Now that I have had the Amazon Echo Dot for a week or so, I have found the many music features to be very useful. I have a mix of different devices, so I thought I would discuss the many ways to use this gem for music.
Note: I get paid commissions for purchases made through any links to Amazon products in this post.
I made a video to demonstrate some of the features:
Note: I get paid commissions for purchases made through any links to Amazon products in this post.
I made a video to demonstrate some of the features:
Amazon Dot Physical Features
The Echo Dot is nothing if it isn’t versatile. Of course, it has its own speaker, which comes in handy if you want to move the little fella around the house (which is easy since you can power it from any micro-usb cable and it will automatically connect to the network when it is plugged back in). Its onboard speaker is perfectly adequate for background music or for reading books to you when placed on a bedside table. The volume can be increased or decreased via voice commands or by turning the top of the Dot.
While the internal speaker is convenient, the real magic is when you connect it to a speaker or stereo via the aux output. I have a Phillips SoundRing in our kitchen for Airplay audio. The SoundRing also has an Aux input, so I connected it to the Dot via the audio cable that Amazon provided and the sound was better and more space filling than just using the onboard speaker. I could see this being used with a Tivoli Pal, the stereo in an office, etc.
While the internal speaker is convenient, the real magic is when you connect it to a speaker or stereo via the aux output. I have a Phillips SoundRing in our kitchen for Airplay audio. The SoundRing also has an Aux input, so I connected it to the Dot via the audio cable that Amazon provided and the sound was better and more space filling than just using the onboard speaker. I could see this being used with a Tivoli Pal, the stereo in an office, etc.
Bluetooth Streamer
The Dot can send audio via Bluetooth and receive audio via Bluetooth. Although, it can’t send and receive at the same time. In other words, you can’t send it audio from an iPhone and also send audio to a Bluetooth receiver. This is a slight weakness, but I am not sure if it is even possible with current tech.
The Bluetooth sending capabilities are very nice to have, though. In my case, I have a vintage Marantz stereo in my living room that gets very little use. However, I have a ClipR bluetooth receiver laying around and hooked it up to my stereo. I also have a Belkin Bluetooth receiver that I planned on using, but it requires a password, so the Echo will not pair with it.
I paired the Dot to the ClipR and it sent music that was playing in my kitchen to the living room Marantz receiver over Bluetooth. From my experience, I was only able to send audio to one device at a time, so when I sent audio to the ClipR, music stopped playing through the aux output. Still, this is pretty awesome if you have a setup like mine or if you have a pair of Bluetooth headphones.
The Bluetooth sending capabilities are very nice to have, though. In my case, I have a vintage Marantz stereo in my living room that gets very little use. However, I have a ClipR bluetooth receiver laying around and hooked it up to my stereo. I also have a Belkin Bluetooth receiver that I planned on using, but it requires a password, so the Echo will not pair with it.
I paired the Dot to the ClipR and it sent music that was playing in my kitchen to the living room Marantz receiver over Bluetooth. From my experience, I was only able to send audio to one device at a time, so when I sent audio to the ClipR, music stopped playing through the aux output. Still, this is pretty awesome if you have a setup like mine or if you have a pair of Bluetooth headphones.
Bluetooth Receiver
The other major benefit is that it will pair with an iPhone or an Android device. There are many services not supported by the Echo, so if you wanted to listen to Apple Music/Tidal, you would normally have to listen to it on your smartphone. However, by pairing your phone to the Echo, you can just send the audio to the Echo and it will send the audio out via the aux input to whatever you have it connected to.
In some ways, especially in the kitchen, when your hands are often full and you aren't critically listening for sound quality, Bluetooth is better than Airplay. If you have paired with the Dot at some point in the past and have something playing on your phone, you can just tell Alexa “Pair with iPhone” and audio will automatically go to the Dot’s connected speaker. You can also un-pair the iPhone via voice, so it is hands free. I did run into issues trying to use it with more than one iOS device, though. It seems to think anything connected to it is an iPhone. In other words, I had to forget the Echo on my iPhone to pair it with the Apple Watch or AppleTV. Not a big deal for me since I don't have multiple family members trying to use it this way, but it might be an issue for some.
