Deezer gains full support from Alexa, but only if you're a subscriber

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You may not be able to stream all that much music from all that many sources on your Apple HomePod, but that certainly won’t present a problem if you’re using an Amazon Alexa-enabled device. The latest music streaming provider to gain Alexa support is Deezer, which at long last is fully integrated with the Amazon smart assistant.

While you could previously use basic voice controls to search through songs and artists, or control the volume, or playback your favorite pieces, you can now also say things like, “Alexa, play Flow,” and the artificial intelligence-powered helper will play your Flow playlist created by Deezer’s smart algorithms.

With the addition of Deezer to the Alexa platform, you’re now privy to an additional 53 million songs that live in the Deezer music base. Sure, those songs probably exist elsewhere too, but if you prefer the Paris-based music company to say Spotify or Pandora, now you can listen just as you would with just about any other music streaming service.

We should point out, however, that your preference for Deezer must be strong to take advantage of this new functionality. In order to access the Deezer and Alexa integration, you have to be a paying subscriber. Like Spotify, Deezer operates off of a freemium model — the service costs $10 a month for individuals or $15 for families. The family plan, by the way, offers kid-only profiles, which may help avoid some of the issues that Alexa has had with inadvertently exposing youngsters to bad words via music playlists.

So why would you consider paying for Deezer? The streaming service looks to differentiate itself from the competition by placing a greater focus on local music and pays particular attention to music from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. That means that if you’re looking to develop more global music tastes, you may want to consider exploring Deezer.

If you don’t recognize one of the new songs that the service plays for you, simply ask Alexa what’s playing, and she will let you know. To enable the new skill, navigate your way over to the “music, video and books” section in the Alexa app. Enable the Deezer skill and start listening to your music.