Playing Music from YouTube on the Amazon Echo Made Easy!

Hey there, music lovers! Have you ever wondered if it’s possible to play your favorite jams from YouTube on your trusty Amazon Echo? Well, wonder no more because I’m here to show you just how to do it!

First things first, make sure you have your Amazon Echo set up and connected to the internet. Once that’s done, it’s time to get the party started!

To begin, open up the YouTube app on your phone, tablet, or computer – whichever you prefer. Find the song, playlist, or video you can’t wait to groove to, and click on it. Now, here comes the important part!

Look for the little icon that looks like three dots arranged vertically. Once you find it, click on it to reveal a drop-down menu of options. Among those options, you should see one that says, “Share.” Click on that bad boy!

A new menu will pop up with various choices for sharing the video. Among those choices, look for one that says, “Copy Link.” Now, you’re going to want to give that option a little clickaroo.

Great job so far! Now, open up your favorite web browser and head on over to a nifty website called “yout.com.” It’s like a magic portal that will help us transform your YouTube link into something the Amazon Echo can understand.

Once you’re on yout.com, you’ll see a handy-dandy search bar. Just paste the YouTube link you copied into that search bar and hit the big ol’ “Search” button. That’s right, we’re a step closer to getting your tunes playing!

After the page loads, you should see a list of options to choose from. Now, pay close attention because we’re almost there! Among the options, you want to select “MP3” or “Audio” – whichever tickles your fancy.

Now, click on the option you chose, and viola! The magic has happened. You’ve converted your YouTube video into a snazzy audio file that’s perfect for the Amazon Echo.

But wait, we’re not done just yet. Go ahead and click on the red “Download” button, and let the website do its thing. Before you know it, your audio file will be ready to rock and roll.

Once the file is finished downloading, open up the Amazon Alexa app on your phone or tablet. Tap on the menu button located in the top-left corner and select “Settings.” From there, scroll down until you see a section called “Music & Podcasts.” Give it a little tap.

In the “Music & Podcasts” section, you’ll find a choice labeled “Link New Service.” You know what to do – go ahead and give it a friendly tap. Scroll down until you see an option called “Custom.” Yep, you guessed it, give that one a tap too.

Now, it’s time to give your service a fancy name! Type in something like “YouTube” or “My Awesome Music” – the choice is yours. When you’re finished, tap on “Save” to lock in your selection.

Almost there, folks! Now, you’ll see a nice, big button that says “Browse.” Give it a click and you’ll be whisked away to a new screen. On this screen, you want to search for the audio file you downloaded earlier. Once you find it, click on it to select it.

Congrats, my friend! You’ve officially linked your personalized YouTube music service to your Amazon Echo. That’s worth celebrating, don’t you think?

Now that we’re all set up, let’s test it out, shall we? Just ask your Amazon Echo to play your recently linked music service, and boom! Your favorite tunes will start serenading your ears. How cool is that?

So go ahead, dance like nobody’s watching and sing like nobody’s listening. With this neat trick, you can enjoy the music you love from YouTube, all thanks to your trusty Amazon Echo. Happy listening, my friend!

Hey there! So, let me tell you about this incredible device called the Amazon Echo. It’s seriously awesome – it can answer all sorts of questions, make lists for you, play your favorite music, and do so much more. And get this, you can even ask Alexa, the voice assistant, to order stuff from Amazon for you. How cool is that?

But here’s the thing, not everyone knows about this awesome feature of the Echo. Did you know that you can connect your smartphone, tablet, or computer to Alexa through Bluetooth? Yup, it’s true! This means you can play music and other media from your devices on the Echo’s powerful speaker.

Now, the Echo already has a massive selection of music streaming apps. It can play Amazon Prime Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and many others. Quite impressive, right? But guess what? It can also play music from other sources, including the almighty YouTube.

So, let me walk you through how you can rock out to your favorite tunes from YouTube on your very own Amazon Echo. It’s gonna be epic!

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How to Play Music From YouTube on Your Amazon Echo

I know a lot of people enjoy listening to music on YouTube. It’s free and there are millions of tracks and playlists from new artists, famous acts, superstars, and even musicians from the past.

But here’s the thing: YouTube is owned by Google, and it’s a competitor to Amazon’s own music services like Amazon Music. So, the Echo doesn’t directly support playing music that’s only on YouTube.

Don’t worry though! You can still play YouTube music on your Echo by connecting it to a Bluetooth-enabled device that has an internet connection. For this example, I’ll be using my smartphone.

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Now, let’s get started. To make this work, you’ll need an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot that’s working properly, and a device with Bluetooth and internet connectivity. Here’s how you set it up:

1. Turn on Bluetooth on your device.
2. Say “Alexa, connect with my phone” or whatever device you’re using.
3. Follow the instructions to pair your Echo with your device.
4. Open the YouTube app on your device or use the web browser and play the music or other content you want from YouTube.
5. Now you’ll hear the sound coming from your Echo’s speaker.

Just remember, you can’t control YouTube with your Echo like you can with Pandora, Spotify, or Amazon Music. You can only stop or pause the playback, and adjust the volume. These commands won’t affect your device playing the YouTube content.

