Amazon finally added multi-room audio to its smart devices and we’re here to help you enable this awesome feature. For Multi-Room Music to work you will need more than one of Amazon’s qualifying smart devices. The devices that are compatible are the Show, Echo and Dot. Tap and Fire TV owners will have to wait for this awesome feature as it’s not ready for these devices yet. All of the compatible devices must be set-up on the same Wi-Fi network for Multi-Room audio to work. Lastly, you won’t be able to stream to multiple rooms with music services such as Google Play Music, Apple Music or Spotify. You’ll need an Amazon Prime Music or Amazon Music Unlimited account.
What is Amazon Music Unlimited?
I’m a Prime member, but also take advantage of Amazon’s Music Unlimited service. Amazon’s premium music service is similar to other subscription services like Google Play Music, Apple Music and Spotify.
Pricing starts at $3.99 for Alexa devices which is a bargain if you listen to music at home or regularly on an Alexa smart device. If you want to replace your current music subscription service, you can opt for the complete music plan at $7.99 per month which is compatible with iOS and Android devices. You can download music to your smartphones and tablets for offline playback with this option. For $14.99 you can sign up for the Unlimited Family Plan which is a slightly better deal than Google Play Music and Spotify. Up to six members of your family or friends can take part in the music instead of five on the other subscriptions. You can bring the price down by a $30 per year if you pay for 12 months up front for $149.
I’ve used Amazon Music Unlimited for four months now and haven’t run into any issues with it and have access to a wide range of music. It’s great for those with Alexa compatible devices.
How to enable Multi-Room Audio
- Open the Alexa app on your smartphone or tablet.
- Click on Settings
- Scroll down to Multi-Room Music and select it
- Select Multi-Room Music to create a group
- Select the devices you want to group and give them a name from the default menu or give them a custom name. This will be the name you will refer to when giving commands to Alexa to play Multi-Room Music.
- You can repeat this process to create different groups. If you have three or more Alexa devices, you can create a combination of devices to play music in different rooms. Amazon Multi-Room Music can only stream to multiple devices through groups. You won’t be able to ask Alexa to play music to the “Office” and “Bedroom” with voice commands unless a group is created.
- To play music across multiple rooms, simply say “Alexa play Darius Rucker on (Group name)”.
It’s a simple process to follow and works quite well. If you would like to learn more about the Echo family, head on over to Amazon.com.