Why is Alexa cutting off Spotify streams?

The biggest mistake I ever made was telling the kids they could play music through Alexa. Previously, my Spotify account was my own, an oasis (and often an Oasis) of curated music that I could listen to whenever I pleased. Now whenever I get in the car and stream a Spotify playlist, I can guarantee the stream will stop before I’ve reversed off the drive. And it’s largely because Spotify is incredibly tight with subscribers.

Even Spotify Premium subscribers, who dutifully watch a tenner a month float out of their bank accounts, are limited to using Spotify on only one device at a time. Start streaming on your phone and any music being piped through Alexa speakers will come to an abrupt halt, and vice versa. Hence, my in-car audio is quickly silenced when the kids decide they want to dance around their room to David Essex (or some other modern pop combo).

How to stop Alexa cutting off your Spotify streams?

What can be done about this? Sadly, not a lot. You can upgrade to a Spotify Premium for Family account, which gives you up to six different Spotify logins for £15 per month, but that doesn’t really solve your Alexa problem.

You can only link one Spotify account to each Alexa account. You can’t, for example, assign one Spotify account to the Echo in your living room and another to the Echo Dot in your office. You can sign in with different Amazon accounts on different Alexa devices, which could have their own Spotify account, but then you lose the convenience of shared reminders, alarms, smart home controls and all the other stuff that is linked to your Amazon account. It’s an expensive, imperfect workaround.

What’s the solution?

Spotify should stop being so tight. Netflix, which only charges £8 per month for a standard account, lets you stream on two devices simultaneously. Spotify should do the same. With Spotify practically begging you to log in to almost every smart device in the home, it’s no longer sustainable to allow paying subscribers a single stream.

Are you listening Spotify? Because if you aren’t, I won’t be for much longer, either.

Now read this: see all our Amazon Alexa tips