The Amazon Echo will now stream music from Spotify, a big musical boost for the player. For those unfamiliar, Amazon Echo is a wireless speaker and voice command device from Amazon.As of today, the device allows Spotify Premium subscribers to listen to their music using Amazon Echo, via Alexa. Alexa is the personal digital assistant that is incorporated into the Echo device, allowing users to request songs through voice commands.
This one was pretty simple. Amazon wants to eventually compete with Spotify on the streaming music front, but for right now, everyone is requesting Spotify. “Music is one of the most popular features on Amazon Echo, and Spotify has been one of the most requested services, so we’re excited to bring it to our customers today,” says Toni Reid, director of Amazon Alexa.
Amazon Echo has been integrated with other streaming services like Amazon Music, Prime Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio and others, for some time. But Spotify was a huge missing piece: prior to today, users had access to approximately 1 million songs. However, due to the collaboration with Spotify, users now have access to all of Spotify’s roughly 30 millions tracks.
If Premium Spotify users own an Amazon Echo, the benefits are instantaneous. For Spotify, there’s also a built-in marketing pitch for new users, especially the Premium kind. So, for both parties, its a classic ‘win-win’ situation.
According to reports, the service will be available in the U.S. only to begin with, but many anticipate that the service will become available worldwide, once it has established itself in the major music markets.
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