Can You Play Soundcloud On Alexa? – Complete Guide!

Can you play SoundCloud on Alexa? Alexa is an extremely convenient smart assistant but does not do everything. 

Perhaps you bought your Echo device and asked Alexa to play your favorite songs off your Soundcloud playlist.

Turns out Soundcloud is not officially integrated into Echo devices.

However, that does not mean a dead end for listening to songs on Soundcloud through your Echo gadget. Alexa’s Bluetooth and skill learning let you listen to your favorite Soundcloud playlists.

Want to learn how to do that? Keep reading.

Can You Play Soundcloud On Alexa?

Let’s be clear on what it means to say whether Alexa can or can’t play Soundcloud songs.

Officially, Alexa doesn’t support Soundcloud. That means the Soundcloud app is not integrated into Alexa’s system. 

While Alexa can perform multiple functions and play songs off Spotify playlists without any issue, Soundcloud is beyond the common reach of Alexa’s powers.

To play Soundcloud songs on your Echo device, you must use a third device that can connect to the service.

So let’s get to it in the next section.

How To Play Your Favorite Soundcloud Songs on Alexa

Because of Echo devices’ easy Bluetooth connection, you will be able to circumvent Alexa’s limitations and get to listen to your favorite songs.

Of course, that is not the only way to do it, but it is the easiest. We will teach you how to do it, so stay with us.

Method #1: Pair Your Smartphone 

You can stream SoundCloud to your Alexa device by pairing your smartphone with your Alexa through Bluetooth.

Then you play SoundCloud on your smartphone, similar to how you would use a Bluetooth speaker.

There are two straightforward methods to do this.

The easiest way how to connect Soundcloud to Alexa is to link your smartphone directly:

1. Check that your Alexa device is turned on. 
2. To put the gadget in pairing mode, say, “Alexa, pair.”
3. Turn on Bluetooth on your smartphone and go to the Bluetooth settings.
4. Look for nearby devices and find your Alexa device among the ones that appear.
5. Simply click on your Alexa device, and the two devices will create a connection. 
6. Your Alexa device will also inform the creation of this connection.

Method #2: Use The Alexa App 

Another option is to use the Alexa app to link your smartphone:

1. Launch Alexa’s app.
2. Navigate to ‘Devices‘ followed by ‘Echo & Alexa.’ This menu contains the name of your Alexa-enabled device. Select it to see your Alexa device’s settings page.
3. Locate the option labeled “Pair Alexa Gadget” and click it.
4. Now open your mobile device, activate Bluetooth, and access the Bluetooth settings. 
5. Like the preceding steps, locate your Alexa device in the list of nearby accessible devices and pick it to establish a connection. 
6. Once your phone is successfully linked, Alexa will announce it.

If you’ve already associated your phone with your Alexa device, you won’t have to do it again.

When you want to reconnect, you must keep your phone’s Bluetooth turned on and say, “Alexa, connect to [device name].

It’s just as easy to break the connection. Simply tell Alexa you want to end the call instead of beginning it.

However, you will have to go through the pairing procedure again if you unpair your smartphone.

Once you’ve paired your Alexa device with your smartphone, you can listen to music from SoundCloud via your phone’s speaker.

Method #3: Pair With Your Computer

You can also link your PC or laptop to your Alexa device and play SoundCloud.

Once they are paired, you can play songs on Soundcloud from your PC/laptop and they will be played on your Echo Dot.

1. To activate Bluetooth, go to your computer’s settings menu.
2. Log in to your Amazon account and then visit alexa.amazon.com.
3. After signing in, go to “Settings” and choose the Alexa device you want to manage by clicking on its name. 
4. In doing so, you will have access to the Alexa device’s configuration page.
5. To pair a new device, go to “Bluetooth” and “Pair a New Device.” 
6. It will show you a list of computers in your immediate area, and you may choose one of them.
7. A request for pairing authorization will appear on your computer screen. 
8. The two will work together if you give Alexa permission to connect to your computer.

Like when you link a smartphone, you only need to go through the pairing procedure once.

Then, you have to tell Alexa to establish a connection to your computer, and the two will be connected in no time.

Note: Sometimes, Windows' Bluetooth is a bit bugged. If it doesn't connect immediately, turn it off and on again.

Method #4: Built-In Alexa In A Sonos Speaker

Some Sonos speaker models have built-in Alexa. If you own one of them, what you need now is to have a Soundcloud Go+ subscription.

With those two services available, follow the steps:

1. Open your Sonos app.
2. Go to Settings and Services.
3. On Music & Content, click Add A Service.
4. Select Soundcloud and Add to Sonos.
5. Follow all the further instructions.

Now you should be able to tell your Alexa to play any songs off Soundcloud.

Method #5: Creating An Alexa Skill

A further alternative for enabling SoundCloud on your Alexa device is to develop a custom skill that would facilitate integration between the two services.

It’s a little advanced for first-timers to grasp completely without prior experience with the Alexa Developer Console.

The Alexa app and its basic settings make this technique seem like a breeze in comparison.

Finding A Sample

Here are the steps you have to take to create an Alexa skill:

1. Seek a sample Alexa skill online. Many of these may be found on sites like Dabble Lab and Github and serve as excellent jumping-off places for developing unique abilities. Magic Jukebox is one of them.
2. Find a suitable template, and then import its source code into your own.
3. Now sign in at developer.amazon.com. You must use the same email address associated with your Alexa device to establish a new account.
4. Just click the “Create Skill” button. 
5. Name the new skill and click on the “Custom Model” option. Which technique you choose to host your skill’s backend resources depends on the programming language you chose for the source code.

Holding And Using The New Skill

The first part is done. Now, you need to hold your skill. Go to the upper right corner of your talent and click the “Create Skill” button again.

It will take a few minutes for this to finish.

Next:

1. When the process is complete, open the “JSON Editor” and paste the JSON code for model interaction from the template you downloaded previously. 
2. Once you’re satisfied with the design, save it and go to the next step: construct it.
3. The next step is to activate the audio player by selecting the interfaces menu.
4. Locate the ‘Code’ menu at the top of the screen and click it. 
5. Launch the downloaded template’s index file and substitute its code for the existing text.
6. Locate the code that generates a streaming instance and examine it. 
7. Now you may change the destination URL so that it opens in SoundCloud. Screen-enabled devices will also show any custom graphics and text you provide.
8. Save and deploy the code.
9. Finally, choose the ‘Test‘ tab and change the setting for ‘Skill Testing is Enabled in:’ to ‘Development’.

Note: This method will require some familiarity with programming and an in-depth review of the code's accompanying documentation.

If you’ve done everything well, your Alexa device can play your favorite songs on Soundcloud.

Bottom Line

Can you play Soundcloud on Alexa? Turns out you can! If you followed all of the instructions, you are probably already enjoying your favorite songs right now. 

There are many methods and the easiest consist of just connecting your Alexa to your phone via Bluetooth.

You could also connect to your computer or even teach Alexa a new skill. Or, if you have a Sonos speaker with built-in Alexa, things are even easier.