Support for Alexa Media Player

[dm7500]

Current Status

As at August 2025 experimental support is available in the beta channel

Original Post

Trying to play music from Spotify to my Alexa devices, which are set as media devices using Alexa Media Player. Alexa gives an error stating that the proper service calls must be made.

If this could be integrated in some way, it would be a game changer for playing music via HA. Happy to test anything as needed.

[marcelveldt]

I've inspected this today and so far I see no easy way to make that work. The Alexa Media Player does not allow to just send a stream URL to play which is what this integration needs. The only way to make this work properly is if somebody creates a custom Alexa skill that communicates with this integration.

I do not own a Alexa device so I can't do that.

A little googleing I just did quickly led me to several 3rd party solutions you could use to turn the Echo device into a unpnp receiver or squeezebox player. For example: https://www.amazon.com/ComputeQ-UG-Haftungsbeschr-Roomskills-Squeezebox/dp/B0983C2377

I'm happy to work with somebody to make this work but without an actual Alexa/Echo device to test with, this is not something I can start with alone

[adocampo]

I would gladly help, I'm not a developer, but I would help by testing it on my echos, unfortunately I'm located in Spain and the skill you pointed can be only installable on US echos (perhaps on DE as well, as per language selection)

[mabrochu-helpox]

I don't know how the SpotCast integration works but I'm able to play music from spotify on my alexa devices from Home Assistant, I don't believe a skill is needed.

[dm7500]

@mabrochu-helpox how do you bring the Alexa's into HA as media players though?

[Creepios]

Please see my comment below (https://github.com/orgs/music-assistant/discussions/431#discussioncomment-8964417)
for a possible solution!

[mabrochu-helpox]

Whith the alexa integration

[bdr99]

To be clear, this is not the official Alexa integration built into HA. This is a custom integration known as Alexa Media Player. It is found here: https://github.com/custom-components/alexa_media_player

[marcelveldt]

eveloper, but I would help by testing it on my echos, unfortunately I'm located in Spain and the skill you pointed can be only installable on US echos (perhaps on DE as well, as per language selection)

For Music Assistant to work it is required that the enddevice (the speaker) supports "play from url".
So basically we just want to send a url to a speaker. Just like a radio stream....

Music Assistant is not about playing Spotify on a speaker. Music Assistant is about playing all your online en offline media to a collection of speakers. The Spotcast implementation (and others like the alexa custom integration) send Spotify commands to the Echo speaker, not plain urls

[janstadt]

Its hacky but you can send urls like this:

service: notify.alexa_media
data:
  message: <audio src='https://url-to-mp3.mp3' />
  target: media_player.the_kitchen
  data:
    type: tts
  title: Happy Halloween

Probably not the intended use but im curious if there is another api we that could be leveraged ?

[flexage]

Can you please test that with a radio url ? If it keeps playing it is indeed an option to use that for Music Assistant

I also have the notify.alexa_media service from the Alexa Media Player Custom Component (https://github.com/custom-components/alexa_media_player/wiki) available, so I gave this a try.

First, I tried with a couple of MP3's:

service: notify.alexa_media
data:
  message: <audio src='https://kt-montage.com/files/smarthomeyourself/mp3/001.mp3'/>
  data:
    type: tts
  target: media_player.my_echo_dot_name

data:
  message: <audio src='https://www.soundhelix.com/examples/mp3/SoundHelix-Song-1.mp3'/>
  data:
    type: tts
  target: media_player.my_echo_dot_name

The first one played, the second one didn't.

For the one that didn't work, Alexa spoke a message:

“Sorry I'm having trouble connecting to your Simon Says EU skill right now”

I then tried with a couple of internet radio urls, I tried an m3u playlist, and a generated stream url from within the m3u playlist:

service: notify.alexa_media
data:
  message: <audio src='http://pulseedm.cdnstream1.com:8124/1373_128'/>
  data:
    type: tts
  target: media_player.my_echo_dot_name

I received the same message from Alexa:

“Sorry I'm having trouble connecting to your Simon Says EU skill right now”

---

I did some sleuthing on the issue, and turned up the following related Amazon Developer Doc:

https://developer.amazon.com/en-GB/docs/alexa/custom-skills/speech-synthesis-markup-language-ssml-reference.html#audio

They say that when sending playback requests using TTS and the inline tag as above, that certain limitations around sample rates, bitrates, and runtime are imposed (copied from docs and bolded the critical blocking requirements):

• The MP3 must be hosted at an Internet-accessible HTTPS endpoint. HTTPS is required, and the domain hosting the MP3 file must present a valid, trusted SSL certificate. Self-signed certificates cannot be used.
• The MP3 must not contain any customer-specific or other sensitive information.
• The MP3 must be a valid MP3 file (MPEG version 2).
• For your speech response, the audio file cannot be longer than 240 seconds.
• The combined total time for all audio files in the outputSpeech property of the response cannot be more than 240 seconds.
• The combined total time for all audio files in the reprompt property of the response cannot be more than 90 seconds.
• The bit rate must be 48 kbps. Note that this bit rate gives a good result when used with spoken content, but is generally not a high enough quality for music.
• The sample rate must be 22050Hz, 24000Hz, or 16000Hz.
• You may need to use converter software to convert your MP3 files to the required codec version (MPEG version 2) and bit rate (48 kbps).

[marcelveldt]

ah OK so that is NOT useable ;-)

[marcelveldt]

Thanks for the extensive testing!

[flexage]

No problem, happy I could help!

