Spotify fires up on Amazon Fire TV
Amazon's streaming-media box adds support for the music service with more than 20 million songs. To use Spotify Connect, you'll need a premium subscription.
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Amazon's streaming-media box, Fire TV, added support Monday for Spotify, the on-demand music service with more than 20 million songs and -- at 10 million premium subscribers -- more paying members than any of its rivals.
According to a Spotify blog post, premium US members can use and control Spotify on Amazon Fire TV with mobile phones or tablets as remotes through an offering called Spotify Connect. The Amazon Fire TV allows a member to control music using the Spotify app on a mobile device, so music streams can switch from mobile to the TV seamlessly and phones are free to make calls, open other smartphone apps and go out of Wi-Fi range, without interrupting the music playing.
Spotify Connect requires a premium subscription, which in the US is $9.99 a month.
In April, Amazon unveiled the $99 Fire TV as its rival to the Roku, Chomecast and Apple TV devices that connect televisions to the Internet and stock them with apps and services to play digital video and music. Fire TV was heavily promoted on Amazon's storefront and supplanted Google's rival device, Chromecast, at the top of the company's list of electronics best sellers. Chromecast has since returned to the No. 1 spot, though Fire TV remains the massive online store's third top-seller in the category.