In any event, its many features are pretty awesome for casual audio.
In some ways, especially in the kitchen, when your hands are often full and you aren't critically listening for sound quality, Bluetooth is better than Airplay. If you have paired with the Dot at some point in the past and have something playing on your phone, you can just tell Alexa “Pair with iPhone” and audio will automatically go to the Dot’s connected speaker. You can also un-pair the iPhone via voice, so it is hands free. I did run into issues trying to use it with more than one iOS device, though. It seems to think anything connected to it is an iPhone. In other words, I had to forget the Echo on my iPhone to pair it with the Apple Watch or AppleTV. Not a big deal for me since I don't have multiple family members trying to use it this way, but it might be an issue for some.
In any event, its many features are pretty awesome for casual audio.
Services
Out of the box, the Echo comes with easy setup for Pandora, Amazon Prime, Tune in, iHeartRadio, and access to the Premium Spotify service. You simply pair your accounts via the Alexa app.
For example, If you are going to scramble some eggs and then go watch TV, it is so convenient just to say “Alexa, play me some jazz” or “Alexa, play Frank Sinatra radio on Pandora" and have music in the background while you are prepping your meal. You just say “Alexa, stop” or “Alexa, pause” when you are walking to your living room/Den.
I don’t use Premium Spotify anymore because I prefer Apple Music on iOS, so I can’t say how well that works, but I would imagine it would be very convenient for Spotify subscribers.
I did use iHeartMusic to play podcasts and I used Pandora to play my stations and it works great.
For example, If you are going to scramble some eggs and then go watch TV, it is so convenient just to say “Alexa, play me some jazz” or “Alexa, play Frank Sinatra radio on Pandora" and have music in the background while you are prepping your meal. You just say “Alexa, stop” or “Alexa, pause” when you are walking to your living room/Den.
I don’t use Premium Spotify anymore because I prefer Apple Music on iOS, so I can’t say how well that works, but I would imagine it would be very convenient for Spotify subscribers.
I did use iHeartMusic to play podcasts and I used Pandora to play my stations and it works great.
Amazon Prime
The Amazon Prime Music service doesn’t have the huge Apple Music library that I am accustomed to, but it is great to have in a pinch. You can also load up your music (although I have found that to be a time consuming headache, so far). The service doesn’t like my nested folders and it doesn’t like a lot of my Apple Lossless files. I have managed to get about 8,815 of my 25,000 files loaded, but it is no where near as easy to load as the overly-criticized iTunes Match (which was a set it and forget it process).
It should be mentioned that Amazon Prime has about 1 million songs that you can play. The service is ad free and has unlimited skips. It is great for just saying, "Alexa, play me some Classic Rock" or "Alexa, play me some jazz". It does require an Amazon Prime account, but it is icing on the cake for those of us that use Prime for shipping.
In any event, the Prime Music service is pretty awesome considering that it offers advantages over ad based freemium services and monthly paid services.
It should be mentioned that Amazon Prime has about 1 million songs that you can play. The service is ad free and has unlimited skips. It is great for just saying, "Alexa, play me some Classic Rock" or "Alexa, play me some jazz". It does require an Amazon Prime account, but it is icing on the cake for those of us that use Prime for shipping.
In any event, the Prime Music service is pretty awesome considering that it offers advantages over ad based freemium services and monthly paid services.
For Audio Tech Geeks Only
I have a full review of using the Dot with J River Media Center. However, in short, the feature is AWESOME!
J River Media Center, which I bought years ago for my PC (I have it running on the Windows 10 partition of my iMac via VMWare Fusion, but there is a J River option for the Mac), is an alternative to iTunes for managing your own media collection. It has more features and is much more flexible than iTunes. But to be honest, I have mainly been using iTunes because it is part of the Apple ecosystem (Home Sharing). However, since getting the Dot, I have been using J River a lot more since I discovered that it has an Alexa “skill". (Note: A “skill" is simply an add-on for the Echo that makes it work with many different services. Skills can be easily added right from the Alexa app.)
