How to Create a Playlist on Echo Show

Like all Alexa-enabled devices, the Echo Show allows you to play your favorite tracks with a simple voice command. However, since it also has a display, you can always see what you’re listening to, making the experience even better.

But what if you want to create your playlists using this device? There are no options on the display that support this. Luckily, you can still create a personalized playlist in a couple of ways: by using only your voice, or with the help of an app.

Step One: Enable Music Skill on Your Echo

Before you start making personalized playlists, you need to make sure that the Amazon Music skill is added to your Echo Show device.

There are two ways to add skills to the account: the Alexa app or voice commands. Both are relatively easy.

For the Alexa app, you need to:

1. Launch the app on your smart device.
2. Tap the ‘more’ icon at the top-left of the screen.
3. Choose ‘Skills & Games.”
   
4. Use the search bar to find the Music skill.
   
5. Tap it.
6. Select ‘Enable to Use’ if it’s not already activated.
   

This will add Amazon Music to all your Alexa-based devices. Most of the time, the Music skill should be built-in for all Amazon devices, but you may need to add it manually.

Step Two: Creating a Playlist via Amazon Alexa

The quickest way to create a playlist on your Echo Show is by using voice command. You can initiate a command at any time when you’re near your smartphone (with the Alexa app) or your Echo show device.

To create a playlist, you just need to follow these steps:

1. Say: “Alexa, create a new playlist.”
2. Wait for Alexa to respond. It should ask you for the name of the playlist.
3. Pick a name for your playlist (for example “Happy Mood”, “Good Night”, “Mediation”) and speak it.

Of course, you can do it all in one step: “Alexa, create a playlist.” Alexa will automatically create a blank playlist with the given name without having to follow up with questions.

Once you’ve created a playlist, it will remain in your Amazon music app along with all previously made lists. What’s left is for you to add some songs to it.

Step Three: Adding Songs to Playlists

On a computer or a smart device, you can add a song to a playlist with a few simple clicks or taps. However, it’s different if you want to add them directly to your Echo Show.

To add songs to the playlists, you need to play the song first and then initiate the command to Alexa to add it to a certain playlist. This can sometimes be long and exhausting, so you may want to fill up your list over time.

Follow these steps:

1. Say “Alexa, play [artist/song name].”
2. Say “Alexa, add this song to the playlist” when the song starts.
3. Alexa will respond asking you which playlist to add the song to.
4. Specify the playlist.

That’s it. Repeat this process as many times as it takes to complete your playlist. That said, you may come across a catchy song while playing random lists or Amazon Music radio. To add that song, just say “Alexa, add this song to playlist.”

The only issue with adding songs to the playlist by voice is that you can’t remove them the same way. You need to use the Amazon Music app on your smart device to do so.

Manually Add and Delete Songs via Amazon Music

The Amazon Music app allows you to manage your custom-made playlists and quickly add or remove songs.

If you find the aforementioned method too difficult or time-consuming, you can just download the Amazon Music app on a smart device and do everything from there. It’s much easier to find songs that you want to add and put them on a playlist. Also, you can remove songs from a playlist with a few taps.

All the playlists that you customize on the Amazon music app can be played on your Echo Show. After the changes, just say: “Alexa play the playlist,” and you’ll cycle through the songs on the modified list.

Creating Playlists on Other Services?

Unfortunately, you can only use Amazon Music to create playlists for Echo Show (and other Alexa-enabled devices). But that doesn’t mean that you can’t make playlists manually on other music services and then play them on your Echo Show.

If you want to stream a playlist on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, etc. you’ll need to do the following:

1. Use the corresponding app to create playlists on your smart device or computer.
2. Find and install the skill for the music service on your Alexa app (by following the steps from the first section of this article).
3. Say: “Alexa, play on [service name]” and the music will start.

For example, you can say “Alexa, play My Rock Music playlist on Spotify” and if the skill is installed and you’re logged onto your account, the music will start.

Custom Playlists on Echo Speakers

With the Echo Show, you can listen to a song and see the track displayed on the screen at the same time. This is a big advantage compared to the audio-only Echo devices, where it’s much harder to find out which song is playing if you don’t know the song.

This perk can be of great help if you want to remove certain songs from a playlist using the Amazon Music app, as you’ll be able to see the artist and track name on the Echo Show display.

What’s your preferred way of creating your playlists? Do you find it easier to add them by voice or by the full-featured app method? Share your thoughts in the comments below.