HomeAmazon AlexaAlexa, Play Some Music: All The Music Commands (and more …)
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In this post we will look into all the Alexa music commands, to enjoy all the music services supported by your Amazon Echo. We will cover basic volume and playback commands, as well as tips and tricks how to play and manage your favorite music. You’ll find commands for setting sleep timers and music alarms and also how you can create your very own music commands with Alexa routines.
A BIG THANK YOU goes to all of you who take the time and share your Alexa Music experiences, questions and answers in our discussion section! We are continuously updating this post based on your feedback.
Alexa’s Music Services
Amazon Music Unlimited is Amazon’s native, and therefore most extensive music service for your Echos. Here we can look into all music commands, which Alexa understands. Other services provide a subset.
While Amazon Prime has a reduced music library with about 2 Million songs compared to Amazon Music Unlimited with 40 Million songs, it also lacks some features, like searching by lyrics and access to all new songs.
Amazons new, free ad-supported Amazon Music service, is currently being rolled out in the US only. It gives you the option to listen to an ad-supported selection of top playlists and stations for free. In other regions the command “Alexa, play some music” will enable 14 free days of Amazon Music Unlimited. Amazon states that for a limited time only, you can start an extra 30-day free trial by saying, “Alexa, I want Amazon Music.” After the trial, your subscription renews monthly.
With Spotify Premium having over 30 Million songs in its library, you cannot tag your favorites. However, if there is a playlist in Spotify, even for activities and moods, you can access it with Alexa.
Pandora, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio, since they are radio-like services, have natural limitations around playback and selecting specific music.
Following overview across the available music services, sheds some light on which features are supported, for which service:
Note, if you have not set your preferred service as default music service in the Alexa app, make sure to add “…from Prime Music”, “… on Spotify”, “…on TuneIn”, etc. at the end of your music commands.
How to control Alexa’s Music Volume?
Following music commands will change Alexa’s volume in 10% steps:
- Alexa, (change/make/turn the) volume up/down
- Alexa (make it) softer/louder
- Alexa, lower/raise (the) volume
- Alexa, increase/decrease (the) volume
- Alexa, turn/crank it up/down
Another way to specifically set the volume level is:
- Alexa, (set the) volume (to level) <1-10>
- Alexa, volume 3 (Note, that’s the snappy, short command)
Furthermore, we can mute Alexa:
- Alexa, mute/unmute
How to control Alexa’s Music Playback?
You can stop and resume playback by saying:
- Alexa, play/resume (music)
- Alexa, stop/pause
But you can also start a playlist you might like:
- Alexa, play some music
To navigate within an album or playlist, just say:
- Alexa, next/previous (song/track/title)
- Alexa, skip (this song)
To navigate within a song, you can say:
- Alexa, play (this song) from (the) beginning
- Alexa, restart (this song)
- Alexa, jump/skip back/forward (x seconds/minute(s))
For shuffling and repeating we can use:
- Alexa, repeat (this song)
- Alexa, loop (this album/this playlist)
- Alexa, (turn) repeat (on/off) (Note, “off” will stop playback)
- Alexa, (turn) shuffle (on/off)
How to control Alexa’s Equalizer?
Introduced end of July 2018 (initially only in the US, now also available in the UK), we now have an equalizer to control the bass, mid-range, and treble of our Echo devices.
You can check the availability of this feature in the Alexa app under Options, your Echo device, sounds. If you find an equalizer setting at the top of the page, the following commands will work.
- Alexa, increase/decrease (the) bass/mid-range/treble
- Alexa, turn/crank up/down (the) bass/mid-range/treble
- Alexa, set (the) bass/mid-range/treble to minimum/maximum
- Alexa, set bass/mid-range/treble to (minus); Note, we have a range of +/- 6 dB which we can set explicitly
To get back to neutral EQ settings, we can say:
- Alexa, reset (the) equalizer
How to navigate Alexa’s Music Library?
There are so many ways which lead to your favorite music in the millions of songs, that we need to structure this a bit …
How to play Music by Title/Album/Artist?
If you know what you want to hear, you can say:
- Alexa, play (the song/track/title/tune) <title>
- Alexa, play/shuffle (the album/record) <album>
- Alexa, play/shuffle (songs/music by) <artist>
- Alexa, play (the song/track/title/tune) <title> by <artist>
- Alexa, play (the album/record) <album> by <artist>
How to play Music by Genre?
- Alexa, play <genre> music
Here are the main genres from Amazon’s database:
- Alternative & Indie
- Blues
- Broadway
- Children’s Music
- Christian
- Classic Rock
- Classical
- Country
- Dance & Electronic
- Easy Listening
- Folk
- Gospel
- Hard Rock & Metal
- Holiday
- International
- Jazz
- Latin
- New Age & Meditation
- Opera & Vocal
- Pop
- R&B
- Rap & Hip-Hop
- Rock
- Soundtracks
- Vocal
- World
How to play Music by Activity and Mood?
