I Need To Subscribe To A Streaming Service To Play Music On Alexa

How to Play Music on Alexa and Amazon Echo (Free and Paid Options)

Final Updated: January 8, 2022

The most approachable way to play music on an Repeat device or Alexa is through music-streaming services. All music streaming services may be accessed from a smartphone, tablet, or computer.

Since the reveal of Amazon Alexa and Echo speakers, the world has been amazed at what level of automation people can get with using one of these.

Since Amazon Echo products are speakers, people from the outset wanted to utilize them to listen to music. Even so, surprisingly that wasn't that easy to do with Alexa onboard. Up until 2019 you could upload music to the device itself or just employ information technology as a uncomplicated Bluetooth speaker that you would connect to your tablet or PC.

But from that point on, with the new generation of products, Amazon close downwards the uploading ability of Alexa, moving the users to use the streaming platforms equally their only pick apart from the Bluetooth.

In this article, we're going to help you and present to y'all all of how y'all can play music on your Amazon Echo device. Yous will observe both free and paid premium options that will cover any music taste you lot might have. You should have in listen that all of the costless options are advertisement-supported, meaning you'll hear an advertising every now and then.

Start off, here is a keen video guide on how to set up your default music service for your Alexa device:

Contents

Free Options
- Amazon Music (complimentary)
- Spotify (free)
- Pandora (free)
- Deezer (gratis)
- Gimme Radio (costless)
- Apple tree Music (free)
- TuneIn (complimentary)
Paid options
- Amazon Music
- Spotify
- Tidal
- Deezer
- SiriusXM
- Apple Music
- TuneIn
- Decision

Free Options

Amazon Music (complimentary)

As you would imagine, Amazon uses its own streaming software on its devices every bit a slice of default music listening programme. Amazon Music Free is a handy, nonetheless basic solution for when y'all want to listen to some music.

It has a express music collection, compared to the total Amazon Music paid options, and information technology runs ads, but if y'all don't have anything better, it will do to fill your fourth dimension.

Spotify (free)

The virtually popular streaming platform in the world, Spotify is a paid service, merely on Amazon Echo products, you tin connect and play Today's Top Hits playlist, their Discover Weekly playlist, or a custom-made playlist of your own choice.

Every bit ever, all yous need to do is sign in and go for it.

Pandora (free)

Pandora is a US-only streaming radio service that was 1 of the start internet streaming platforms. It was caused past Sirius XM Satellite Radio a couple of years ago and from then on it serves as a costless version of their music radio.

Information technology has a freemium option, where you can heed to music with ads, merely yous can freely skip every bit much as you like. Information technology has a large music collection and all y'all have to do is to sign upwards and listen on.

Deezer (free)

Another world-famous streaming platform, Deezer is famous for its Flow in the paid version. But, with the complimentary version, you'll go to play a mix of songs based on the track, album, or playlist y'all've selected.

It has a limitation at six tracks y'all can skip for an hour when playing music through this service and if you have a specific song you lot want to hear out you can play 30 seconds preview and if you lot like it, you lot tin listen to the mix based on that vocal and artist.

The corking thing nigh it is that y'all tin can always switch from your premium business relationship to a free one by just canceling your subscription.

Gimme Radio (gratis)

If you're a true metal fan, then you'll exist thrilled to see what we have here. Gimme Radio is a metallic-only online radio station with alive DJs handpicking the best metal songs and creating the most iconic playlists you lot have ever heard. And it'due south free!

You can listen to it from everywhere and you lot can utilise their app to conversation with other metalheads from around the world.

Apple Music (free)

Apple tree Music is another manner to listen to music using their free trial period as sort of a way to see what the platform has to offer and whether or not it suits your preference. Of course, all gratis trials come with some limitations. However, yous volition take admission to over 75 million songs.

TuneIn (free)

TuneIn is a gratis app that allows access to 100,000 radio stations and over five million podcasts for you to listen to. Information technology likewise offers general music listening divided into many genres which you can easily search. If you but desire to keep upwardly with current trends and what's going on in the world, you can simply caput over to podcasts and see what piques your interest.

Paid options

If y'all don't want to listen to the ads all the fourth dimension and have other limitations, at that place'southward always an option to pay a monthly subscription and have unlimited admission to all of the app's features, no matter what they are. So, if yous're willing to spend a little more than money, only go a premium sound quality and more, here are the best-paid options for listening to music on Alexa.

Amazon Music

Amazon has two paid options you can apply depending on what levels of access you want to accept. First off, there'south Prime Music. If yous're an Amazon Prime user, for which y'all pay a monthly subscription anyhow, you lot'll get bonus access to Prime Music, consisting of two million songs, with offline listening mode and unlimited skips. If you're looking to go unlimited admission to all of the threescore million songs Amazon has available then you lot can become a subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited. With this, y'all get full access to all of the options y'all tin can have on this platform.

Spotify

With Spotify premium, you'll get upwards to 10,000 songs for offline listening, a subscription to Hulu video streaming service, unlimited access to all of the songs on the platform, and all of the abilities of the platform unlocked. Also, in that location is a peachy option to purchase Spotify Premium at cheaper for students and families. On the student account, you have to show that you are a educatee with your ID, only once you practice that, you tin go all of the premium stuff for half a price! Cool, correct?

Tidal

The latest projection of Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Tidal apace took its place on the marketplace for music streaming devices. As an artist-owned and artist-run platform, you can help artists to go a better deal with Tidal than anywhere else in the industry. As such, it's a paid-merely platform, only with premium content that you become. There are several different subscription plans. Too, in that location are discounted offers for armed forces, first responders, and students, giving them the option to get everything for half a toll, which is actually nice and thoughtful.

Deezer

Deezer, as opposed to Spotify, is a music-simply platform, and it competes with the competition through pricing. There are no specific plans which you can cycle through, simply one premium plan currently bachelor. With that, y'all will get all of the options this app has and if you lot want to save some more, yous can buy a yearly subscription, which can save y'all some coin.

SiriusXM

The first major internet radio is still going stronger than always, and so it's no wonder it'due south still on this list. Different from the streaming platforms, SiriusXM has more of a radio format, with shows and hosts like a true radio, just going online and y'all can choose what you want to hear and when – something of a perfect mix of two mediums.

Of grade, that doesn't come for gratuitous, and there are several different subscription plans. You tin become a four-month free trial with which you can get standard full access, which yous can then go on with paying for a monthly fee.

Apple tree Music

Apple Music premium comes without limitations for the user who has subscribed and offers over xc million songs and 30,000 playlists nether your fingertips. Every bit a bonus characteristic, yous tin can also download your favorite songs in order to play them offline when you don't have a usable Wi-Fi connexion.

TuneIn

TuneIn premium is a paid subscription service that is bachelor for both TuneIn Radio and TuneIn Radio Pro. This characteristic allows access for listening to live sports games equally well every bit live coverage for sports like NFL, basketball, and many more than. The bully affair nigh it is that it's ad-free without whatsoever commercials interfering which can have a load off of anyone's mind.

Decision

Music today can easily exist streamed from the comfort of your home. Through streaming services, you tin can cull from a diversity of tens of millions of songs and play them on any Repeat device.

Services like Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music are cracking options to stream your favorite music on your Echo device. All of these services are available through your smartphone, tablet, or computer.

Although all of these services are splendid choices, I find Spotify as my go-to selection for listening to music via Alexa. Every bit a premium Spotify user, I can use my Alexa to play any vocal I want from a specific playlist or a certain artist.

Premium services like Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music will give you the best overall experience equally y'all'll be able to choose songs that are not available on other platforms.