[Amazon Echo] Multi-room music

[formar42]

What is the timeline for Spotify to support Amazons new Multi-room music feature? 

[2buck]

This is so funny. My parents have had multi room music for half a century. (wires) I've had wireless multi room music for a decade and at a third the price of Sonos. I got 4 Creative Xdocks ($50 each, defunct) each with a set of bose speakers. I use to have a bluetooth adapter and then an apple airplay so I could play iTunes. A year ago, I switched to an echo dot with a spotify account. Did the same thing for my parents. So now I play spotify throughout the house. Love it!

[ShnydaOne]

I’m aware there are alternative ways of doing multiroom.   But I am looking for native alexa support through the either alexa app or Spotify app.    

I have done multiroom in many different ways over the past 15 years.   But I’m looking to move to solely my echos.    

[formar42]

This is a fixed multi-room setup. Not something I would imagine most people are interested in. If that were the case, they'd go with a different solution. 

[2buck]

Hey, I'm with ya. Besides, they dont make Xdocks anylonger. And besides, Xdocks don't understand what I'm saying. I figure I'll switch to all dots some day. It's just funny to me how these issues keep dragging on. UE just came out with an Alexa speaker I'd like to keep on my deck. But of course it doesn't support Spotify. Oh and not multi-room either. 

[XanXic]

Talked to Spotify Support today got told this. I'm off to contact Amazon will update if I hear anything from them. Curious if they meant Multiroom as a function or specifically for Spotify. I could see why Amazon would drag their feet about this since Spotify is the direct competition for their service on their own platform.

Checking backstage, if you wish to know the release date of the Multi-Room function, it'll be best if you contact Amazon about that since they'll be the one launching it rather than Spotify.

Also, it'll be a function on one of their devices.

[XanXic]

Amazon's reply was essentially "We're working with Spotify on this, it's coming Soon" Soon being vague and no sense of a timeline. So not much clarity.

[-mB-]

Have you thought perhaps it's a bit more time consuming to implement this feature with Spotify? Coding new APIs/Features doesn't happen over night.

If they said its coming soon, give them some time.. Or code it yourself, as the SDKs are open to everyone.

[formar42]

Software at companies like Spotify is meticulously planned quarters if not a year in advance. They don’t just decide one day “this is the week I’m going to work on amazon multi-room”. Schedules slip and engineering is hard, but they have a schedule. They just choose not to share it. 

[ShnydaOne]

Obviously - and the not sharing is going to cost them subs.

[Who_dat]

Would like to see this feature implemented on Amazon Echo. One of the reasons I like Spotify is it integration across many platforms. I consider myself an early adopter  of new technologies. I often find that Spotify she usually one of the first companies to integrate with multi media technologies.  I hope they don't miss the boat on this. 

I have tried all the music services like Amazon and Spotify and by far  as far as finding the music, organizing, and recommendation for new music.

Thanks to everyone for supporting this thread and following up with Spotify.

[liggee]

+1 for multi room support

I was very shocked that Spotify wasn’t one of the listed partners when this new feature launched. This reminds me of when Spotify wasn’t an initial available backend music distributor for Alexa when it first launched. That made sense then since it’s costly to do these integrations and it was not obvious Alexa would be a success. Now I would assume it’s very apparent that they have a large amount of users who use the Alexa ecosystem. I love Spotify but continual missteps to not support the Alexa ecosystem will cause big issues for a large portion of their most vocal supporters, please support this and future Alexa updates when they benefit your own user base

[EthanHodges]

Unfortunately we are probably going to switch to Amazon Unlimited. We own 3 Amazon Echo's in the house and not being able to listen to music in multiple rooms is a deal breaker for us 😞

[ayjayoh21]

is there a possibility of a reply Spotify?

The modern CS approach is admirable, but several people have asked the same question and you haven't replied.

I too have bought multiple echos with a view to playing the same music thorughout my house. Currently this is not possible using your service, and whilst I am prepared to wait short term for the feature to be available the lack of a simple, courteous repsonse is making me consider alternatives.

