Speakers like the Amazon Echo Plus or the top-tier Echo Studio can unleash your favorite tunes with room-filling sound. An Echo is great for parties, house-cleaning sessions, cooking, or just setting some relaxing mood music (add a smart display, and even more possibilities open up).
Even if you’ve been using your Echo device to listen to music, you may not know everything an Echo can really do. These hacks will ensure you aren’t missing out on all the Echo has to offer.
Let Alexa quiz you about your next playlist
If you’re signing up for Amazon’s music services for the first time, you may not be sure where to start listening or — for those with more experience with the service — how to find new music you actually like via an Echo. Fortunately, Alexa makes it easy.
Start by saying, “Alexa, help me find a playlist.”
You can do this at any time, and give different answers to explore new playlist options without ever getting out your phone.
Sync up multiple Echo devices for multi-room music
Echo devices are designed to play together with the right settings, so you can have multiple devices all playing the same music throughout your home. There are two ways to do this, depending on how big your home is and how many Echo devices you have.
Option 1: Simply say, “Alexa, play Billie Eilish everywhere.” The secret is that when you have more than one Echo device in your home,
Option 2: If you want certain Echo devices to play but not others, you can set up multi-room music. Open up your Alexa app and choose Devices from the menu at the bottom. Now, at the top right of the app, you should see a Plus icon for adding new groups. Tap the Plus, and select Set Up Multi-Room Music.
Set Echo alarms with music
Alexa alarms are easy to create, but if you don’t like the beeping tones, you can always replace them with music of your choice. You just have to specify what you want to hear. Say something like, “
Switch on Song ID
Song ID is a mode where Alexa will list the artist and the name of the song before playing it. You can use this mode when playing unfamiliar playlists, learning your favorite songs from a new artist, and so on. Just say, “
Change your default music service
Ordinarily, Echo devices will play music from Amazon Music by default. However, if you’d prefer to have Alexa search and play from another music service without you have to specify it every time, you can switch to another default service.
Head to your Alexa app, select the lines in the upper left corner, and select Settings from the menu. Scroll down until you see Music & Podcasts, then select it. Now choose the option to Link New Services, select the service you want to add, and sign in to your account. You can check out our full guide on how to do this with Apple Music for more information.
Sign up for Music Unlimited and get 3D music
Amazon Music Unlimited is the full music subscription for all the tunes Amazon has to offer (and you get the first three months free if you want to experiment a little). However, Music Unlimited offers some other treats that you may not know about. If you’re an audiophile, you’ll love the compatibility with a new feature called 3D Music.
3D Music is packed full of as much audio data as possible, up to 10x the bitrate of standard streaming music, for as much clarity and resonance as possible. When using the Unlimited Music subscription, look for tracks that have a 3D icon beside them.
The big caveat is that only one Echo speaker actually has the technology to play 3D music so far: The Echo Studio. You’ll need one of these models to enjoy this new standard.
Play mood music by letting Alexa pick
Not sure what you want to listen to? Let Alexa decide by telling your Echo to play music for a particular activity. Experiment by saying things like, “
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