Full List of Alexa Commands for Music [Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, etc]

An Amazon Echo smart speaker might have lots of advanced features for surfing the web and controlling your smart home via the endless list of Alexa commands, but it’s still an excellent speaker for playing music.

In this guide, I’ll share all the music streaming services you can connect to Alexa and use via your Echo smart speaker, plus a full list of music commands for each service.

Table Of Contents

How Do I Control Music with Alexa?
Which Music Streaming Services Work With Alexa?
Alexa Commands for Music
Alexa Commands for Spotify
Alexa Commands for Amazon Music
Alexa Commands for Apple Music
Related Questions

How Do I Control Music with Alexa?

To play music and podcasts with Alexa, you must first connect one of the compatible music streaming platforms and set it as your default service.

To connect a music streaming platform to Alexa:

Go to the ‘More’ tab of the Alexa app.
Select ‘Settings’ and choose ‘Music & Podcasts’.
Tap ‘Link New Service’ and choose from the available options.
Next, log in using your credentials for that service.
Tap ‘Accept terms’ to complete the integration.

Once you have integrated all of your streaming platforms, you can choose which ones to use by default under the ‘Default Services’ list of the ‘Music & Podcasts’ settings.

Even if a service isn’t set as default, you can still access it by using the commands below.

Note: By default, everyone has access to Amazon Music Free using Alexa. If you are already a paying subscriber to Amazon Music, this will also show. More on these options below.

Which Music Streaming Services Work With Alexa?

The following music streaming services work with Alexa in the UK:

1. Amazon Music

There are 3 types of Amazon Music subscriptions:

Amazon Music Free – The default music service for Alexa which is ad-supported and free. You can only choose from select alexa playlists, artists, or genres which will play on shuffle with limited skips per hour.
Amazon Music Prime – Comes free with an Amazon prime membership. There are no ads and you can access 2 million songs.
Amazon Music Unlimited – This is a paid service that gives you unlimited access to a full catalogue of 75 million songs.

2. Spotify

There are 2 types of Spotify subscriptions:

Spotify Free – Similar to Amazon Music Free, this is a limited ad-supported service that only allows you to play on shuffle with 5 skips per hour. You can also access unlimited podcasts via Alexa with Spotify.
Spotify Premium – A premium service that gives you unlimited access to 70 million titles.

3. Apple Music

There is only one Apple Music subscription available which is a paid, ad-free service with access to 75 million songs.

4. Deezer

Similar to Spotify, there are 2 types of Deezer subscription:

Deezer Free – A free service that allows you to choose playlists, artists, or genres. They can be played on shuffle with limited skips per hour.
Deezer Premium – A paid service with unlimited access to 73 million songs.

Alexa Commands for Music

Here are the basic Alexa commands for playing music, playlists, radio, podcasts, and any other media on your Amazon Echo or other Alexa speaker:

“Alexa, play/stop”
“Alexa, pause/resume”
“Alexa, next/previous.”
“Alexa, turn shuffle on/off.”
“Alexa, turn repeat on/off.”
“Alexa, skip back/forward X seconds.”
“Alexa, restart song/album/playlist/podcast.”
“Alexa, repeat this song.”
“Alexa, loop this album/playlist.”
“Alexa, play music for [activity or mood].”
“Alexa, increase/decrease the bass/mid-range/treble.”
“Alexa, set the bass/mid-range/treble to minimum/maximum.”
“Alexa, reset the equalizer.”
Alexa, who sings this?
Alexa, what song is this?
Alexa, when was this song released?
Alexa, what was the top song in [year]?

You can also control music playback on a different Alexa device by saying “on [Echo name]” at the end of each command.

For example, “Alexa, play [song] by [artist] on [Echo’s name]”. This works with individual speakers or using the name of a speaker group instead.

Alexa Commands for Spotify

All of the above basic music commands will work with Spotify, however, there are also some service-specific commands.

Here are all the Alexa commands for Spotify:

“Alexa, play [song] on Spotify.”
“Alexa, play [song] by [artist] on Spotify.”
“Alexa, play [artist] on Spotify.”
“Alexa, play my discover weekly playlist on Spotify.”
“Alexa, play my release radar playlist on Spotify.”
“Alexa, shuffle the playlist on Spotify.”
“Alexa, play [genre] on Spotify.”
“Alexa, play [podcast] on Spotify.”
“Alexa, show me songs/playlists/albums by [artist] on Spotify.” – with Echo Show.
“Alexa, play some music I like on Spotify.”
“Alexa, play the top songs on Spotify.”
“Alexa, play the top songs from the 70s on Spotify.”

Note: If you have set Spotify to be your default music service via Alexa, you won’t need to say ‘on Spotify’ at the end of each command.

Alexa Commands for Amazon Music

By default, you will have your Amazon Music subscription linked to your Alexa device. You can play tracks using the commands shared below.

Commands marked with an asterisk* are not available on the Amazon Music Free plan. See the earlier section for more information on the different plans.

Here is a full list of Alexa commands for Amazon Music:

“Alexa, play [song] on Amazon Music.”*
“Alexa, play [song] by [artist] on Amazon Music.”*
“Alexa, play [artist] on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, play [genre] on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, play brand new music on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, play new [genre] music on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, play new songs by [artist] on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, play [podcast] on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, show me songs/playlists/albums by [artist] on Amazon Music.” – with Echo Show.
“Alexa, play the top songs on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, play the top songs from the 90s on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, play the top songs in [city/country] on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, play the top [genre] songs from the 60s on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, play something I haven’t heard in a while on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, play the [song/artist/genre/playlist] I was listening to on [time and day] on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, play some music I like on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, play more like this – whilst playing Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, thumbs up/down – whilst playing Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, I like/don’t like this song – whilst playing Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, add this song to my playlist .” – whilst playing Amazon Music.
“Alexa, play the song that goes [lyrics] on Amazon Music.”
“Alexa, turn on/off Song ID.” – for Alexa to announce the name and artists of each song.

Note: If you have set Amazon Music to be your default music service, you will not need to say ‘on Amazon Music’ at the end of each command.

Alexa Commands for Apple Music

If Apple Music is your go-to streaming service, Alexa has you covered.

If you’ve set Apple Music as your default streaming platform, you can use the basic music commands shared earlier to control it. There are also some specific commands for Apple as outlined below.

Here are the additional Alexa commands for Apple Music:

“Alexa, play [song] on Apple Music.”
“Alexa, play [song] by [artist] on Apple Music.”
“Alexa, play [artist] radio on Apple Music.”
“Alexa, play [genre] radio on Apple Music.”
“Alexa, play [Apple Music radio station name] radio” – e.g. Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits, or Apple Music Country.
“Alexa, play new music mix on Apple Music.”
“Alexa, play the top songs on Apple Music.”
“Alexa, play the top songs from the 50s on Apple Music.”
“Alexa, play the top song from [exact date].”

Note: If you have set Apple Music to be your default music service, you don’t need to add ‘on Apple Music’ to the end of each command.

Full List of Alexa Commands for Music

How Do I Control Music with Alexa?