FAMILY AND ECHO ALEXA

[hcn1979]

Plan

Family

Country

 UK

My Question or Issue

I pay £14.99/month for family subscription. I have 2 Alexas and an Echo Dot. I can't wok out how to have spotify running on each Alexa device, but different music on each through Spotify. We can only seem to access Spotify on one device at a time. Please can soebody advise if we can do this and if so, how. I don't want to play the same music as my sons!

[NitinJain]

Hi,

To be able to listen to music at the same time, all family members need to have their own Spotify account. If they don't have their own account yet, they can sign up here.

Once all family members have their own accounts, you can then invite each member to your Premium for Family plan by following these steps: 

1. Go to your account page.
2. Click Premium for Family in the menu on the left.
3. Click SEND INVITE.
4. Enter the email address of the person you want to invite and click SEND INVITE. A confirmation email will be sent to you when they accept the invite and are added to the plan.

Once each family member joins the family plan, they should be able to enjoy the Premium featureswith no issues.

However, you'll need to make sure that, if they're accepting the invite on the same device it was sent from, the owner who sent the invite has logged out of their account page first.

[Peter]

Hey @hcn1979.

Thanks for reaching out to us about this.

Just to follow up on what @NitinJain said:

Each Spotify account in the Family plan can link to a separate Alexa-enabled device, and only one device with the Spotify and Alexa apps installed on it can be connected to any given Alexa-enabled device. So if you can only access Spotify on one (Alexa-enabled) device at a time, this is expected behaviour.

Let us know if that answers your question - we'll be happy to help you further if there's anything that's unclear.

[RA_Bishop]

Hi,  I have recently change from Apple Music where with a family subscription I could play different music on each Alexa in the house with no need to change user accounts. 

Just to clarify your statement above.  Are you saying that this is not possible with Spotify ?

[Guido]

Hey @RA_Bishop,

No worries, it is possible. But you'll need to be logged in with different accounts per device. You can have up to 6 Premium accounts with a Premium Family subscription so this shouldn't be an issue.

Hope this helps! Let us know if you have questions.

[WellWhatName]

With this approach, you can only control that Alexa with your voice and not through the Spotify app which basically means "no, Spotify does not support normal user scenarios on Alexa but we have an ugly workaround".

RA_bishop - Thanks for confirming that Apple Music works as expected. Might be time to ditch Spotify.

[pprovart]

This issue has been around for a while now , so i would have expected Spotify to be able to produce the solution that Families need.

I have one Alexa Account to manage my group of Alex Devices, but as a family i want an Alexa for each room of the house. Then to be able to let my kids use their Spotify Family Account login on their individual Alexa. They aren't old enough to have their own Amazon Account nor is this an acceptable work around for many years to come. (Plus it breaks having the Alexas grouped under one Control point).

Its funny how fickle people can be, as i would quite happily switch to another music service that lets me have a Family account and for each individual member to listen to their own music on their own Alexa.

What plans have you , Spotify, to launch and update the desire Alexa integration functionality in  to bring it into parity with other services. Thanks.

[Davidor77]

It is a nonsense that this functionality has not been introduced. I upgraded to a premium family account so my children (7 & 8 yo) could access music separately, however I wanted to maintain overall control of the content they can access. The inability to allow them to access their own music on their own device (Echo) with it linked to a single Alexa App (mine/parent) even when everything sits under a single IP address is very frustrating. No solutions are being offered by Spotify & it is why I am currently trialing Amazon Unlimited with the intention of switching.

[russ_a_jones]

Hi all,

A very similar issue has been driving me mad for ages but I may have stumbled across a solution / workaround for our specific case. Hopefully it is relevant for you too. Apologies for the ramble!!!

Our setup - We have a single Amazon Account (my wife's). In the Alexa App on her phone we have linked this Amazon Account to a Spotify Family "Admin" Account (again my wife's). Then within her Spotify Family account she has added a further 3 family "Member" accounts for myself and our 2 boys. In the house we have 4 Amazon Echo's, all connected to the same Amazon Account (my wife's). Each of us has a mobile phone with the Spotify app installed.

Our issue - we were not able to listen to different music on different Echo devices at the same time e.g. my wife could be listening to her music in the Kitchen, but if one of the boys came along and started playing music in their room or I played the music in the car, the kitchen music would stop.

To resolve this:-

- Ensure that all member of the household login to their own Spotify Member accounts on the Spotify App on their mobile phones and setup their own playlists in their own accounts. In our case we had all managed to sign in to my wife's account on our phones and setup playlists in her account, even though we paid for Spotify Family. Sounds like an impossible mistake to make but we did it!

- Pair / connect the Spotify App on each of your mobile phones to the Echo device you want to play music on. To do this say "Alexa, Spotify Connect" to the specific Echo you want to listen to music on and follow the instructions that Alexa gives you. This allows my wife, myself and our boys to each play music from our own Spotify accounts / playlists onto a different Echo, all at the same time. Tested and works well

Words of warning

- When you do use the "Spotify Connect" command, I found it best to keep Spotify closed whilst you ask Alexa, then open Spotify when she tells you to. If you don't, the connection between Spotify App & Echo isn't always made.

- each of our Spotify App's do tend to forget some of the Echo devices over time, so you may have to repeat the "Alexa, Spotify Connect" command from time to time. 

- If you want the full voice controlled playing of music simply by speaking to Alexa, then i'm afraid this solution does not work for the Spotify Member accounts. For us only my wife has this luxury because it is her Spotify Admin Account which is linked to Amazon in the Alexa App. To achieve this for everyone, you would all need an Amazon account but then you lose the point of a house full of Echos and the benefits that brings

So whilst it is not perfect, it works for us and allows us to get all the benefits of the Echos around our home, plus the use of Spotify on them, which in my view is the best music app out there. Having to occasionally ask Alexa to "Spotify Connect" and click the odd button on my phone is for me a small price to pay for the best of both worlds.

Hopefully this has solved some of the difficulties that some of you are having. Oh and by the way, why don't Spotify tell you any of this!!

Happy New Year!

[Davidor77]

Hi Russ,

Thanks for the information. Unfortunately due to my children's ages they don't have their own mobile phones so this isn't a workable solution. There should be an easier way for families to enjoy music concurrently without the need for multiple (spotify / amazon) accounts, additional devices, etc. I understand Spotify not wishing for their service to be abused but, as a parent I want to retrain control of what my children access / listen to. It simply makes no sense to be so restrictive within a family environment; particularly when you consider their competitors already provide the functionality.

I have already signed up for amazon unlimited as their introductory offer was very appealing. Initial thoughts; their music library is larger & (arguably) better, their app is worse, but streaming to multiple devices without arduous workarounds is seamless.

Thanks for your advice & happy new year to you also.