Multiple Devices

[solja1]

I've done some searching and believe--unfortunately--that I know the answer, but want to lay out the scenario below. I was super excited to switch from Amazon Music Unlimited to Spotify (the UI and customized playlists won me over) and took the plunge today, but trying to set it up in my home has been a frustrating challenge taking up most of my morning.

The primary frustration, as I've read others have had, is the inability for different users on a Premium Family account to listen to music on separate speakers in the same ecosystem at the same time. I've tried to associate different family accounts to the different systems (Alexa and Sonos), but there's still something that will cause music playing on an Amazon Echo in my office, ostensibly using the Amazon Alexa Spotify skill enabled under my Spotify account, to be interrupted when my wife starts music on a Sonos speaker in the living room using Alexa, even though the account registered in the Sonos app belongs to her.

Can someone confirm that what I'm trying to do is indeed impossible under the current Spotify account structure? Is there a workaround that doesn't involve going "Offline" to make things happen correctly?

With Amazon Music Unlimited, we were able to stream up to 6 devices simultaneously under one account. Needless to say, this was much easier and conducive to a multi-user, multi-speaker environment.

I see this has been an "idea" being worked on by Spotify since last year. If/when implemented, I will consider switching again, but for now this is a deal-breaker. Limiting Premium Family subscriptions to users instead of devices is overly complicated and burdensome.

For what it's worth...

Home Setup

- 2 x Echo Dots, 1 x Echo

- Sonos speakers w/ Alexa voice service

- 2 x iPhones, various computers, etc.

Spotify Setup

- Premium Family Plan

- 3 x Accounts (Myself, wife, child)

Desired Effect

- Each user can play music at the same time on whatever device they wish

- May include playing music on a device, leaving the room, and starting new music on another device even while music is still playing in the room that was left

Implementation Attempts

- Link one account (wife) to Amazon Alexa Spotify skill

- Link one account (myself) to Sonos service

- All combinations of sign out/sign in/different users on different things

Results

- I can play music on my iPhone while music is playing on Sonos2

- If music is playing on Sonos and I try to play music on Echo Dot or Echo, Sonos music stops

- If music is playing on Echo Dot or Echo and I try to play music on Sonos, Echo music stops

[nross88]

I upgraded to premium thinking that this would solve the same paint point that you have, and have been dissapointed that despite upgrading only one account can be used at once.

We have google home, SONOS, and iPhones - it's really annoying when I am on a run using spotify, and my wife or kids start playing through sonos, google, or an iPhone. We'll probably have to bail for a while until they figure this out as well.

[solja1]

It's a big problem for multi-user, multi-device households for sure. If it
was just my wife and I and we only listened on our individual phones,
that's fine. But the introduction of a Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Sonos, or
other smart speaker ecosystem breaks Spotify's setup. I literally just
canceled my Spotify account yesterday before my 30 days and left this
feedback.

Their competitors seem to have it figured out. I let my Amazon Music
Unlimited account renew and am testing out another service on a "family
plan" that allows any family account to log in on multiple devices and
simultaneously stream across those devices up to a max number of streams.
That's how it should be.

[Ianpscott1002]

Like you guys I am utterly amazed that Spotify has not fixed such a blindingly obvious requirement people will have with a family membership. Family will of course have different age groups who will want to listen to different music on different devices. The growth of Smart speakers is huge. We have 4 in our household.  

Come on Spotify are you really going to stop people in the same household listening to different music on different speakers in the house. This is sheer madness!! We don’t want to mess around connecting phones and downloading music because we are forced to try off-line mode. As the others have said, your competitors have cracked it. I have always seen Spotify leading the innovation, not lagging behind and failing to keep up with music trends. Please get this sorted. 

[Ver]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

If you'd like you can try creating an Amazon Household which allows you to have multiple profiles in the same account, and you can link your Spotify account to your own Household profile and use the smart speaker you want, even if someone else is using another one in the house.

Take a look here for more info.

We'd suggest you get in touch with Amazon for more info on this. The folks there can give you more information about how many accounts you can connect to the devices and how.

If you don't want to link an account, you can use the speakers via connect. Here you can find more information about Connect.

Tip: Currently there is no option to voice commands while using Connect.

If you have questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'll be happy to help.

[solja1]

Number of users/accounts on the devices isn’t the problem. It’s the number of simultaneous users who can stream Spotify under a Premium Family Membership on smart speakers in the same household.

The best example I can think of: I’m in a room downstairs with a smart speaker playing music and my wife is in another room upstairs and asks for music to play on Spotify, my music will stop. The desired effect would be that we both could play separate streams of music from Spotify at the same time in the same smart speaker ecosystem.

The other big music streaming services have this figured out. We’d use Spotify if/when this is addressed.

[Alex]

Hi there @solja1,

Thanks for the reply.

This currently only works with Amazon speakers, you'd need a separate amazon account connected to every speaker to connect a different Spotify account to it.

We constantly strives to improve the user experience with its features and the easiest way to achieve this is by regular app updates. That’s why we appreciate you taking the time to share your suggestion with the Community. 

If you think other users might also like it, go ahead and create an idea on the relevant idea board. We always take new ideas and feedback into consideration to improve the app. Here you can read more on how ideas work.

We also suggest checking this help article for useful tips on how to submit an idea. As a heads-up, it's good to know that the higher the number of votes an idea gets, the more likely it is for the idea to be implemented.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any more questions.

[cinnamondelight]

I have this exact issue. Have 6 Amazon Alexas at home. Brilliant devices. Have to us Amazon Family Unlimited as it allows all devices to play different music simultaneously all being controlled from my single Amazon account. Apple Music also allow this but I’ve never tried it; however, I was so disappointed to find that Spotify are actually suggesting (via chat) that my two children each require their own Spotify account/Amazon account and their own smart phone or tablet to control their music. My son is 6. He doesn’t have a smart phone. And I’m not creating him an Amazon or Spotify account either. If Apple Music can sort it why can’t Spotify? I’d swap in a heartbeat to Spotify as it’s hands down a better interface but as it stands I’m switching to Apple Music — just for a change from Amazon. Please sort!!!

[DAUNIRAM]

Hello Alex,

the idea is already available a long time.

The issue is that we don't want to swap the Alexa account to play music from different Spotify Prime Family accounts.

e.g.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Amazon-Alexa-Swap-Spotify-accounts-without-changing-Alex...

I also just bought 6 Echo devices and I will change to Amazon Family Mucis if Spotify will not provide this functionality. 

rgds

Frank

[fluidman]

Spotify simply doesnt get it at all!!!!!! And that an official Spotify Moderator comes posts these stupid "work arounds" it clearly shows that they have NOT understood the problem.