Alexa supposedly knows around 500 undocumented activities and moods which you can use to play music which fits to what you are up to. These are basically (curated) playlists created by Amazon for frequently requested activities/moods.
- Alexa, play music for <activity>
- Alexa, play (some) <activity/mood> music
Here are some activities, which I have tested (musically =):
- Wake Up
- Running / Jogging / Workout
- Party / Partying / Dancing
- Working / Study / Studying / Reading
- Cleaning / Cooking / Dinner
- Relaxing / Meditation / Chill-out
- Love
- Sleeping
Here are some examples of moods, which Alexa understands:
- Angry
- Energetic
- Feel Good
- Happy
- Upbeat
- Sad
- Mellow
- Romantic
- Relaxed
- Laid Back
How to combine Moods, Activities, and Genres in Music Commands?
Now comes the interesting part: You can combine some moods, genres, and activities. Of course only, if Amazon has created a playlist, which matches.
- Alexa, play mellow meditation music
- Alexa, play sad blues music
- Alexa, play happy latin music
- Alexa, play classical music for sleeping
- Alexa, play mellow country music
How to play New Music?
Want to hear some new songs? Here’s what to say:
- Alexa, play brand new music
- Alexa, play new songs by <artist>
- Alexa, play new <genre> music
How to play Popular/Regional Music?
Interested in what is trending someplace, sometime, some genre?
- Alexa, play the top/best songs
- Alexa, play the top/best <genre> songs
- Alexa, play the top/best songs from the 80s
- Alexa, play the top songs in <city>
- Alexa, play what’s hot in <country>
How to play something you rarely hear?
If you’d like to hear some rare songs from your library:
- Alexa, play something I haven’t heard
- Alexa, play <artist> songs, I haven’t heard
How to play something we already heard?
If we want to play music we were already listening to, we can try:
- Alexa, play the <artist/genre/station/playlist> I was listening to on <day>
- Alexa, play the <artist/genre> songs I heard <yesterday (morning/afternoon) / last night>
How to play Similar Music?
There’s this one catchy tune and you’d like to hear more like that:
- Alexa, play more like this/that
- Alexa, play songs similar to <title>
- Alexa, play songs similar to <artist>
Note, a very nice feature – thanks to Briane and Dawn – which comes via Amazon Music Prime are artist “stations”, which will play songs similar to the artist you have chosen, along with some of their best songs:Alexa, play <artist> station
How to play Favorites and how to like/dislike Songs?
Alexa can play stations based on your preferences:
- Alexa, play (some other) music I like
If we want Alexa to be able to find our favorite music, we need to tell her what we like:
- Alexa, thumbs up/down
- Alexa, I like/don’t like this song
Just in case there’s this one nasty tune hunting us:
- I’m tired of this song
How to play Songs by Lyrics?
You might remember some lyrics snippets of your favorite songs, rather than their title. No worries, Alexa got you covered:
- Alexa, play the song that goes <lyrics>
- Alexa, what’s the song that goes <lyrics>
How to control your Music Library and Playlists?
You can control what goes into your music library by saying:
- Alexa, add this song to my library
And you can control what you’d like to hear from there:
- Alexa, play my music by <artist>
- Alexa, play some <genre/artist> from my library
To listen to your own playlists, you can say:
- Alexa, play my playlist <playlist>
- Alexa, listen to my <playlist> playlist
- Alexa, shuffle my <playlist> playlist
Note, to create and add to your playlists on Amazon Music (thanks a lot Brantome!):
Alexa, start/create a new playlist
Alexa, add this song to my playlist <playlist>
Alexa, start/create a new playlist
Alexa, add this song to my playlist <playlist>
How to listen to Alexa’s Radio Stations?
Listening to radio stations is as straightforward as:
- Alexa, play <genre/station> radio
- Alexa, play the station <station>
Note: if you want to listen to a different service, add e.g. “… on TuneIn” to your command.
How to get Music Information?
Alexa has a bit of information when asked about what’s playing:
- Alexa, what (song/tune) is this?
She can also answer:
- Alexa, what was the top song in <year>
How to let Alexa announce every song?
A new (2019-03-06) feature supported only for Amazon Music is called Song ID. If it’s turned on
- Alexa, turn on Song ID
Alexa will announce the title and artist of every song you are playing. You can turn this feature off by saying:
- Alexa, turn off Song ID
How to get the “right” version of a song?
Thanks a lot Mike, for pointing out that we need this chapter!
When you ask Alexa to play a song by <title>, it might happen, that you hear the “wrong” song. Maybe Alexa will play a completely different song, not the artist you expected, a bad cover version, or the live version and you want to hear the studio version or vice versa.
