Can I get Alexa to play my own music?

[mike27oct]

For detailed instructions of how to do above, and pluses and minuses, see this link:

http://www.echotalk.org/index.php?topic=3323.0

[Joy R]

You can pair your Dot by bluetooth to your smart device and play your collection from there.

I have paired my Echo (not the Dot). to my iPhone, but I can’t get Alexa to play the music from my phone.  No sound comes from either.  I unplugged the Echo for a few minutes as someone suggested - it made no difference. 

Obviously I’m doing something wrong.  What?

[Drwoodr]

You can pair your Dot by bluetooth to your smart device and play your collection from there.

I have paired my Echo (not the Dot). to my iPhone, but I can’t get Alexa to play the music from my phone.  No sound comes from either.  I unplugged the Echo for a few minutes as someone suggested - it made no difference. 

Obviously I’m doing something wrong.  What?

Alexa won’t play music on your phone.  You play the music using your phone, and using Bluetooth you will hear it on your echo device.

[Joy R]

The problem is, I don’t hear it.  I’ve paired my phone, selected the music, pressed “play” on the phone, can see the progress bar on the phone,  but I don’t hear anything.

[mike27oct]

Not only do you need to pair phone BT, and you also need to CONNECT the phone and Alexa BT so the BT setting of the phone shows CONNECTED to the appropriate alexa device.

With the phone BT on, say to alexa "Alexa connect bluetooth" and you should see that it is connected together in phone BT settings.

[Joy R]

I had done that, and my phone showed that the Echo was connected.  I then discovered that it was a matter of volume.  I had to ask Alexa to turn the volume up, then I could hear my music!    Of course, when I wanted her to tune in to the radio or play other music, for example from Prime Music, I then had to ask her to turn it down.    Not terribly satisfactory.

[mike27oct]

Well then, it does sound like all is working correctly.  Yes, often times the volumes are not in sync.  This is why we keep the volume of the ALexa devices at a our normal listening level around mid-point (around the 5 level point.)  In your cas of using Bluetooth of phone you should always adjust the volume level of phone to be higher (or lower) so that after using the BT function the volume level of Alexa device is ready for TuneIn, and such..

[philchillbill]

The MediaServer skill for Alexa supports streaming from Logitech Media Server (free) to your Echo devices.