Even years after the technology first came out, using a Voice Assistant still feels a bit like magic. You can just talk to your voice-enabled device and ask it to do something – for example, play your favorite playlist – and it’ll easily do it, treating you to the music in a matter of seconds.
Amazon’s assistant – Alexa – is among the best of the bunch. Not only can she do quite a lot of cool stuff, but she is also integrated into a line of awesome smart speakers – Amazon Echo. These devices are always ready to answer your queries and additionally offer you great sound quality for the price.
What is the default music service on Alexa and Amazon Echo
However, as with all good things, there is a catch. Alexa and Echo devices are Amazon products, so they are deeply ingrained into the company’s ecosystem. That means, by default, you’ll be forced to use all the services that Amazon offers.
Therefore, while searching for movies, your results will be from Prime Video. The same is true for your music – If you ask Alexa to play your favorite tunes on your Echo device, it’ll not be played on your Spotify, Apple Music or Tidal. It’ll use Amazon Music.
Why should I change my default music service?
For some people, this state of affairs might not matter much. If you do not have your favorite music streaming app, with many playlists for each mood or time of day, nothing stops you from just using Amazon Music. It’ll play the tracks you’re looking for, and it’s included in your Prime membership.
However, some people are a bit more picky about their streaming services. If you’ve taken the time to create hundreds of playlists and favorite thousands of songs on one platform, you don’t want to be forced to do the same on another.
Sometimes, it’s also a question of availability. Amazon Music might be a huge service, but it still falls short of Spotify’s or Apple Music’s library. Therefore, especially if your music tastes are a bit more niche, you might find that your favorite artists’ music is simply not available on Amazon Music.
Lastly, listening to music is increasingly also a social experience. You can see that with the popularity of all the monthly and yearly roundups which appear on social media. Everyone wants to show off their favorite artists, show their music taste and simply spread the joy of music.
That’s why people tend to stick to just one music streaming service. Once you start raking in your listening hours, you don’t want to spread them out between different services. You want all your listening to be summed up with one musical timeline.
How to change the default music service on Alexa
Fortunately, even though Amazon Music is the default streaming service on Alexa, Amazon does not force you to use it. You can easily change your preferred streaming service, which makes Alexa play the songs you request from another source.
Remember that if you have more than one Alexa profile, the following method changes the default services only for one selected profile. If you want all the profiles to use other streaming services, you’ll need to go through this process for each profile.
Here’s how to change the default music streaming service on Alexa:
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- On your mobile device, open the Alexa app.
- In the app, select More from the menu at the bottom.
- Once there, select Settings.
- Tap on the Music & Podcasts menu.
- Select your profile.
- Now choose Your Default Services.
- Now select the service that you want Alexa to use as the default. Note that you’ll need to sign into your account in the preferred service and link it to Alexa.
How to change the default music service on Amazon Echo
Amazon’s voice assistant is well known from the company’s devices, be it Fire tablets or Fire TV sticks. However, Alexa probably feels best when used on the Amazon Echo. They provide convenient access to the voice assistant in the most crucial rooms in the house and make the music you’re streaming sound so much better, thanks to their decent speakers.
That’s why it’s so important that your Echo devices follow suit when changing your default music streaming service on Alexa. Fortunately, it’s extremely easy to change their default music service. The process does not differ from changing this setting on Alexa; you just need to keep in mind which profile you choose.
Here’s how to change the default music service on Amazon Echo:
- On your mobile device, open the Alexa app.
- In the app, select More.
- Once there, select Settings.
- Tap on the Music & Podcasts menu.
- Select your profile. (IMPORTANT: You need to choose the profile which is connected to your Echo devices. If you have a few Echo devices connected to different profiles, only the ones connected to the profile you choose in this step will change their default streaming service.)
- Now choose Your Default Services.
- Now select the service that you want Alexa to use as the default. You can do different services for music, podcasts and artist & genre stations. Note that you’ll need to sign in to your account in the preferred service and link it to Alexa.
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