There could be many different reasons for this unexpected Alexa behavior:
- she simply has to many versions of this song title in her music library and too little information which song you actually meant,
- she tries to please the masses and takes the popularity of song versions into account,
- she tries to save some money and plays cheaper covers/versions of a song (especially for smaller plans),
- or she has not figured out your musical taste yet.
1. Trying to find the “right” song by voice
Whatever the reason might be, it’s definitely worth to try to be more specific in your music commands. Here’s how to try to get the right version of a song by giving Alexa more information:
- Alexa, play <title> Let’s assume this plays the “wrong” song
- Alexa, play <title> by <artist> Try this, if it’s the wrong artist
- Alexa, play <title> from <album> Try this, if it’s the wrong version
- Alexa, play the live/album version of <title> (by <artist>) Try this if you’d like to hear the live/studio version of a song
2. Finding the “right” song with the music app
If this doesn’t help, a voice command will unlikely help you to find the right version of the song. In this case, it’s best to search with your music app (e.g. Amazon Music app or Spotify app).
Assuming you’ve found the right version of the song (otherwise, it is not available in your plan), you can now add it to a custom playlist or your music library.
Note, please see the music commands in the chapter above “How to control your Music Library and Playlists?”
3. Playing the “right” song by voice from your library
Now, that you’ve added the “right” version of the song to your playlist/library, as Alexa searches first in “My Music” (thank you, Brantome!), and then the Amazon Music catalog or samples from the Digital Music Store, you just need to ask again for the title to hear your preferred version.
- Alexa, play <title>
Please note, it takes a couple of seconds to synchronize your Music Library with Alexa, you can immediately enforce hearing your preferred version of a song by adding “Alexa, play <title> from my library”.
For Spotify you can only request your playlist, which now contains the preferred version of your song:
- Alexa, play my playlist <playlist> (from Spotify)
How to listen To Podcasts?
Alexa supports playing podcasts (with very limited features):
- Play the (latest episode of the) podcast <podcast>
How to control Music Playback on another Speaker?
To be able to control your music playback throughout your home on many devices, you can either create a Multi-Room Music Group (e.g. everywhere, down/upstairs) and/or assign your individual Alexa devices to Smart Home Groups (e.g. kitchen). You can control the playback by saying:
- Alexa, play <song/album/artist/genre> in the <group>
- Alexa, next in <group>
- Alexa, stop in <group>
- Alexa, play <song/album/artist/genre> everywhere
What is the Preferred Speaker Set-Up?
You can set up the preferred speaker of a smart home group to stream to with “Alexa, play music”. The preferred speaker can be an Echo device, a speaker from Bose or Sonos, a multi-room music group or a speaker set. Just tap on “preferred speaker” at the bottom of your smart home group.
Note, the preferred speaker settings are only for music playback.
How to set a Sleep Timer and Music Alarm?
To set a sleep timer, we can say:
- Alexa, set a sleep timer for 30 seconds/minutes/hours
- Alexa, stop playing in 1 hour
- Alexa, cancel sleep timer
We can set a music alarm by saying:
- Alexa wake me up to music at 6 AM (every weekday)
- Alexa, wake me up to <song/album/artist/genre/playlist> at 7 AM (every Tuesday)
- Alexa, wake me up to the song that goes <lyrics> at 8 AM (at weekends)
- Alexa, cancel/disable (the) 7 am alarm
- Alexa, cancel/disable (all) alarm/s
Note: If you have not set the music service you’d like to hear as default music service, add e.g. “… on TuneIn” to your command.
How to Create Your Own Music Commands With Alexa Routines?
Up to now, we were looking into music commands, which are predefined. But there is a powerful feature, which can help us to create our own voice commands to listen to whatever we like and even more.
An Alexa routine can start by (just create one by going to: settings/routines/+):
- voice-command / phrase, which you can specify
- schedule/time of day, which can be reoccurring
- a push on an Echo button, or
- a motion/contact sensor who senses movement / or opening of a door/window (currently only limited devices support that)
- Update: when an Alarm is dismissed!
In the routines, we can combine many different actions, like
- setting the device volume on Alexa devices
- letting Alexa say/sing something (custom or categorized)
- announcing our calendar events
- sending announcements to Alexa devices
- playing our News Flash Briefing
- controlling our smart home devices
- playing a traffic report
- playing the weather report
- and last, but not least: playing a song/artist/playlist from a music provider, like Amazon Music/Our library/Spotify/TuneIn for a certain duration on a specific Echo device or Multi-Room Music Group
Here’s where you can get creative. You could specify your own voice command for a radio station or your favorite music group which is difficult to pronounce, or set the right lighting scene with the right music for a romantic dinner. The only limit is your imagination!
