Alexa / Device Conflict / Family Plan

[bsniz]

Hi all! 

I have a Spotify Family Plan and about 10 Amazon Echo devices around my house. 

Here's the problem I'm facing...

When I'm at work or in the car, I like to listen to Spotify on my phone. 

But my fiancee works from home, where she likes to listen to Spotify on our whole-home audio system via Alexa.

But because Alexa is signed in to Spotify via MY account, when she asks Alexa to play music, the music will stop on my phone. 

And sometimes, when I try to play music on my phone, the app is already connected to Alexa, so whatever I want to play plays instead at home and startles my fiancee. 

Since there are only two of us on this family plan, I first thought about creating a third "house" account for Spotify under my family plan to hook up to Alexa. But if I do that, then I won't have access to my private playlists via Alexa, and I also won't be able to use my phone to control the audio playing via Alexa - or start playing audio on the Echo speakers using Spotify Connect from my phone. 

How do I solve for this? Thanks! 

Brian 

[raynerts · Accepted solution]

We use a house account for the Echo and each have our own private accounts under the family plan.  I set up multiple user profiles in the Amazon "household" (don't remember how, exactly - think it has to be done from amazon.com proper, not from the Alexa app), each of which can link to a unique Spotify account. 

So now when I'm at home, I can say "Alexa, switch accounts" and she'll say "Now in [my] account" and then when I tell her to play a song, she'll do it from my personal Spotify.  (I can also follow along with what's being played in the Spotify app on my desktop and/or phone.) 

It's not perfect: I need to remember to switch back when I'm done, and sometimes  forget (a quick text to the spouse sorts it out); sometimes I'm already in my account and accidentally switch out (that just means I have to say "switch account" again); while the Echo can recognize who I am by my voice, it doesn't automatically switch to my account accordingly (yet).  But it does work.

[slavan]

I'd like to pitch in my solution to this problem even though it is a bit hack-y

In our household we have an extra slot in our family plan which we have dedicated just to our Echos. 

The major flaw with this is that there's no easy way to control what's playing manually, only through voice commands.

[Mumsy4]

The issue with this is that Amazon household only allows for 2 adults, and they seem to be the only people who can access Spotify. So if you have a family plan for 6 people it doesnt work for 4 of the people.