There are an outrageous number of ways to make Alexa play music. Assuming you’re signed up to Prime, if you say “Alexa, play some music” it will pluck a semi-random playlist from the air, based upon what it thinks are your preferences. Say “Alexa, play Bjork” and it will shuffle a bunch of the most popular Bjork songs (available on Prime, that is).
Can’t get Alexa to play a specific playlist? Click here for advice on how to solve this
Likewise you can play a genre of music. “Alexa, play some indie music” will select a relevant station – that is, a set of pre-determined tracks. In my case, she decided to play the 90s Indie Music station, kicking off with Pulp’s Common People.
But this article is about making Alexa play exactly what you want, right down to the tracks and the order it plays them in.
Choosing specific tracks, albums and playlists
Let’s assume you have a particular album in mind. Say, “Play the album Purple Rain” and you’ll hear Prince’s eulogy for “this thing called life”.
If you want to play a specific song then you say, “Play the song Vienna” and you’ll be treated to one of our editor’s very favourite tracks.
Now, naturally, you’re in the mood for cheesy 1980s pop. You could shortcut to Amazon’s own playlists of Prime music, of which there are hundreds. Click on the 1980s decade down the left-hand nav bar to behold choices such as “50 Great 80s songs” and “80s Rock Ballads”.
If the latter appeals then say, “Alexa, play 80s Rock Ballads” and relive those honeyed days of Sweet Child O’ Mine and Romeo and Juliet.
But we want specific songs, which means creating our own playlist. At this point, you must switch to Amazon Music on your preferred device and hit “Create New Playlist” under “My Playlists”. You’ll be prompted for a name, such as “80s Cheese”.
If you know which band or singer you’re interested in then search for them. Let’s go for Rick Astley. You’re in luck: Rick Astley’s Greatest Hits is a Prime album, so head to the album and, in Windows, hover over the track length and click on the three dots that appear – select Add to Playlist and select 80s Cheese from the dropdown.
Rinse and repeat until you have all the songs you want to listen to, and then all you need to do is say “Alexa, listen to my 80s Cheese playlist”.
What about Spotify Premium and Amazon Music Unlimited?
This guide has concentrated on Amazon Prime, but if you subscribe to either Spotify Premium or Amazon Music Unlimited then you can perform similar tricks.
For the latter, you simply need to say “Play [the playlist name]” and it will play. You can also opt for music by emotion – for example, “Play happy music”.
Spotify is more awkward, but still straightforward if you remember to say “from Spotify” at the end. So “Play indie from Spotify” or “Play from Spotify” will do the trick.
Name the artist
Another trick to make Alexa behave, especially if you’re using Spotify’s vast library, is to name the artist as well as the track. For example, if we tell Alexa to “play Space Oddity”, we don’t get David Bowie’s dulcet tones blaring out of the speaker, but those of cover artist Mike Masse, because he appears in one of our playlists. If you tell Alexa to “play Space Oddity by David Bowie” however, Alexa plays a live version recorded by the Thin White Duke himself. Which, with all due disrespect to Mike Masse, is far superior.
My favourite ninja commands
There are some extra commands for playing music that you may not be aware of – there’s a full list on Amazon’s site.
Here are my five favourite choices:
“Alexa, I’m tired of this song.” Gets rid of that irritating track that seems to play every time you tell Alexa to just “play some music”.
“Alexa, play Radio 4.” So long as your chosen station is on TuneIn, Alexa will find it.
“Alexa, when did this song come out?” You can also ask the name of the song (“What is this?”), the artist (“Who is this?”) and, on Prime, “Who’s the lead singer of this band?”
“Alexa, skip.” Sometimes one just isn’t in the mood.
“Alexa, set volume to level 8.” And sometimes, one is.
How do I get Alex to never play country?
Hi Lea – I don’t think it’s possible to block an entire genre, but if there’s a particular song that keeps on cropping up then say “Alexa, I’m tired of this song” and it should never appear again. Theoretically, Alexa should learn your preferences over time as well, so country music should gently fade out of your life…
You should first say, “Alexa, play tracks by Garth Brooks.”
After 5 minutes, you will not want what you originally wished for. Some Country is really quite good but most is rubbish IMHO. It’s finding the good and Garth is VERY good.
Hi, how do I get Alexa to play a compilation album for instance ‘Trevor Nelson’s Slow Jams’ .
After telling Alexa I liked a song she played , she says ‘rating saved’. Is there a command to use so I can play them again?
Thank you
Why doesn’t Hermans Hermits sound like the original Hermans Hermits on Alexa
Sometimes, Amazon confuses cover bands with the real thing. It’s annoying. Saying “Alexa, play [song/album] by Hermans Hermits” should work.
How can I have Alexa play only rock and roll genre and only for years 1955 to 1970? I have Spotify and Amazon prime.
That’s quite specific! The best way would be to create your own huge playlist (perhaps based upon some collected albums or other people’s playlists on Spotify) and then give it an obvious name – it’s clunky but it will work!
I’m still trying to figure out how to teach Alexa to differentiate between the band “Alvvays” and some seemingly far more obscure band “The Always.”
I wish you luck, Dagny. You might find it easiest to create a playlist of your favourite Alvvays songs and give it a distinctive name.
Hello Tim.. Hey, I wonder if this is possible: I would ideally like Alexa to play music from MY collection. That is, from the 4000+ albums that I have archived on my computer hard drive. I that possible??
Hi Jay – I haven’t tried it myself, but it looks like this skill should do what you want:
https://www.amazon.com/bizmodeller-My-Media/dp/B06XPP135L
Let us know if it works for you!
Tim
How can I get Alexa to play a Genre of Sinatra (American Classic Music) with other Artists of that Era/Genre?
