11 Best Ways to Fix Alexa Not Playing Music from Amazon Music

How many times have you uttered a command and Alexa powered Echo didn’t respond? Lost the count, right? Many users are experiencing the same. When they ask Alexa to play a song, it doesn’t play music from Amazon Music or any other service. If you are going through the same issue, you will get to know how to fix it here.

If you have an Amazon Prime account, you get access to Prime Music that is home to over 2 million songs. You don’t have to manually set it up in your Echo as it automatically detects the subscription without installing the Amazon Music app. Issuing commands such as ‘Alexa, play the xyz song’ should play the requested track.

But if the Echo isn’t playing any song from Amazon Music, no need to fret. Just follow the fixes mentioned here to resolve the Alexa won’t play music from Amazon Music issue.

1. Restart Echo

You should start by resetting the power cycle for your Echo. For that, remove the power cable from the Echo. Then, wait for at least 20-30 seconds before plugging it back. Once plugged in, try playing the music from Amazon Music using Alexa.

2. Check Currently Streaming Devices

Say you are playing songs via the Amazon app or other Echo devices through the same Amazon account. So you won’t be able to stream music on other gadgets using the same Amazon account because of the streaming limit. That’s because, Prime Music allows streaming only on a single device at a time.

3. Check Linked Accounts

Prime Music only works for Amazon prime members. So if your Echo device has multiple profiles linked to multiple Amazon accounts, you need to be signed in to the one that has a Prime membership. To switch users, issue the ‘Alexa switch user’ or ‘Alexa switch profile’ command.

4. Check Subscription

You need to have an active subscription to either Amazon Prime or Amazon Music Unlimited to play songs with Alexa. If you don’t have an active subscription, Alexa will not play the requested songs. To view your current subscription details, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open the Amazon website for your country and log in with your account details.

Step 2: Click on your name at the top and select Memberships & subscriptions. In some countries, you will have different options such as Your Prime Membership.

Step 3: You will find all your active subscriptions listed here.

5. Check Availability of Song

Once you have made sure that you have an active subscription for at least one music service from Prime, it’s time to check for the availability of songs. The Prime Music service offers fewer songs as compared to the Music Unlimited. So, ask Alexa to play some other song. If it is played normally, then the song that you were looking for might not be available on Prime. You can also open the Prime Music app and search manually for the song.

6. Set Prime as Default Music Provider

If you have set multiple music providers in the Alexa app, you would need to add the service name to the music command if it isn’t the default one. If Prime is the default music provider, you can simply say ‘Alexa, play Hey There Delilah’, and it will start playing it on Prime Music. However, if it isn’t the default and you use the same command, it will play it through the default music provider (if the song is available).

Sometimes, the song isn’t available on other providers and we think Amazon Music doesn’t work. So to be on the safer side, you can either make Prime your default service provider or issue a full command such as ‘Alexa, play Hey There Delilah from Amazon Music.’

To change the default music provider, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open the Alexa app and tap on the three-bar icon at the top. Select Settings from it.

Step 2: Tap on Music.

Step 3: Tap on Default Services and select Amazon Music.

7. Turn off Explicit Filter

Amazon Music comes with a feature where it blocks songs that contain explicit lyrics. So if you are trying to play such a song, it will not play if the explicit filter setting is enabled. To turn off the setting, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open the Alexa app on your phone and tap on the three-bar icon.

Step 2: Tap on Settings and go to Music.

Step 3: Tap on Explicit Filter. Then disable it on the next screen.

8. Update Amazon Country

Sometimes, there is a mismatch between the location of your Amazon account and Alexa services. You need to update the country to your current location. For that, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open the Manage Your Content and Devices page. Sign in with your Amazon credentials.

Step 2: Click on Settings. If Settings isn’t available, you will see a link saying ‘Go to the Manage Your Content and Devices page.’

Step 3: Click on Country Settings if available. Otherwise, click on Preferences at the top and click on Country/Region Settings.

Step 4: Click on Change button to change the country to your current location. Add your current location.

Step 5: You will see the text ‘Click here to learn more about other Amazon sites’. Open the link.

Step 6: Click on Learn about or Learn. Then confirm your new location under ‘Update your default Kindle Store to Amazon’.

After that, try playing a song from Amazon Music with Alexa.

9. Check Echo Settings

You need to check a few settings in the Alexa app for music to work. These include Device Location, Time Zone, and Language. Try keeping them to your current location.

To change these settings, follow the steps:

Step 1: Open the Alexa app and tap on Devices at the bottom.

Step 2: Tap on Echo & Alexa followed by your Echo device.

Step 3: Check Device Location, Time Zone, and Language. Match them with your local information. Once you have updated everything, play a song on Alexa.

10. Transfer Music to Different Country

You should also try moving your Amazon Music country to your current location. For that, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open music.amazon.com on your PC.

Step 2: Click on your name present at the bottom of the left panel. Select ‘Your Amazon Music Settings’ from the menu.

Step 3: You will be taken to the settings page. Scroll down and click on ‘Move your Music account’ if it is showing a different country than your current location.

11. Deregister Echo

If nothing works, remove or deregister the problematic Echo device from your Alexa app.

To deregister a connected Echo, follow the steps mentioned below.

Step 1: Open the Alexa app. Tap on Devices.

Step 2: Tap on Echo & Alexa followed by the name of your Echo device.

Step 3: Scroll down and tap on Deregister.

Once you have deregistered it, then add it again in the Alexa app as you did before. In case you face any issue, try these fixes.

Tip: You can also deregister it from the alexa.amazon.com

Alexa, Are You Listening?

We hope the above fixes will resume the Amazon Music playback on your Echo speaker. Once it is back in action, you can use music commands such as Play a playlist, play [song/artist/album] name, play [emotion] music, play songs similar to [song name], and more. Use basic commands such as play, resume, stop, pause, and shuffle to control playback via Alexa.

Next up: Want to switch from Amazon Music? Read the following post to learn how YouTube Music differs from Prime Music.