Add a Skill to Alexa to Control YouTube from Your Echo

If you’re not satisfied with this and want more control, there are other options. While Amazon may not add direct support for YouTube playback on the Echo anytime soon, you can add skills to your Echo to enhance your YouTube music experience.

The Amazon Skills Kit allows developers to create and publish skills for Alexa, which users can then install to expand the capabilities of their Amazon Echo.

Alexa-YouTube Skill Kit

Update: The developer of this skill says it’s become so popular that he’s now charging a $3/month donation to use the skill. Alternatively, you can host the code on your own server. Visit the developer’s GitHub for more information and to donate.

One of the most comprehensive and actively developed Alexa skills for playing YouTube music is called Alexa-YouTube. It’s a bit involved to install, but the instructions are well-documented and it works great once you’re done.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to add the YouTube skill to your Echo:

• To get started, go to the Alexa Console.
• If you haven’t already, register as an Amazon Developer.
• After logging into Alexa Developer, select Alexa Skills Kit from the Alexa pull down.
• Click Create Skill.
• Give your Skill a name and choose the default language.
• Select the Custom model.
• Choose Provision Your Own.
• Enter a Skill Invocation Name, which will be the words you use to activate the skill.
• Go to JSON Editor in the left-hand menu.
• Delete everything in the text box.
• In another browser tab, open the code from GitHub and copy it. Use a file that matches your language.
• Paste the code into the JSON Editor text box.
• Save the model.
• In the left-hand menu, click Interfaces and enable Audio Player and Video App.
• Save the interfaces.
• Under Endpoint in the left-hand menu, select AWS Lambda ARN. Enter the region code for your location.
• Save the endpoints.
• Click Permissions at the bottom on the left-hand side and turn on Lists Read and Lists Write.
• Review the Skill Builder Checklist to make sure everything is green.
• Click Test at the top of the page.
• Change the Test is disabled for this skill setting from Off to Development.

Now you’re all set. Your Echo will respond to voice commands to play YouTube. If it says it can’t find any supported skills, try saying “Alexa, open YouTube” to initialize the stream.

YouTube Skill Voice Commands

Alexa-YouTube supports a variety of voice commands. Here are some examples:

To play a specific song video, just say the video’s name like “Alexa, ask YouTube to play Rocket Man”.

For a playlist, say “Alexa, ask YouTube to play playlist All My Pop Favorites”.

For a channel, use “Alexa, ask YouTube to play channel VanossGaming”.

You can say “shuffle” instead of “play” for channels and playlists.

The standard commands for “next”, “previous”, “start over”, “pause”, and “resume” all work.

You can ask what song is playing with “Alexa, ask YouTube what song is playing”.

You can skip ahead or back with “Alexa, ask YouTube to skip forward / backward / by [time amount]”.

If you only want one video to play, say “Alexa, ask YouTube to play one video by the Beatles”.

You can turn autoplay on or off with “Alexa, ask YouTube to turn on autoplay / turn off autoplay”.

You can ask how far into the video you are with “Alexa, ask YouTube what is the timestamp?”.

If you want to find similar music, say “Alexa, ask YouTube to play more like this”.

Note that occasionally, the Alexa-YouTube skill will play ads that support the developer. It’s a small price to pay for this amazing addition to the Alexa skill toolbox.

Alexa music commands

Here is a list of some core music commands you can use with your Echo:

Core Alexa music commands:

• “Alexa, Shuffle” turns on Shuffle Mode.
• “Alexa, Stop shuffle?” turns off Shuffle Mode.
• “Alexa Stop” or “Alexa Pause” stops or pauses the song.
• “Alexa, Play”
• “Alexa, Resume.”
• “Alexa play some music.”
• “Alexa, play what’s hot in Canada.”
• “Alexa, play songs similar to the Nineties.”
• “Alexa, turn it up!”
• “Alexa, turn it down!”
• “Alexa, stop.”
• “Alexa, continue.”
• “Alexa, skip” skips the current song.

Alexa music service commands

You can also command Alexa to work with music services. Some examples include:

• “Alexa, play song, album, artist.”
• “Alexa, play emotion or type of music.”
• “Alexa, play station name.”
• “Alexa, playlist name.”
• “Alexa, play a Prime Playlist.”
• “Alexa, play from Prime Music.”
• “Play music by // from Spotify.”
• “Alexa, connect to Spotify.”
• “Alexa, play genre from Spotify.”
• “Alexa, show me songs, playlists, genres from Prime Music.”
• “Alexa, who’s the lead singer for this band?”
• “Alexa, block explicit songs.”
• “Alexa, stop blocking explicit songs.”
• “Alexa, add song, album, artist to playlist name.”
• “Alexa, create a playlist.”

Final Thoughts

The Amazon Echo is a great device for playing media and controlling smart devices. However, it may not be compatible with all services like YouTube. Luckily, you can easily play music from YouTube on your Echo by connecting a Bluetooth device or using the Alexa-YouTube skill.

If you have any other methods for playing YouTube music on an Echo, let us know in the comments!