Wondering how to get free Amazon Music on your Echo speaker? Amazon has finally launched a free version of its music-streaming service Amazon Music. But there's a catch — you can only use it through Alexa.
Billboard reported last year that the company launched the new tier to better compete with Spotify, offering to pay some record labels on a per-stream basis.
- The best Alexa skills to use now
- Our picks for the best smart speakers
It's not likely you'll want to use Amazon Music's free tier over Spotify as your default service, given that it offers a very limited supply of music (roughly 2 million songs versus Spotify's estimated 35 million).
But if you're interested in trying out Amazon Music to decide if you want to subscribe, here's how to do that. Keep in mind that Amazon Music Unlimited ($7.99 per month) can give you access to 50 million songs, so if you enjoy using this free tier with Alexa, you might have incentive to subscribe to a much larger library.
How to get free Amazon Music on your Echo
1. Open up the Alexa app and select the play button down towards the bottom middle right. If you don’t already have the Alexa app installed on your device, you can do that using your designated app store.
2. Scroll down to "More Music Streaming Services." Tap "Explore."
3. Select the highlighted text within the “Link Service” notifications that shows "Music Settings."
4. Under where the app shows “Default Music Library” and “Default Station,” be sure to select Amazon Music for both. Now, whenever you ask Alexa to play you some music, you'll get a station or playlist from Amazon’s library.
This will be especially useful for those who can’t afford Spotify Premium or Apple Music, as both services cost $9.99 a month to maintain. However, Amazon Music is completely free through Alexa, avoiding the hassle of having to keep up the monthly subscription. Once again, this only offers a limited selection of tracks, with a mere 6% of Spotify’s total collection in comparison.
This library is exponentially smaller, but considering that you’re not paying for a subscription with Alexa’s Amazon Music, it could be worth it depending on what exactly you want to listen to. To really test the full list of what’s available, you’d have to give Amazon Music on Alexa a try for some time. If you have trouble getting access to the music you want to listen to, it might be the right time to switch over to a premium service.
Additionally, Amazon Music’s free tier with Alexa comes with no ads, offline mode, and unlimited skips. So, even though there are far less tracks to choose from, you get the perks associated with premium subscriptions. Furthermore, certain artists like Garth Brooks are exclusive to Amazon Music, so if you’re a fan of his, there’s even more incentive to jump into the program.
