Spotify is a popular music streaming service that has both a free and a premium tier. If you want to use it on your iPhone instead of Apple Music (which is subscription only) here’s what to do.
If you want to use the Spotify service rather than Apple Music on your iPhone you have a number of options. The first and most obvious option is to download the Spotify app, which is available on the iOS App Store.
- You can download Spotify from the iOS App Store.
- Open the Spotify app on your iPhone and interact with Spotify there.
If you want find out more about subscribing to Spotify (£9.99/$9.99 a month) visit this page. Spotify currently offers a one month free trial. There is also a cheaper Student subsciption (£4.99/$4.99) and a Family plan (£14.99/$14.99).
However, if you prefer to use voice commands to interact with you music your iPhone will default to Apple Music and your Music library – unless you say a specific command.
If you want to use voice commands to with the Spotify music service – so that your voice commands to play music tracks on your iPhone default to Spotify, rather than your Music library or Apple Music you need to follow these steps:
How to use Spotify voice commands on iPhone
If you want to use voice commands to play music from Spotify on your iPhone you will need to be running iOS 14.5 or later.
In iOS 14.5 you can ask Siri to play music from Spotify:
- Say “Hey Siri play [song name] on Spotify”
How to use Hey Spotify on iPhone
However, a new feature is rolling out that will mean that you don’t even need to say Hey Siri.
There’s a new “Hey Spotify” voice command coming to iPhones that will make it even easier to play Spotify music and playlists on your iPhone.
If you have the Spotify app is open on your iPhone you may already be able to say “Hey Spotify” to start playing a song, album or playlist. The new feature is rolling out for iPhones and Android phones – but it’s not available on every device yet.
The new feature will mean that the iPhone will no longer default to Apple Music and you won’t need to say “Hey Siri” to trigger a voice command to play Spotify.
To find out if you have the new “Hey Spotify” feature follow these steps:
- Open the Spotify app on your iPhone (log in if required).
- Tap on the gear icon to go to settings.
- Look for the new Voice Interactions setting between Car and Social, if it’s not there you may need to update your app, or you may just have to wait for the service to be rolled out where you are.
- You can choose between two voices: male and female.
If you have the Voice Interactions feature in Spotify app you will be able to use Hey Spotify commands to control your Spotify music playback.
Once you have set it up you can activate Spotify by saying “Hey Spotify” and then adding your command to play a particular tune or playlist. eg:
- Hey Spotify play [song name]
Trying to decide between Apple Music and Spotify? Read our comparison of the music streaming services: Apple Music vs Spotify.
You may also be interested to read: Why I switched from Apple Music to Spotify.
Author: Karen Haslam, Editor
Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld two decades ago.
Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.