Good news. Today, free Spotify accounts are now supported by the Google Home hub.
That means even if you don’t pay for a Spotify subscription you can still enjoy one of the best music streaming platforms, even if it will be with some restrictions.
As you might expect, supported voice-activated commands are intuitive and include phrases such as:
“Ok Google, play Spotify top hits.”
“Ok Google, play my Harry Styles playlist.”
“Ok Google, thumbs up.”
In my brief test today all worked without a hitch — and I’ve got to say, the sound quality on the Google Home speaker is remarkably good.
According to CNET, the free Spotify service for Google Home users will be available in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, and Germany.
Keep in mind this is Spotify Free, and therefore limits apply. For example, you can’t specify a specific song, so something like “Okay Google, play Sign of the Times by Harry Styles on Spotify” will return a response telling you to upgrade to Premium.
With the Premium version you’ll get assorted perks beyond requesting a specific track, including the ability to download music (though not to Google Home of course), ad-free listening, and unlimited skips. Plus, you’ll get the highest quality stream available.
I’m a Google Play Music subscriber, but I do like the variety that Spotify provides. For a change of pace, I will just say “Ok, Google, play top hits on Spotify.” It’s a good way to add some energy to the work day.
How to connect your Spotify account to Google Home
Connecting Spotify to Google Home is easy. Following these steps:
- First make sure you have a Spotify account (there’s no charge to sign up for Spotify Free)
- Next, open the Google Home app on your phone
- Tap the menu icon at the top left, and select Music
- There you will see a list of all music services either linked to or available to Google Home
- Choose Spotify
- Enter your Spotify login information
- If all worked well, you’ll now see Spotify listed as a linked music service — you can tell by the green check mark
- That’s it! See photos below for more details
