Alexa's new music feature

[jwlv]

Amazon Prime Music (the free service that comes with Amazon Prime) has always had a limit of 2 streams at the same time. Netflix has the same limit of 2 streams at the same time unless you pay for more. I don't know if Amazon changed that limit to 1 when they enabled the multi-room feature. Amazon Music Unlimited (the separate pay service) has a limit of 1 device unless you pay for more.

Whether Amazon changed the Prime Music limitations, it does not affect other music sources. As far as I know, you can stream a different station on every Echo device you have from IHeartRadio, TuneIn, and Pandora. With Spotify, I believe there is a limit.

[jwlv]

I assumed this was because my two devices weren't connected to the same network; one was directly on the router on 5 GHz while the other was connected to an extender on 2.4 GHz. Connecting them both to the same network fixed the problem.

Glad this was a solution for you, however all my Echo Dots are served by the same network and all are working, with network access independently, despite this "unreachable" issue. One is Bluetooth paired with a portable speaker and I read such a connection is a no-no for the multiroom functionality. I will unpair and reset today and see if that makes a difference. I had also read that if paired in this fashion that the Bluetooth connection would simply be severed in creating the multiroom group, at least that's my recollection. Nevertheless, that didn't happen for me.

Every WiFi router I've ever used has an "AP Isolation" feature. What this does is it isolates every connected device from all other devices. That is, one device cannot "see" any other devices on the network; They are all isolated from each other. Normally AP Isolation should be turned off and there should be no reason to turn it on for a home network. You might want to verify that this feature is turned off in your WiFi router.

[Yorga]

Amazon Music Unlimited (the separate pay service) has a limit of 1 device unless you pay for more.

I'm an Amazon Music Unlimited subscriber and yes there is a 1 device limit.....except that Echos were exempt from this until recently. Play a stream on one phone and try to play somewhere else and it will warn you, but before this last update I regularly had 4 Echoes playing different songs\playlists\albums from Amazon Music simultaneously.

[Liam1694u]

I got multi-room working, but not working how I'd like it.  There doesn't seem to be a way to make the room change while already CURRENTLY listening to music.  So let's say I'm in the kitchen listening my favorite Pandora station and I'm about to head upstairs, and I decide I want to keep the jam going.  I can't say "play current song everywhere" or similar.  What's real annoying is that instead of ignoring the command, Alexa decides to give me a completely new station to listen to based on what it thought I said, ruining the song I was listening too. Anybody figure this out yet?

I've tried everything I can think of. What if I'm enjoying a really awesome song? I don't want to have to wait for it to end before I move to another room, stop the music, start it back up, reselect the station or album.  I should be able to keep an uninterrupted groove going.  I shouldn't have to preplan my listening locations in advance. If I'm listening in one room and all of a sudden decided to move to another room or to move though out the house, I should be able to make that decision and keep the CURRENT song/station/album playing.

[Laurel]

I'm really happy with the new feature, but I come from the era of rushing home from school to listen to American Bandstand with Dick Clark and buying 45's to play quietly in my room so as not to disturb my parents lol.  All of the Alexa features are like magic to me.

[jtpryan]

From an inquiry I made to Amazon:

'd like to inform you that, external speakers connected via Bluetooth and the Alexa Voice Remote for Echo do not currently work during Multi-Room Music playback. However, you can listen through external speakers, as long as those speakers are linked to an Echo device in the group using a wired connection.

*Also, please note that, when listening through a Multi-Room Music group, all the devices in that group access the same stream and play the same title simultaneously. There is no such option to stream different music on each device in a group separately, or listen through more than one Multi-Room group at once.

*Also, I'd like to inform you that you can't add an Echo device to more than one Multi-Room group. If you want to add a device to a new group, you need to remove it from its existing group. Open "Settings" > "Multi-Room Music" from the Alexa app menu, select the group, and then uncheck the box next to the device you want to remove.

I've forwarded your suggestions to our Alexa development team and they'll look into this and come up with the possible options available. However, we cannot promise if these options can be implemented on the device.

Whenever there is a new feature or any enhancement, an update will be rolled out.

​If you need any additional assistance, I request you to contact us from the below link and we'll surely help you,

http://www.amazon.com/amazondevicesupport

So basically, if you create a group (as I did) called "downstairs" consisting of 3 dot's and an Echo, and ask to play some music, they all play.  BUT, and it's a big but, now they will ALWAYS all play.  You can no longer play something on just one.  Plus, if any of them are connected to a BT speaker, that connection no longer works, they just play on the dot.  The only way to just play something on one is to go to the app and remove it from the group.  So basically, until this gets fixed (send your cards and letters folks) this is essentially useless; at least to me.

Jim

[malliekm]

"...You can no longer play something on just one."

Yes, you can.  I have a group (of two).  I just asked the kitchen Dot to play
a song.  The bathroom Dot did not play.  I stopped the music and asked
the kitchen Dot to play a song on the "home" group.  Both Dots played.

I stopped the music again and then asked the kitchen Dot to play a song.
It played on the Home group even tho I didn't say "home group".  I had to say
"Alexa, stop Home Group" before it would disengage the group and just play on
a single Dot.

[iolinux333]

I just tried this. Syncing works perfectly. I've been dreaming about this for a year.

I hope the Tap is updated to be as full featured as the Dot/Echo soon so my two Taps can be added soon.

I wonder what Apple will bring to the table. If the Taps become full featured soon I'll probably stick with Alexa, but the ability to access iMessage with the HomePod is going to be tempting.

[Kitty56]

Turn off the flashing yellow light