How can I get another DC an Alexa but make sure we can all stream music?

[TheOtherBear]

Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere - I did have a good look, plus tried asking on ChatGPT, but it didn't seem to cover exactly what I need.

Background - we have a few Alexas downstairs, plus a Spotify account. Worked well for ages - if one of the kids start playing music in their playroom and it cuts it off in the kitchen then I'll just ask the kitchen one to play the radio instead. Me and DH both use Spotify on our phones when commuting or working, and we default to using it offline, so avoid cutting off anyone using it on an Alexa.

DC1 - oldest got their own Alexa (kids' version) in their bedroom and to make sure their / our music didn't get interrupted, I got a good deal on Amazon Music and only their Alexa is set to use it. Yes, not financially ideal to have both Spotify and Amazon Music, but we all seem to play a lot of music and it's worked out ok.

DC2 - now here comes the issue. DC2 is going to ask for their own Alexa for Christmas (and I agree they would love it and play music all the time), but how on earth do we make this possible?

What do we do?

Spotify - allows multiple accounts, but looks like Amazon can only link to the main one and individual Alexas can't be set to individual Spotify profiles (unless this has changed?)

Amazon Music - there seems to be a Family Unlimited Plan and I'm wondering if we all migrate to Amazon Music instead, but on the Amazon website the link for this option never seems to work and I'm wondering if it doesn't exist anymore. Plus, would I be able to link specific Alexas to specific music profiles / accounts?

Also useful - DC3 will at some point join us on this adventure, I imagine. Please help! I've gone down a rabbit hole on this and got utterly lost and confused :(

We get round this by telling the Alexa in the room we’re in to connect to the phone we’re using then use the app to start the music. Does that make sense?

Not sure if there’s another way but this works for me.

We had to set up different Amazon/Alexa accounts for everyone. It was a massive pain and it means we can't use half the features of Alexa but it was the only way we could all play our Spotify music separately. If anyone knows of another solution I'm all ears.

This is the issue I found, as we are in same boat OP. Wanted to use Spotify and each access our own accounts, but Alexa can't recognise the different ones...

Interested in the idea of Asking alexa to join that person's phone, and playing from there. I don't fully understand it atm though...

I have a family Spotify account with multiple profiles. My teenage son had to create his own Amazon account in order to get his Alexa to default to his Spotify profile. Also interested in a better solution

It was very disappointing as I'd been looking forward to freaking my kids out by getting Alexa to shout GET OUT OF BED NOW and similar japes.

We have the amazon music unlimited as I can't clean without music, dp uses it when doing mundane jobs at work and the dc like to use it as well and we all kept clashing and wanting our own music on instead of radio.

It seems to work quite well and we all have our own playlists to add music we like to and just ask alexa to play our playlist

I think we pay 19.99 a month for it

We have similar! 3 kids and multiple Alexa’s. Moved from Amazon Music to Spotify but all the Alexa’s are linked to my Spotify so we have the same thing despite having a Spotify family thingy. If you deregister the Alexa and register it to a new email address eg a teenager or your partner, it can then link to a separate Spotify acc or at least one of the family ones you pay for. We are tolerating it atm as it seems an almighty faff to have them all separately registered. Really annoying! Paid for family Spotify for this exact reason. If I stream Spotify from my phone to my Alexa in the kitchen it still pauses everyone else’s music as it’s all connected to my account

Following for answers or experiences of re registering Alexa’s to multiple emails.

I think we will revert to Amazon Music as I like being able to create playlists on the hop as do the kids.

Ditch Spotify - they don’t pay artists properly and the owner is a nutter who funds AI weapons research. Switch to Amazon Music - prob not the most ethical choice but they pay artists better and will help with your issue

It works for me 🤷🏻‍♀️ we have an echo device in a few different rooms, all registered only to my Amazon account. We all have our own Spotify (family) and control them from our own phones and listen to different things simultaneously.

Thanks all! Glad to hear I'm not going mad and that this is a problem others have faced and are facing.

For those talking about ways around this, it seems to rely on the kids being older (e.g. having their own phones they can use to control the Alexa speakers with) - is that fair?

Ours are all primary school, so we're a way off that yet. They just want to listen to K-Pop DH songs, ask Alexa how to spell things, ask for fart jokes, ask what Santa's up to, and listen to stories at bedtime. Ridiculous that that's too much to ask for.

I get that Spotify and Amazon aren't keen to sort this out, as both have their own interests in now conceding space to the other, but it sounds like Amazon (and Amazon Music) hasn't got it sorted either. Madness!

Did this mean everyone their own Amazon account? And does it also mean you can't use some of the main Alexa features (as they can't talk to each other), as others mentioned? Or does it all still work?

But it sounds like Amazon doesn't have this all resolved either, given people are having to create individual accounts and therefore the music works but other (joined-up) features don't work, is that right?

Set your echo to a profile each. Then on amazon music unlimited you can have the profiles.

Not sure I fully understand the issue our set up is as follows;
all Alexa devices (4) linked to my Amazon Prime account.
All devices set up in the Alexa app with their own names
Have recently switched from Spotify to Apple Music - this is linked as a skill in the Alexa app and the skill can be used by all devices set up in the app
DC and listen to K Pop Demon Hunters upstairs and I can listen to MCR in the kitchen at the same time

So what actually happens when each member of your family asks for music, @Ineedanewsofa?

Let's say you're in the kitchen and you say 'Alexa, play Backstreet Boys', and then ten minutes later a DC upstairs in their room says to their Echo 'Alexa, place Olivia Rodrigo' - what happens? Does it stream OR while continuing to stream BB for you? Simply by asking different devices in different rooms to play?

@TheOtherBear yeah, if she’s already listening to KPop Demon Hunters in her room I can ask for MCR in the kitchen and both carry on playing. It did used to work with Spotify Premium but then it became glitchy which is one of the reasons we changed providers