Pro-Tip: The brilliant example from Brantome (Thank you!), shows the powerful flexibility of music routines: “You can add “shuffle” to a play action in a routine, plus you can also direct output to a group, not just a device by adding its name to the end of the play action text e.g. “good stuff playlist shuffle downstairs” will shuffle my ‘good stuff’ playlist on my Downstairs group.”The play command would look like: “<playlist name> playlist shuffle <multi-room music group name>”.
Please note, DO NOT name your Multi-Room music group with a “custom name”, rather select a suitable “common name” from Alexa’s list, because Alexa might otherwise not be able to address the Music Group in the Alexa Routine, and come back with “I cannot find the playlist …”.
Please note, DO NOT name your Multi-Room music group with a “custom name”, rather select a suitable “common name” from Alexa’s list, because Alexa might otherwise not be able to address the Music Group in the Alexa Routine, and come back with “I cannot find the playlist …”.
Note, “On the now playing screen in the Alexa app, you can select the volume icon and adjust the volume slider for each device in a group.” (Thank you, Brantome!)
Alexa, sing a song!
Alexa can sing, and her repertoire is quite impressive. If you tell her:
- Alexa, sing a song!
she’ll come up with a random song.
Alexa Songs
But you can also tell her to sing a particular song:
- Alexa, sing (the song) <songname>
Here’s a list of Alexa Songs:
- The Pirate Song
- In the Moonlight Tonight
- Woohoo Technology
- This is What I Think of Love*
- The Ballad of the Broken S’more
- Sand Beneath Your Toes
- (Love Song)* Note, this song is difficult to get, as Alexa will mix through her love* songs
- It’s raining in the cloud
- Take Me Out to the Ball Game
- Will You Marry Me*
- Alexa’s Theme Song
- The No Body Blues
- Things that go Bump in the Night
- Colonel Doggy
Alexa Rap Songs
Alexa, can also rap! You can ask her:
- Alexa, rap for me!
and she’ll come up with a random rap. Like with the songs above, you can also ask her to perform a specific rap song:
- Alexa, sing (the song) <rap>
Here’s a list of Alexa rap songs:
- My Name is Alexa
- Opening With Sorry
- The Football Song
- Give it Up For Science
- Your Attention, Please
- (Connect Sync Link) Note, this rap song is hard to get
- Pi Day
- It’s Me, Alexa
- The Cloud
Alexa Independence Day Songs
And, for the 4th of July, “Alexa, sing an Independence Day song” will shuffle through:
- Alexa, sing The Star-Spangled Banner! Alexa, sing the National Anthem!
- Alexa, sing America the Beatiful!
- Alexa, sing My Country, ’Tis of Thee!
Alexa Duets
Alexa’s first duet is released! She replaces Justin Bieber in Ed Sheeran’s new single
- Alexa, sing I don’t care!
But I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For!
Sorry! There are so many interesting topics around music and though we – everyone who takes the time to contribute to this post – have climbed the highest mountains … we might have missed what’s important to you! Please join us, by taking the time to share your Alexa music experiences, questions and answers in our discussion section below! You are helping to improve this post for everyone!
Still, there might be features, which Amazon has not developed or rolled out yet. Amazon continuously expands and refines Alexa’s music commands. They have to rely on statistical data based on our Alexa usage. But once you try a command and it does not work for you, you’ll rarely try it again …
To support the development of the music commands and features we are missing, we need to send feedback to Amazon! It’s easy, and we can do it directly from the Alexa app:
- From the Menu (top left) select “Help & Feedback”
- Select “Send Feedback”
- Select the category “Music & Apps”
- Select “other issues” or like in this example “Wrong song or radio station”
- Describe the music command that doesn’t work for you, ideally by additionally giving a command example, like “Alexa, skip 50 songs,” skips only 1 song.
- Tap “Send Feedback”
Conclusion
Strong in features like playing songs by lyrics, Alexa doesn’t give us too much music information. The sleep timer and music alarm, are helpful features supported across the different services. Alexa’s Routines are a powerful feature to create our own voice commands to integrate our music into simple or more complex routines. Multi-Room Music Groups and Preferred Speakers for Smart Home Groups help us to streamline our music experience throughout our home.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this extensive list of Alexa’s music commands and it helps you to get the most out of your music services.
You can find more Alexa posts here: Amazon Alexa.
The musical comparison between Alexa, Google and Siri, is here: Musical Assistant Showdown: Who will win, Siri, Google or Alexa?
If you have any questions or found some new music commands, please share with us in the comment section below!
For more information from Amazon, see Amazon: Listen to your music.
In case I have missed your favorite music command:
Please let me know, and I’ll add it to the list!
Thanks & Cheers,
K.
Please let me know, and I’ll add it to the list!
Thanks & Cheers,
K.