[Amazon Alexa] Swap Spotify accounts without changing Alexa account

[rowets]

I have a Spotify Family account for myself and my wife

I have an alexa unit in every room, every unit is using MY amazon account as all the lights and home automation can only be setup on one Amazon account

I want to play Spotify in the room i’m in

My wife wants to play her music in a different room

Both myself and my wife also want to use the home automation whilst playing music, eg, turning on the lights

This can be done using Apple music and Amazon music but Spotify require to swap to a different spotify account for the other person

To swap to a different spotify account means changing the Alexa profile of the alexa device and then all the home automation no longer works from that device. 

Please can you allow both myself and my wife to play music in different rooms WITHOUT having to change the Amazon Alexa account

It would be great if I could say ‘Alexa, play spotify from Trevors account’ and my wife could say in a different room, at the same time, ‘Alexa, play spotify from Jackie’s account’ 

This is not a duplicate of other suggestions, I’ve checked and anything close was raised before the ability to swap alexa accounts was implemented. Swapping alexa accounts is only a work around and is not a solution to this problem.

Many people want this feature and your chat team said I should raise it here

Here is a link to the forum, lots of people are leaving spotify because only spotify do not support this feature, you guys need to catch up

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Premium-for-Family/FAMILY-AND-ECHO-ALEXA/m-p/4900618#M26242

From my research it seems there is talk about Spotify only has one concurrent music stream whereas Apple and Amazon music have multiple streams, but please can you improve on this, the thread above was started over 18 months ago, something should be done to improve on this issue

Again, please don’t write this off as a duplicate and do nothing/say it relates to a 3rd party, people still want this feature

Thanks

Trevor Rowe

19/2/2021

Folks, just a quick update on this.

Spotify say this

The Community team talks with various other Spotify teams several times a month about ideas with over 500 votes (our criteria for being a top idea). It’s from these meetings that we apply one of the following statuses to each idea….

This idea has reached over 500 votes so I asked on chat for timescales/what will happen next and was told to keep an eye on this thread.

That really sounded open ended!

As the person on chat could only deal with app and account queries, I was told to also contact the support team to get action on this

So as well as voting for this issue (please continue), 

Spotify need to keep up with Apple and Amazon and fix this issue - with your help we might just get this solved!

[rowets]

This needs to be BOTH Amazon and Spotify talking together to make this work, they are just passing the buck!

However, being that today Amazon have announced 18,000 redundancies and the Alexa department is effected, I feel even better that I have moved to Apple music and Apple homepods, where all this stuff works!

[Ljgwheeler]

@Magicmerly Thats the crux of the issue - having to switch Alexa accounts in the first place - and then, when you do, the Alexa/Echo speaker network disappearing from Spotify. Interestingly chromecasts do show up.  Amazon Music doesn't have this issue so either Amazon are giving their own streaming service an advantage and scuppering their competitor, or Spotify is not prepared to sort the issue. 

[sdeftink]

The issue is a Spotify issue, hard stop.  The switch profile "solution" doesn't actually work.  I've tried working with both Spotify and Amazon.  It's Spotify's Alexa Skill design and lack of multi-stream support making it 100% on Spotify to fix the issue.  See the link to another thread below for additional context.

How can I play music on several devices at the sim... - The Spotify Community

[masonc]

I can’t get my Echoes to switch profiles to even try it. They keep saying “sorry. I’m having trouble accessing your household skill right now”

[MadamR0se]

Almost 1000 votes on this and still no movement. I’ve been paying for both an Amazon and Spotify music account. This year I have already started to pair back my subscriptions, I’ll be sticking with the one that lets everyone listen to their own music on their own rooms. 

[sdeftink]

After Spotify's lack of movement, response, or otherwise on this topic while seeing a continuous stream of pointless new functionality, the only reason we're still on the service is that I have a bunch of gift cards to use up.  Once they're gone, we'll move if this isn't remedied by then...which it doesn't look like it will be.

[Metalbry]

It's absolutely astounding to me this is still an issue and even more astounding no further updates have been provided.  I've got to find a better solution for my family's sanity.  This just becomes more of an issue as kids get older and start wanting to listen to their own things.

[sdeftink]

I'm mostly thankful our son hasn't asked for his own account yet.  Today we're on a Duo plan and it is a daily challenge for me and my wife.  I really feel for those of you with family accounts with 3 or more simultaneous users.

[shakeheartbreak]

@sdeftink I'd be interested to learn more about the lack of multi-stream support.  I ask this because Spotify nailed this issue YEARS ago on Google Home and the requested functionality worked seamlessly on that ecosystem.  So I doubt it's anything on the infrastructure side for Spotify, which leaves me to think it's either:

1) Amazon outright won't allow it, to protect Amazon Music as the only service to offer it

2) Spotify haven't bother to implement it in the Spotify skill for Alexa

3) Spotify can't implement it in the Spotify skill for Alexa, because of something that causes a conflict elsewhere in the way that Alexa handles accounts and profiles.  However, if that's true then how can it work for Amazon Music as per #1 but still not Spotify?

[sdeftink]

@shakeheartbreak think of it as 2 possible approaches to address the challenge.

1)  Allow multi-stream meaning the provider, Spotify in this case, allows a single user account to have more than a single stream of music/podcast/etc. to one or more locations.  This is basically a workaround.  Spotify could solve this challenge by allowing X simultaneous streams to a single location, 5 for example.  Using this example, it would allow me to link my Spotify account to the Alexa skill, stream to one speaker for myself, my wife another stream to another speaker, and my son to another so long as we're all at home.  Again, it's a workaround and commonly how companies like Netflix, Hulu, etc. manage their subscriptions.

2)  Allow connecting multiple accounts to Alexa.  This is where Spotify would have to fix their skill to allow such functionality.

I can't comment on how Amazon and Apple are currently addressing the issue with their music streaming services other than to say they work.  I'd suspect Apple is allowing multi-streaming and Amazon is connecting accounts to profiles but that's pure speculation.