Are there benefits to using Amazon Music vs Spotify?

[ModGen]

We're brand new to Alexa, and these forums. Hi

Wanting to purchase a premium music subscription but was curious if anyone knows if there are superior benefits to using Amazon Music Unlimited vs Spotify Premium? I'm mainly referring to roadblocks or gotchas found later on that make it more cumbersome to use any other service other than Amazon's Music.... problems like, "I can't find that song... playlist, etc."

I'm going to do the trial but was hoping there was a long time user of one or the other to let me know their thoughts. Thanks so much!

[keeptalking]

With Amazon music, you can say "play the song that goes..." and quote some of the lyrics, and it will play the relevant song. It's a neat party trick, but I've only used it once for real.

Cheers,

Mark

[scottrods]

I use Pandora and Spotify and Tune in, and have few issues, but if I ask for a particular artist without specifying the service, it tries to play whatever is in my personal playlist with Amazon (which is truly a small amount of music) and often won't play anything. I suspect, that having Amazon's music service will give you best results through Alexa, simply because it's Amazon's Product, and they will stay on top of it more than making 3rd party services work with their system.

[jwlv]

If in case Alexa plays the wrong song or the wrong artist, your best bet is to specify the source where you want Alexa to look for your song. For example, "Alexa, play David Bowie from Tune-In."

[dan8379]

I have had both Spotify and Amazon Unlimited and they are both good but I really love Amazon.  I have found the music selection to be slightly better--it is extremely rare to not be able to find whatever song or artist you are looking for, even fairly obscure stuff.  And I agree with previous responses that on Alexa devices it seems to be made for Amazon music (which makes sense).

[asianrocker]

I personally don't see any difference or advantages on ANY of music apps. They all play your songs. But I do agree that since echo is an amazon product it would make sense to go for amazon music.

I just use the free ones. I don't see the sense of paying for something they offer for free anyway. Yes there's ads but oh well. They have to make money just not off of me. 

[Yoda_One]

First why premium over standard is a larger selections etc. I had Spotify Premium but since I been so entranced with Alexa devices i went with Unlimited for $79.00 being able to play on any of my devices and play on any mobile device just makes common sense. For a few bucks more their is a family plan for all to enjoy.

[Jerome]

I had the trial for Amazon Music and Spotify and I remember I was a little disappointed to see there is no Spotify deep integration into the alexa.amazon.com website I use on my smartphone (I own a Windows 10 Mobile so no Echo app is available)
Amazon Music is more integrated to the Alexa website (makes sense - both Amazon products) so it lets you search/browse music directly from there without needing another website or app. Pretty convenient.

After trying both services, I found the following trick to have Spotify Premium dirty cheap (€2.35/month) so I chose it over Amazon Music.
Basically you create a Paypal account in the Philippines and pay your Spotify subscription with it.
https://www.mrjeremy.fr/2016/09/spotify-premium-pas-cher.html
(it's in French so I'll let you google if you want another language but you get the point)

[samsethi]

Hi I have both Spotify Family and Unlimited.  I use Spotify for two reasons. 

1. In my Range Rover there is a spotify app so all my playlists are sync'd.  There is no Amazon Music app for the Range Rover or Alexa integration (yet).

2. With Spotify family I don't have to have my kids playlists mixed in with my own.  It makes the recommendations better for me.

Sam

[dan8379]

Hi I have both Spotify Family and Unlimited.  I use Spotify for two reasons. 

1. In my Range Rover there is a spotify app so all my playlists are sync'd.  There is no Amazon Music app for the Range Rover or Alexa integration (yet).

2. With Spotify family I don't have to have my kids playlists mixed in with my own.  It makes the recommendations better for me.

Sam

With Amazon Unlimited we have the family plan and each family member has their own accounts.  As long as I am in my account on the Echo it will only pull from my playlists, and not my family's.  I guess if you are all sharing one account that could be a problem, though.