When I’ve asked for specific: “play American Classic Music”, Alexa plays Country Music…. Yuk!!!!!
Hi Mary – the trick here is probably to find a couple of stations you really like on Amazon Prime Music. For example, there are Prime Stations called Crooners, All 50s and Big Band. If you say, “Alexa, play station Big Band” it will only play tracks that fit that category. Hope that works for you!
Tried “Crooners” 5 times and Alexa repeats it as “Cruise” and plays this God Awful Country BS!
I really give up on Amazon Music!
Guess you have to be a hip hop & country loving millennial.
How about playing an album from Spotify?
That should be relatively easy. For example, I just said: “Alexa, play Fear of Music from Spotify” and it worked fine. And what a fine album that is too…
Sometimes I’d prefer to listen to a particular mix. For example, I have both As the Rush Comes (Radio Edit) and As the Rush Comes (Gabriel and Dresden Chillout Mix). Alexa always plays the radio edit. If I try to specify the mix, she says she doesn’t understand. Is there a way to tell Alexa a specific song instead of her first guess?
Hi Geoff – sorry for the belated reply. I’ve had some success by saying play “[track name] by [artist name] and [mix artist]”, but can’t get that to work for As the Rush Comes in the example you gave. But that could be because I just don’t have the track in my library…
Please tell me how to make Alexa play a specific playlist, starting at a specific song in the list. The list I refer to has 40 songs on it and I often want to start the play in the middle of the list. Thank you..
Hi Gilly – not good news I’m afraid. I can’t see a way to do what you want. The best I can find is to start the playlist and then say “Alexa, Skip” until you get to the track you want. Not much use! Tim
Entire list appears in Amazon Music on my computer. Easy to select the track you want to start at.
Has anyone figured out how to get the Echo/Echo Show to play a “multi-disc” album and then get it to skip to disc 2 or 3? For the life of me I cannot get it to do what I want. For example, the new release of Appetite for Destruction from Guns N’ Roses (Super Deluxe) has like 5 discs. I’d love the ability to start at disc 3. I’ve tried “Skip to Disc 3”, “Play disc 3”, “Play track 34” etc. Nothing seems to work except “next, next. next ” 33 times!! Annoying!
I have Amazon Music Unlimited. I have a playlist named “Jenna’s Playlist”. When I tell Alexa to “play Jenna’s Playlist” it can’t find it, but when i say “play playlist Jenna Playlist” (not Jenna’s) it can find it but repeats the title as Jenna’s Playlist. WTF?!
Does anyone know why Alexa will play certain titles that are available for download on Amazon.com but will not play other that are available for download on Amazon.com?
You didn’t explain how to get Alexa to play a specific version of a song. When I ask Alexa to play “Doctor My Eyes” I get a live version instead of the studio version with Jesse Ed Davis’s great guitar work. How do I get the exact version I want?
Is it possible for alexa to shuffle music by multiple named artists without creating a playlist? For example; “Play music by Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, the Supremes, and the Four Tops?
try getting Alexa to play Beltane Walk by TRex… you get some nasty live version. ask for “original version” doesn’t help, ask for “Album version” still doesn’t work. Throw in “Original” “studio version” and it still only plays the live version. The other day i tried to impress my mother, a big Elvis fan, to get Alexa to play “Love Me Tender” another nightmare of the wrong versions despite throwing lots of variables to find it. Alexa is frustrating me. What am i doing/saying wrong??
Great, but how do I stop a Playlist because I want to play another song that’s not in my playlist, then go back to my playlist from where I left off? It always starts from the beginning again.
Hi Tim, thanks for this article. Do you know a way to get Amazon to play studio versions over live version, or vice versa? I don’t want to dislike a song or a band, but I may want studio versions instead of live.
So ask Alexa to play the original “Reason to Believe” by Rod Stewart. EVERY time she plays the live “unplugged” version. Which doesn’t have the awesome organ… Nothing I can say changes her mind, either.
How can I get Alexa to not play a live song version? Example I ask Alexa play A horse with no name. Alexa plays the live version which I don’t want.
“Alexa, play James Brown Funky Christmas”. Fails. Alexa just plays some random funk tracks (Sly and the Family Stone, not even James Brown). Instead of being honest and saying “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave”, “because we’re too cheap to expand our music catalogue, Dave”. The album in question exists, as a physical and virtual music product, and youtube playlist. What utter waste of my time using this walled-garden snake-oil BS. Voice control is not convenient when it wastes more time than typing would. Also, how does voice control or speech-recognition suddenly need a CPU way higher than the modern multi-core devices we all own? They’re powerful in their own right – speech recognition was being done on Pentium II with some success, so how does quad-core ARM architecture suffer from being underpowered? Smells more like an excuse and/or a tech orthodoxy of “this is the way my master tells me to do it, so this is the way technology must be” which can and do exist. Which stink just like any other slavish-orthodoxy. Star Trek’s computer has been engineered in a post-apocalyptic world where people value humanity a bit more than we currently do. What are the tech masters trying to do: engineer the hastening of the apocalypse via intentionally-bad tech (dark patterns for example) – so we – or rather, the survivors – can enjoy the aftermath?
I discovered I can get German radio stations, but only if I switch Alexa over to German. She can’t find the stations otherwise.
How do I get Alexa to remember the country station I am now on
How do I get Alexa to play an album beginning with track number 10? It’s driving me nuts having to skip forward one track at a time
I love ❤️ Songs by this artist “drem tgi” but it would only recognise it as “drem t” why is that
I ask Alexa to play a certain artist and she replies with playing “so and so” and other similar artists. How can I get her to just play my original requested artist?
how do I get Alexa to play certain gospel song? She does play gospel songs but I want to see the names and who sings them. I have an Alexa at home that I use.
How do I get Alexa to not play similar music when I ask for a specific artist