[potestas]

Any news on this? If this isn't going to be a supported feature soon, I will definately go with Amazon Prime instead.

[placebored]

I've been a happy Spotify Premium subscriber for over 8 years and have had a Family account for the past 2 and the lack of this feature or any reasonable response about when it will be available (or why it won't ever be) is about to make me terminate and switch to a competitor.  I bought my first Echo three years ago and have been waiting for multi-room support since launch.  When Amazon announced it was FINALLY here over the summer, I was so excited... until lack of Spotify support completely deflated the announcement for me.  Now I've waited a full season for the "coming soon" integration to arrive or at least be formalized and there's still nothing.

I can't think of any other product or service I've ever spend over $1000 on where it would be remotely acceptable for there to be no response to a simple question like this:  Is Amazon Alexa Multi-Room support a feature that is on the roadmap and if so when will it be released?

[ShnydaOne]

I completely agree PlacedBored.   The lack of communication on this topic is really a bad move by Spotify.    I can understand not making a public announcement.   But when users are consistently asking they should give a better answer than maybe sometime.  I’m giving them till the end of the year and I’m moving to Amazon Music.  

[ayjayoh21]

I won't be waiting.

I wanted to show off my echo's capabilities whilst entertaining over Christmas.

But one of the one major functions they are capable of (multi room) is not supported by Spotify, so I will simply switch subscription to another 3rd party app which does support it.

I have also tweeted them a link to this thread, asking for a response. Which I have not yet received.

Suggest you all do the same.

[Richardb888]

Just taken out premium Spotify for the sole purpose of playing on multiroom echos. I'm now cancelling it. SPOTIFY  I'll come back when you get this sorted. Sorry. Not paying 15 quid a month for only having it on one at a time. Can do that for free using Bluetooth. 

[bpalm]

I too have been waiting on this feature for a couple months now. I emailed Amazon a few weeks ago and they gave me a canned response that was worded as if I had requested a feature that they do not plan to work on. My guess is that they don't want to level this playing field because they want people to switch from Spotify to Amazon Music Unlimited. In case you're curious, here's my email exchange with them:

-----------------------------------

Hi there, 

Are you still planning on supporting multi-room audio for Spotify on Amazon echo devices? I've read that there are plans to support it in the future, but that was posted a while ago and I'm wondering if it is still in the product roadmap. 

Thanks! 

------------------

Hello [My Name], Greetings from Amazon. I understand your inquiry regarding playing Spotify music on Alexa Multi Room music group. I'd like to inform you that, at this time, Multi-Room groups only support music playback from Amazon Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn. You can't listen to other types of media and audio (like Flash Briefings, Kindle books, and content from Alexa skills including Sirius XM) through Multi-Room groups. Currently it is not possible to play Spotify music on Multi room music. I agree that it would be really great if it is possible to play the Spotify music in Multi room group. To ensure that appropriate team know about this, I've forwarded your concern as feedback to our Echo Development Team for consideration so that they can come up with possible options for this in the coming days. Thanks for letting us know about what additional features you would like to use on Alexa. The more you let us know the more opportunities we have to make necessary improvements to the device so that it gives good user experience. We are trying very hard to establish ourselves as a successful Echo store and can assure you of numerous changes in very near future which will enable us to achieve our goal and Customer feedback like yours is very important in helping us continue to improve our services. For the mean time please extend your patience while we work on it. Further if you have additional suggestions for improvement, or if you have any issues with your device, please feel free to contact us. For your convenience we are always here and glad to help you. We look forward to see you again soon.

We'd appreciate your feedback. Please use the buttons below to vote about your experience today.

Best regards, Jyothsna Amazon.com

[ayjayoh21]

Am I not right in thinking it is Spotify where the issue lies and not Amazon?

It is a spotify restriction that is the problem.

They would just need to allow your account to play on more than one device and it wouldn't be difficult to recode the software so that this is possible on Amazon products.