Alexa playing only radio no matter what command i give her

[Victor79]

Plan

Free

Country

Romania

Device

Amazon echo dot gen 3 and Asus Zenfone

My Question or Issue

Until a few days ago Alexa was playing every song i would tell her with no problem but now whenever i issue a command her answer is always the same "[Whatever i said] Radio on Spotify" and then just starts playing a random radio song that has absolutely nothing to do with what i told her.

Me: "Alexa, play songs by Christina Perri"

Alexa: "Christina Perri Radio on Spotify" - starts playing random radio song

Another example

Me: "Alexa, play The Rose by LeAnn Rimes"

Alexa: "The Rose Radio by Spotify" -random song

Same thing goes for playlists, i named my only playlist "Ruby"

Me:"Alexa, play Ruby playlist"

Alexa:"Ruby Radio from Spotify" - random song

So far i tried linking unlinking accounts from spotify and amazon, deleted accounts, made new accounts, tried different phones for the alexa app, nothing worked...

Note: Alexa is having this issue on amazon echo dot 3 and my asus zenfone

I hope someone can help

[hauptp]

Not sure why that is... It does a perfect job of understanding what to play, then plays something else.

[wbshaw]

Try playing from the Spotify app and selecting Alexa as the playback device for a given track. If that plays ok, then try the voice command on Alexa again.

[Peter]

Hey folks,

Thanks for reaching out to us about this!

If you're experiencing this issue, could you try unlinking your Spotify account from the Alexa app and then re-linking it using the steps in this Spotify Answer?

Bear in mind that certain commands are available depending on your subscription (free/Premium) and the region that you're in.

If you're still having trouble using voice commands with Alexa, we suggest you reach out to Amazon via the relevant support page here.

Cheers! Let us know if there's anything else we can help with 🙂

[Pratt2112]

Try "Alexa, play [artist] mix on Spotify". 😉

[TejuNaik]

Hello,

I had the same problem but now it’s resolved.

I had my account created through Facebook login in Spotify.

All I did was delete that account and create a fresh Spotify account with new email address.

Now it works fine!

I was frustrated when it wasn’t working with my old account and had no clue why!

Hope this helps!

Cheers!

[Victor79]

Hello there,

Thank you for your post. If this was done recently please let us know if it still works after 5 days. Every time i would create a new spotify account that's aprox when it stopped working.

Thanks

[ralfjon]

Alright, I have drill down the issue and would like to share the solution since many others have the same pain. 

The leading cause of the issue is whenever you call for Alexa to play music from Spotify, from time to time, it plays the music from the radio or some other service instead of playing the exact song. Regardless of whether you have the premium or not, the Alexa has a bug that pulls the song from a free Spotify account, not your account. That is why you cannot see your Echo anymore from Spotify for the streaming. Since then, you will not be able to use your "Premium" Account anymore. 

My solution is simple. From the Spotify, under Apps, remove access of Alexa. It will show the error message "Failed to revoke access for the application, and please try again later." If you somehow don't see this message, your next access will bring your Echo back to your Spotify. Anyways, ignore the message and go to the Alexa setting (https://alexa.amazon.com/spa/index.html#skills/dp/B07FK56GVY) and enable the Spotify skill again. Then check the Spotify if you see Echo there as an output device. If you don't see your Echo device, then remove access to Alexa from Spotify again. You will eventually see the Echo from Spotify again in multiple trials. In my case, I even created a new account and logged in back with my original. That actually helped as well.

As soon as you see your Echo on Spotify, then it means your Alexa and Spotify are connected as expected. However, due to the Alexa bug, if your voice command triggers to use the free account, your account association will be removed again and connected to the free account. After that, you can only play songs from the radio.

I stop using the voice command because that cause so many issues. Instead, I use my Spotify app from my phone and choose Echo as an output device. Alexa Spotify Skill must be updated; this is such a bad issue and has been there for a long time.

[Paxtu76]

Ive solved linking Alexa with my Spotify account using EMAIL + PASSWORD, I was using my premium account logged with Facebook, that apparently makes Alexa work as if you have a free account. 
So Ive removed the skill and added again with the Spotify account directly and worked.

[sanchogrande]

"Bear in mind that certain commands are available depending on your subscription (free/Premium) and the region that you're in."

I could use clarification on this. What is available? I'm a free user in the USA. Should I be able to use Spotify with my echo for more than just radio? If so, I'd like to know how. 

[Jeremy]

Hey there @sanchogrande,

Thank you for your post in this thread.

You should be able to play more than radio. 

Note: Since you're a free user you're only able to play music in shuffle mode.

If you're not able to do this we suggest that you perform a clean reinstall of the app. This will make sure there's no old cache files causing this.

Keep us posted. We're always one reply away.

Cheers!

[abiz1221]

Im not sure if this support system is as active anymore, but I'm having the same problem. I've done the clean restart just like you said, I've disconnected the account and relinked it, I've changed the default provider setting in the Alexa app, I've changed the password to my Spotify account and tried logging out and back in and nothing is working. Again, if the line is active, I need help 😂

[Kiril]

Hey @abiz1221,

Thanks for reaching out on the Community!

Could you share with us what is your current subscription for the account you're using as default in your Alexa device? Keep in mind that if you are rocking the free service of Spotify, the playback features there are limited and so are the voice commands that are received from the Alexa device. You can only choose music from playlists, so you can't just pick and choose the music you want to hear on a whim. 

Currently you can use Spotify free and ask Alexa on your Echo smart speaker for: 

• Any artist, album or track to hear a music mix inspired by your choice
• Your personal playlists to hear a playlist radio based on your mix 
• Or listening to Spotify's specially curated playlists for every genre, mood or activity

To get more info about using your Alexa device with Spotify you can find details on our Support page here, and also on Amazon's own 'Alexa Skills' page here.

Hope this helps clarify things. Don't hesitate to give us a shout if there's anything else we can help with.

[Sharlindra]

A crutch-solution I found to this is as follows:

Open your Spotify with your phone or tablet, start playing your playlist there, then change the output from speaker icon on lower left corner of screen to your echo dot. This will play your playlist instead of the radio.

The command that pairs with this if you have just one playlist is 'resume music'.

Additionally, I found that 'play my liked songs' command plays a playlist with all the songs I have tagged with 'like' instead of switching to radio.

As I said, it is just a crutch-technique for those of us who have just one playlist or who bother out of necessity to use a cellphone in lieu of voice commands to turn on music.

Hopefully this is helpful to any who have banged their head against the wall and possibly been a bit rude to their Alexa out of frustration.

[Kate8409]

I simply unlinked my Spotify from the alexa app and relinked it and it solved the problem hope this helps

[lauxhing2]

try saying the song and skip through untill you see a playlist that has that song

[PrernaThawani]

It didn't work!!

Could you please advise? 

[PrernaThawani]

Heyy did you manage to solve the problem? If so, how? 

[Kartik3]

Check this guide, this may help you in resolving the issue.

[GinoDiCampo]

Unfortunately, you will need to use the master account and link that with Alexa. Family accounts do not work and will always play Spotify Radio instead of single songs. So annoying. If I am working upstairs and want to listen to MY music and not Heads Shoulders knees and toes, I can't! Grrrrr

[312t3brwfgkvwnrxb57j]

How can I stop it by playing radio on Spotify when I ask for a certain song