How to play multiple music services on an Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo Alexa Music Lifestyle
Amazon Echo Alexa Music Lifestyle (Image credit: Chris Wedel/Android Central)

Smart speakers are quickly becoming the norm for many households. People have a variety of reasons to add one to their homes, from controlling smart home devices to using them as an intercom. But perhaps the most common use is as a speaker to play audio. Whether music, podcasts, or audiobooks, smart speakers are great for listening to audio — especially Amazon Echo devices. With access to multiple music services on an Amazon Echo, you can get your favorite audio all in one place, and here's how.

How to play multiple music services on your Amazon Echo

As some of the best smart speakers on the market, Amazon Echo devices span from the high-fidelity Amazon Echo Studio to the small, but powerful Echo Dot — with many in between. Regardless of which speaker you use, connecting your favorite music services to your Alexa account will make your audio accessible to all your Echo devices.

  1. Open the Alexa app on your phone.
  2. Tap More in the bottom right of the screen
  3. Select ⚙️Settings
  4. Scroll down, and tap on Music & Podcasts.Source: Chris Wedel / Android Central and Chris Wedel/Android Central

  1. Select a music service from the list you want to use, and follow the instructions to sign in to your account.
  2. Click on Link New Service to add a service not showing in the initial list.
  3. Tap on Default Services to change the service that will play when you ask Alexa to play audio without specifying a service.Source: Chris Wedel/Android Central

Setting a default service means that if you want Amazon Music to be what plays when you say "Alexa, play some music" and Spotify to play when you say "Alexa, resume my podcast" — Step 7 is where you set that up.

Listen to what you want

Streaming audio has overtaken our listening habits over the years, and having your favorite audio easily accessible from your smart speaker only makes sense. Some of the most popular smart speakers are from Amazon; its Echo devices are compatible with some of the best in streaming.

Though you can find a good number of audio streaming services on Amazon, one you won't find there is YouTube Music. For that, you'll need to check out of the many great Google Assistant speakers. Having choices is wonderful, but unfortunately, native streaming for every music service isn't available on your Amazon Echo device. But you can always connect to it using Bluetooth and play any audio you choose.

Chris Wedel
Smart Home Writer
Chris Wedel is a fan of all things tech and gadgets. Living in rural Kansas with his wife and two young boys makes finding ways to get and stay online tricky. By utilizing his years of experience with the tech and mobile communications industries — success is assured. When not conquering connectivity challenges and testing new gadgets, he enjoys cruising a gravel road in his UTV with some good tunes.