Skip to main content

Turn your entire home into a sound system via Amazon Alexa

google chromecast versus echo show
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Audiophiles, get ready to turn your whole house into a sound system. Well, sort of. Thanks to Alexa’s new music feature, you’ll be able to “control and synchronize music across multiple Amazon Echo devices in your home.” That means you’ll finally be able to have different music playing on different Echo devices (or groups of devices), and of course, all by way of your voice. And in the near future, Amazon promises, “this ability will be extended to control multi-room music on other connected speakers.”

Using your Alexa app, you can create groups of Echo devices by naming these groups (whether it’s the living room, the downstairs, or the upstairs bathroom). After creating the group, just tell Alexa what you want to listen to. For example, you can say, “Alexa, play Josh Groban in the upstairs bathroom.” You’ll be able to listen to your favorite tunes from Amazon Music, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and Pandora. Amazon notes that Spotify and SiriusXM support is forthcoming. One thing to note — while you can control all the content on these speaker groups using nothing more than your voice, you’ll still have to adjust volume either manually, through the app, or by talking to individual speakers.

Recommended Videos

“In just the last few months, we’ve added dozens of new features to Alexa that enhance your entertainment experience—control of Amazon Fire TV and your home entertainment systems via Echo; music lyrics, Amazon Video, and movie trailers on Echo Show; and activity-based music searches — and we’re just getting started,” said Toni Reid, vice president of Amazon Alexa. “Today, we’re making Alexa even smarter with an all-new feature that lets you play music synchronized on multiple Echo devices to provide room-filling music throughout your home.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

This feature is already live for Echo device owners in the U.S., U.K., and Germany.

Moreover, Amazon announced a series of new tools that will allow AVS device makers to integrate with Amazon Alexa Multi-Room Music. Slated to become available early next year, these new functionalities will allow device makers with connected sound systems to control their music by way of Alexa. That means you’d be able to use an Amazon Echo Show to play music on your Sonos speaker.

“Alexa set the standard for voice in smart homes,” said Antoine Leblond, vice president of Software for Sonos. “We’re proud of the work we’ve done together as Amazon’s first multi-room partner – all you’ll need is an Alexa-enabled device, and playing music out loud on Sonos will be as easy as saying ‘Alexa, play music in the living room.’”

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Alexa adds new features to help with your holiday shopping
An Amazon smart display on a kitchen counter.

Alexa is one of the most popular smart assistants, and this month it's becoming even more useful. Just in time for the holidays, Amazon has rolled out three new features to assist with your trips to the grocery store.

One of the coolest new features allows you to scan your handwritten shopping list and instantaneously convert it to an Amazon Shopping list. After opening the Alexa app and heading to the Shopping List menu, simply press the Scan button to start the process.

Read more
The best Alexa skills to use on your Amazon Echo in 2023
Amazon Echo Show 15 Smart Display on a wall.

Alexa-enabled devices give you an easy way to interact with the rest of your smart home. Security cameras, smart locks, video doorbells, and other gadgets can all be controlled using voice commands given through Alexa -- but your device can be further augmented using skills.

Alexa skills are apps that can be downloaded to your device to give it additional functionality. Most of these are free, though a few do require payment. Alexa skills can do everything from giving you movie recommendations to launching an interactive gaming adventure, making them a powerful way to improve your smart speaker or smart display.

Read more
Alexa vs. HomeKit: Which smart home platform is best?
Apple HomePod 2023

When it comes to building a smart home, few steps are as important as choosing your smart home platform. Pick the wrong one, and you could be left using dozens of separate smartphone apps to control all your gadgets.

Apple HomeKit and Amazon Alexa are two of the best options available today -- but which one is better for you? Here’s a comparison of the two platforms to help you decide.
What is a smart home platform?

Read more