Can the Echo play a custom playlist?

[Skylamar]

Hi. I own an Amazon Echo Dot. I also have Prime, so I have Prime Music. And I'm testing out Amazon Music Unlimited. When my free trial of Unlimited is over, I will probably sign up for Amazon Music Unlimited's Echo Plan.

However, I'm confused about playlists. If I got to this page http://music.amazon.com/ I can create my own playlists and add songs to them. But I can't figure out how to get my Echo to recognize my custom playlists. Is it possible?

For instance, I have a playlist named "Songs I like," but when I tell the Echo to play it, it says "I don't see the playlist Songs I like."

I checked the Amazon Music app on my phone and it shows my playlists. So I really hope there is a way for the Echo to access them too.

Thanks!

Skylamar

[Skylamar]

I'm responding to my own question:

The playlist finally showed up on my phone and then my Echo was able to recognize it. I guess the syncing is not immediate. It took about 5 minutes.

[Jerome]

I am facing the same problem.
I created 3 playlists in my Amazon Music account out of mp3 files I uploaded, in the "My playlists" section.
For instance, one of them I named 'Kids'.

According to the Listen to your music help page, I tried :
"Listen to (my) Kids playlist."
"Shuffle (my) Kids playlist."
to no avail...
Alexa always answers she cannot find the playlist and sometimes misunderstands me badly :
"I don't see the playlist Kids Halloween" (?!)
Yes, I tried that way beyond a possible 5mn synchro with the Amazon servers.
What am i missing here ? 
Thanks.

NB : it never worked even when I had my Amazon Music trial.

[tthoben]

I found by trial and error that sometimes alexa responds better if we rephrase our sentence slightly. It's not proper structured sentence but it works at least for me.

This is how I would ask to play my custom playlists (day time, night time):
"Alexa, listen to my playlist night time"
& "Alexa, listen to my playlist day time"

[mike27oct]

@Jerome

FYI, Amazon music has lots of "pre fab" playlists, and you named your Kids playlist after a pre-fab one with a similar named one called Kids Music.  Try asking Alexa to play Kids Music or Childrens Music.  I think there is one named Kids Halloween Music, too!

[Jerome]

I found by trial and error that sometimes alexa responds better if we rephrase our sentence slightly. It's not proper structured sentence but it works at least for me.

This is how I would ask to play my custom playlists (day time, night time):
"Alexa, listen to my playlist night time"
& "Alexa, listen to my playlist day time"

Thank you all for your tips.
Just like tthoben I created a playlist called "night time" and dumped a couple of mp3s in it.
I tried both your vocal commands to no avail
Alexa is at a total loss even though I clearly pronounce my commands in a quiet environment.

I cannot either fire one single mp3 stored on my free Amazon Music cloud (even if the mp3 tag Artist/Title is correct)
It is very strange and disappointing

[Alpha Bitch]

Use iTunes.  Alexis plays the iTunes playlists just fine.  I have over 5000+ songs and/or albums in my iTunes library.

I don't even bother w/Amazon Prime nor any of Amazon's music because I am not a member.

[tthoben]

Thank you all for your tips.
Just like tthoben I created a playlist called "night time" and dumped a couple of mp3s in it.
I tried both your vocal commands to no avail
Alexa is at a total loss even though I clearly pronounce my commands in a quiet environment.

I cannot either fire one single mp3 stored on my free Amazon Music cloud (even if the mp3 tag Artist/Title is correct)
It is very strange and disappointing

While trying myself to get this to work, I found out inadvertently that the Echo and Amazon Music account must be registered in the same country, else it will not work.

May seem obvious to most, but I was in that situation tearing my hair out and found out my Amazon Music account was UK registered 

[Kimchimonger]

I use following sentence to specify song or folder within my Prime Music Account:

"Alexa play "song/folder name" from 'My Amazon Library' Playlist"

[Jerome]

Thank you all for your tips.
Just like tthoben I created a playlist called "night time" and dumped a couple of mp3s in it.
I tried both your vocal commands to no avail
Alexa is at a total loss even though I clearly pronounce my commands in a quiet environment.

I cannot either fire one single mp3 stored on my free Amazon Music cloud (even if the mp3 tag Artist/Title is correct)
It is very strange and disappointing

While trying myself to get this to work, I found out inadvertently that the Echo and Amazon Music account must be registered in the same country, else it will not work.

May seem obvious to most, but I was in that situation tearing my hair out and found out my Amazon Music account was UK registered 

I'm pretty sure both my Echo and Amazon Music account are configured as US and still, invoking a custom playlist never worked no matter the vocal command 

For Echo
On http://alexa.amazon.com/ , Settings > Jerome's Echo > Language > English (United States)

For Amazon Music
If I log into https://music.amazon.com then click (menu, bottom left) on Jerome > Your Amazon Music settings, I am redirected to a page on https://www.amazon.com called "Your Amazon Music Settings".
I am NOT a Prime music member (only have the right to upload 250 songs for free).
At the bottom of this page, there is a "Your country settings" tab with a "View music library country settings" link that redirects to a page called "Your Country Settings".
It reads :
Your Amazon Music account is associated with:  Amazon.com (US)

=> Am I good ?

Note : I am located in France. I had to type my brother's credit card number (who lives in the US) to trick https://music.amazon.com in creating an account (and maybe use a VPN on top of that, can't remember for sure). I don't know if it has anything to do with my issue with playlists but I thought I needed to pinpoint this.

[tthoben]

Maybe you can look at how you installed the Amazon music app. Honestly it seems like a work in progress. Again it took a fair bit of trial and error for me to upload my own music and create custom playlists.

[CChamp]

I have about 10 different playlists that work flawlessly as long as I say the correct phrase. This is what I say:
Alexa, play playlist Champs Rock or Alexa, play playlist Champs Country and so on for the different lists. By the way Champ is my last name, that is why I named it like that. If it has a unique name like that, there is no way of it confusing it with an Amazon playlist. Hope this helps