As I mentioned in the longer review of J River, I often use it in conjunction with Airfoil. Airfoil is an app that can send audio to any combination of Airplay receivers or even Bluetooth receivers. One of the ways I use it is by setting up Airfoil to send audio to my AppleTV.
Note: Newer Macs will let you chose an Airplay device to send native audio, so if you just have one Airplay speaker, you might not need Airfoil.
Assuming my computer and AppleTV are on, I just tell Alexa to “Launch House Band” and she will ask what I want to play from my collection, I tell her the album or artist and it plays over my Apple TV.
So, I know in my original article that I didn’t say how I turn on the AppleTV, my receiver, etc. without getting out a remote. Well, I have an iOS app called SimpleControl (it was once called Roomie Remote and I have reviewed it in the past) and it can actually be paired to work in limited ways via the Dot. I just tell Alexa “tell Simple Control to launch AppleTV” and the macro that launches the whole process takes place.
It is probably the easiest way to listen to your music collection, but I already owned all the components (J River, Airfoil 5, SimpleControl app, and Airplay receivers) to get started. It can get a bit pricey to add all that stuff from scratch, but it might be worth it to those wanting voice automation for their home audio collections.
As a side note, if I am in a separate room from Alexa, but want to use the JRiver features, I use the ~$5 Lexi app. It is an iPhone app that works like an Echo.
J River Media Center, which I bought years ago for my PC (I have it running on the Windows 10 partition of my iMac via VMWare Fusion, but there is a J River option for the Mac), is an alternative to iTunes for managing your own media collection. It has more features and is much more flexible than iTunes. But to be honest, I have mainly been using iTunes because it is part of the Apple ecosystem (Home Sharing). However, since getting the Dot, I have been using J River a lot more since I discovered that it has an Alexa “skill". (Note: A “skill" is simply an add-on for the Echo that makes it work with many different services. Skills can be easily added right from the Alexa app.)
As I mentioned in the longer review of J River, I often use it in conjunction with Airfoil. Airfoil is an app that can send audio to any combination of Airplay receivers or even Bluetooth receivers. One of the ways I use it is by setting up Airfoil to send audio to my AppleTV.
Note: Newer Macs will let you chose an Airplay device to send native audio, so if you just have one Airplay speaker, you might not need Airfoil.
Assuming my computer and AppleTV are on, I just tell Alexa to “Launch House Band” and she will ask what I want to play from my collection, I tell her the album or artist and it plays over my Apple TV.
So, I know in my original article that I didn’t say how I turn on the AppleTV, my receiver, etc. without getting out a remote. Well, I have an iOS app called SimpleControl (it was once called Roomie Remote and I have reviewed it in the past) and it can actually be paired to work in limited ways via the Dot. I just tell Alexa “tell Simple Control to launch AppleTV” and the macro that launches the whole process takes place.
It is probably the easiest way to listen to your music collection, but I already owned all the components (J River, Airfoil 5, SimpleControl app, and Airplay receivers) to get started. It can get a bit pricey to add all that stuff from scratch, but it might be worth it to those wanting voice automation for their home audio collections.
As a side note, if I am in a separate room from Alexa, but want to use the JRiver features, I use the ~$5 Lexi app. It is an iPhone app that works like an Echo.
The Wrap Up
The Amazon Echo Dot makes music easy to access and it does it in many different ways. My favorite is the J River Media Center feature because I wasn't expecting it to work that way, but all of the features are useful. For any music fan, I think the Dot is a no-brainer because it offers so much more than a conventional Bluetooth receiving device and only cost ~$90. I would probably buy a couple more, but I am waiting to see if Apple bring to market something similar since it would most likely have better integration to my music via Apple Music and Airplay. However, the great thing about the Dot is that it is so versatile and small that I can always find a place and use for it.
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