Listen to Amazon or YouTube Music for Free Through Your Smart Speaker
The two largest music streaming services – Amazon Music and Youtube Music – now offer free versions available for many different smart speakers and smart home devices.
While the premium versions of Amazon Music and YouTube Music allow users to stream music on demand from huge libraries, and create and publish their own playlists, the newly added free tiers for both services are smaller in comparison. Both are more like the free version of Pandora or Spotify, which is more like a radio station than a digital music library. Free users will only be able to play music from certain select playlists or channels and cannot upload their own music.
In addition, each service has its own limitations compared to their premium counterparts. Below are the basic details of each service:
Amazon Music Free
- Supports Alexa smart speakers
- It is ad-supported (this means you will periodically receive ads between songs)
YouTube Music for free
- Supports all Google smart speakers, Google Home devices, and third-party speakers with Google Assistant support
- Without advertising
But even with these restrictions, it’s hard to get mad at getting something for free.
How to Play Amazon Music for Free
Anyone with an Alexa-enabled device can start playing music with a simple voice command, but since the free version will only play music from playlists and stations, you’ll want to be specific. Here are some examples from an official Amazon blog post :
- “Alexa, turn on the Pop Culture playlist”
- “Alexa, turn on the radio station Imagine Dragons”
- “Alexa, turn on the music of the 80s”
- “Alexa, turn on country”
If you’d like to upgrade to an ad-free version with wider device support, a premium subscription to Amazon Music costs $ 8 per month for 50 million songs. Amazon Prime subscribers ($ 13 / month or $ 120 / year) get a slimmer version of Amazon Music with 2 million songs.
How to listen to YouTube Music for free
First, you need to make YouTube Music your default music app. From there:
- Open the Google Home app and tap account.
- Go to Settings> Services> Music.
- Set YouTube Music as your preferred app (follow the on-screen setup instructions if necessary)
Once this is done, you can start listening to music using the “Hey Google” voice commands on your device. You will need to specify the genre , mood, or station you want to play as the free version does not allow you to play certain songs or albums. If you decide you prefer this kind of functionality, the premium version of YouTube Music is available for $ 10 a month.