The Amazon Echo is an amazing device that approaches the world of Star Trek and talking computers that follow your voice commands.
An echo is a two-way communication voice Internet device.
One feature that everyone loves about Amazon Echo is that the Echo can take media from other sources and play it through the speaker.
You can configure your smartphone, tablet, or even desktop computer to Alexa via a Bluetooth connection to play music and other media.
Even if you don’t have other smart home gadgets, the Echo is a great music player.
Whether you got the full Echo or opted for Dot or Tap, here are all the ways you can play music on your Alexa-enabled speaker.
Does Amazon Echo Dot play music?
Before we get started, you might ask if your Echo device can play your music even if you don’t have a stock Echo.
The good news is that the Echo Dot, as well as other Echo devices like Echo Spot and Echo Show, can play music.
However, the Echo Dot is only the main speaker, so Dot isn’t very suitable for playing music using Alexa.
This is why your best bet is to connect your Echo Dot to another speaker.
Amazon Prime Music
One of the many benefits of Amazon Prime is Prime Music.
It is a limited music streaming service that includes Alexa music stations and nearly two million songs.
Amazon Prime Music used to allow to upload your own tracks to the Amazon cloud, but the company has discontinued the feature.
Any music you buy digitally from Amazon is automatically added to your account, so you can transfer those albums to Echo without any additional steps.
Access the Amazon Music player web interface and press on Upload your music to your cloud library present on the left side.
This will prompt you to download and install the Amazon Music player app for Windows or Mac.
To play Prime Music on your Echo, try the following Alexa music commands:
- Play my music.
- Play at Top Pop Station.
- Play classical music.
- Play U2 from the 80s.
- Play the most popular Pearl Jam album.
- Listen to Prime Music for Dance.
Play YouTube Music on Amazon Echo
Many people enjoy listening to music on YouTube, rather than in apps and services specifically designed for music.
YouTube is free and contains millions of tracks and playlists from emerging artists, mainstream actors, superstars, and musicians of the past.
If the song or piece has ever been recorded, it is probably available on YouTube.
However, YouTube is a competitor to Amazon’s own music services such as Amazon Music.
For this reason, Echo does not support playing music found only on YouTube.
Because of this limitation, you need to pair your echo with an external device using Bluetooth.
For this to work, you need a working Amazon Echo or Echo Dot and a Bluetooth-enabled device with an internet connection.
Here are the steps to follow to set up your Echo to play music and other content available on YouTube:
- Turn on Bluetooth on the connected device.
- Say, Alexa, connect to my phone or whatever device you want to connect.
- Follow the instructions to pair your Echo with your device.
- Open the YouTube app on your device (or device web browser) and play any music on YouTube.
- The sound will now sound through your echo speaker.
Listen to music by Deezer
If you like this convenient music service even without a premium account, the service via a special ability works perfectly via Alexa, although it is very limited.
But that’s one of two ways to get absolutely free music streaming services on your Echo.
The ability can be simply installed from the Alexa app for Android and iOS, just open it and:
- Press the menu key at the bottom right (characterized by three parallel horizontal segments).
- Press the item Skills and games, then press the magnifying glass button in the upper right corner.
- After you click on the magnifying glass present in the upper right corner, write in the appropriate box that appears Deezer, Choose the first item and press the button Activate to use.
- A window will open in which you will need to enter your service credentials and log in.
At this point, you’re done with the setup and can enjoy your music.
The procedure is same if you are using the Alexa web interface.
The ability allows you to listen to music from your Stream, the auto playlist that the service creates based on the songs you have bookmarked.
To do this, you need to wake up Alexa and use the command Run my stream on Deezer.
Listen to radio via Alexa
Alexa already has a practical service, ready to listen to streaming radios online and based on the excellent TuneIn radio.
To automatically listen to a station chosen according to your tastes for Alexa, just say: Alexa, play a radio station for me or Alexa, play the radio station [name of your radio station].
If you want to know a list of available online radio stations, then follow these steps:
- Open it and navigate to the Entertainment item
- Scroll down to TuneIn Local Radio and press Scan
- On the screen you can find the most followed local radios, and the most successful general radios, also on the top you can find the search function to find a radio of your interest.
Use your Echo as a Bluetooth speaker
Few people know that your Echo device can also act as a useful Bluetooth speaker and therefore play the music and audio you send from your phone or tablet.
To begin playback music you need to pair first, here is the quick procedure to follow:
- Turn on Bluetooth on the device you want to stream from and make sure it is set to discoverable;
- Open the Alexa app, press the Devices button in the lower right corner;
- Select the item Echo and Alexa, And then the Echo device whose Bluetooth you want to activate;
- Then press the item Bluetooth devices and then the button Pair a new device.
- The device to be paired will appear and you can select it.
- At this point, the procedure is complete and you can play your audio content over the speaker.
