Colors and streaming services are for everyone: Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Amazon Music… they all have their differences and similarities, but if the experience in a connected home is important to you, the first hides an ace in the sleeve, a differential function like Spotify Connect (Tidal has its counterpart in Connect, but it is not up to the task). If you are not clear what is Spotify Connect, how it works, why it makes a difference and how you can take advantage of it with your devices, keep reading.
What is Spotify Connect?
The “normal” thing is that you enjoy Spotify through an application on mobile devices, desktop or the browser on your phone, your tablet, your computer, your TV. Of course, you can also listen to your music through a speaker once you have paired it via Bluetooth. But you can also use it with any compatible audio device without the need for Bluetooth or the application installed.
Go ahead, this function is not new, but rather it dates from 2013. However, in these times in which the competition between streaming services is fiercer than ever and that this tool is going to be a decade old, it is interesting to highlight it both for its good performance as per its conditions of use and the breadth of compatible devices.
Audio device categories available with Spotify Connect
Spotify Connect is a feature that allows you to play your Spotify music in high quality (at 320 Kbps) using Wi-Fi on compatible sound devices (there are more than 300 products from more than 80 different brands) such as a sound bar, a TV, a Chromecast, a smart speaker, an AV player, the PS5, among others.
In this way, the music you want from the Spotify catalog will be played on said device directly from the servers without going through your phone as an intermediary, which in practice means that you can continue making and receiving calls and you don’t use up your battery.
Another interesting feature of Spotify Connect is that when you launch the app or switch devices, volume adjusts automatically depending on the chosen product. That you were listening to something on your mobile through the headphones and you have arrived home and want to continue with the track with your Echo? Then it will only select to continue playing at that same point without having to pause it.
What about Tidal Connect? As we progressed in the intro, Connect is the counterpart tool by Tidal, but it is more limited in terms of functions and compatibilities. Thus, it can also be used to send your Tidal music to your compatible sound devices. If we talk about smart speakers, you can do it with those from Google, but not with those that integrate Alexa (only compatible with Tidal Connect in the United States) such as the popular Echo and Fire. Taking into account the presence of Alexa in homes, it is not a trivial issue.
How Spotify Connect works
To use Spotify Connect you will need a device with the updated Spotify application (phone, tablet or computer), the sound device in question and that both are on the same WiFi network. Now you will only have to log in to your Spotify account. Initially it was an exclusive service of Spotify Premiumbut Spotify Connect is currently available for all plans, including the free version.
It’s important to put attention on unless you use a multiroom system, Spotify Connect works on only one device at a time. However, you will be able to switch between different devices with hardly any delay (it is minimal, significantly less than that which exists compared to Bluetooth pairing).
To set up Spotify Connect you need to open the Spotify app, play a song and select available devices. Mark the one you want and start listening.
To control playback you can use both the applicationwhich will act as a kind of remote control (this is important, because if you were using your phone as a source, for example, the playback would stop when receiving a call), such as voice commands on devices such as smart speakers, as long as you have added your Spotify account to the list of streaming services and selected it as the default player. Now you can say things like: “Alexa, play Shakira” or “Hey Google, play Lady Gaga.”
Photo by David vihovec on Unsplash