[Bachigaloupe]

Yes, thanks for this testing as I too have gigs of mp3 files and several echos. Willing to test beta solutions. I don't think I can offer as much help as others but I am in the US and I see that can make a difference to Amazon

[flexage]

Enjoyed the Open Home Audio stream with you all! Very impressive stuff all around!

@marcelveldt Music Assistant seems great, and opens a world of possibilities!

I just wanted to offer up a potential path forward for supporting Echo devices, and that would be using them as a bluetooth audio target.

I regularly pair my Echo with my Macbook via bluetooth, and set it as my output device.

No special hardware of configuration needed, just the Amazon Alexa app:
Devices -> Echo & Alexa -> Select Device -> Bluetooth Connections -> Connect a Device

The simplest solution is to pair your Echo(s) with the host OS, and use them as system output device(s) - of course, that may incur limitations regarding targeting specific connected devices/groups
(or it may not... I can't purport myself to be an expert on linux audio, perhaps @pvizeli [Pascal] is better suited to answer that).

Traditionally, Bluetooth radios have supported a single audio streaming device per chip (except for a few specialist radios) - so 1 dongle = 1 speaker, 2 dongles = 2 speakers, etc....

However, the recent Bluetooth LE specification also adds "multi device audio streaming" from a single radio, I believe using the LC3 codec.

Here's some reference links:

https://embeddedcomputing.com/application/networking-5g/short-range-wireless-pan/le-audio-the-next-generation-of-bluetooth-audio-technology

https://www.bluetooth.com/learn-about-bluetooth/recent-enhancements/le-audio/

Note: It would not be the best solution in terms of making direct use of the PCM stream url you described in the video presentation, and it may not support the speaker latency/sync feature you have planned for the future - however, it is an option that maintains local-control, and I do not believe invokes the cloud once configured.

For that, I believe the only current 'official' option to request Alexa devices to play an url is using their custom skill API- and that of course requires an internet accessible url, so goes against the local-control philosophy, so is less than ideal - However Nabu Casa already provides a Home Assistant custom skill for Alexa, so I'd imagine some of the groundwork is already laid...

The relevant documentation appears to be available here: https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/custom-skills/audioplayer-interface-reference.html#audio-stream-requirements

[marcelveldt]

Bluetooth could be a possible solution although I have no idea if that is 100% reliable. Just look for a HA integration for a Bluetooth media player. Another option is to use an intermediate ESP32 running the squeezelite firmware that outputs its audio to bluetooth.

1. ESP32 with PSRam
2. Install squeezelite on it: https://github.com/sle118/squeezelite-esp32
3. Activate the SLIMproto integration in HA (it will auto detect the squeezelite player(s))
4. Add the slimproto media_player to MA

[flexage]

Another option is to use an intermediate ESP32 running the squeezelite firmware that outputs its audio to bluetooth.

This is actually very sensible thinking, for a few reasons:

• Probably a smaller barrier to ingress for non-technical users than configuring Home Assistant OS (the HA supported project for flashing ESP firmware makes it a breeze)
• Makes use of the existing HA SLIMProto integration (like you say)
• Requires no code changes to MA?
• Very "on-brand" with the Audio in the Open Home presentation

Sounds like everything code and hardware related is already in place, so all that was needed was the concept and testing?

[marcelveldt]

Correct, in theory that should work and it just needs someone willing to test it.
Just make sure you have an ESP32 Wrover module (with PSRAM)

[OzGav]

@flexage Out of interest did you ever have a go at setting this up? Or any other BT connection?

[flexage]

Additional: I came across an article from last year on Mark Lewis's Blog, in which he configures audio with a bluetooth dongle on Home Assistant OS, seemed fairly simple: https://marklewis.blog/2021/02/25/home-assistant-bluetooth-speaker/

Mark was using a "Local VLC" community addon as a player, but I'm sure there's other things that can be done

[gromgsxr]

would we possibly be able to use something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoCPUypkimc&ab_channel=DabbleLab as a base for a custom skill to be able to play media from a url on amazon devices?

[marcelveldt]

Correct, that is what Amazon invented to do this.

[gromgsxr]

Is there a specific output URL from music assistant or homeassistant that I could point that skill kit at to see if it works? My ha is accessable via https so I would have thought the skill could play from a URL then.

Edit I pulled a generic web radio stream off the internet and built that template pointing at the URL for the radio station called it 'music assistant' I was able to get it to play the stream all good. I am also able to use the custom component 'alexa media player' to run a custom command 'open music assistant' and the stream started playing. so if I had a URL from music assistant that streams the music out of my home assistant that I could point the skill kit at I would assume I could them play music on my Alexa devices possibly.

[marcelveldt]

Music Assistant generates unique stream URL's on the fly for each playback session but if you can actually play some URL the foundation is there to make it work. Now you can go a few steps further and listen to the audio quality, is it good (enough) ? And perhaps test a few different file formats like mp3 and flac. If all that works it passed the test and there's only one issue left:

The streamservice in MA is only available on the local network on a dedicated network port. So you will need some sort of proxy that temporary opens up for the external stream request. My advice would be to fork the existing Alexa Media Player integration and override the method "play_media" in the media_player implementation. that will receive the stream URL from MA and you can add your own logic there.

[gromgsxr]

Above my skill level. Shame oh well

[erkr]

Moved to discussions, raise your votes!

[gromgsxr]

Gets my vote I'm happy to try and help if I can with testing ect.

[imduffy15]

I think we would need to create a music provider following https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/music-skills/understand-the-music-skill-api.html and then hook into that via alexa_media_player through alexapys play_music function https://alexapy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/alexapy/alexapy.html#alexapy.AlexaAPI.play_music

[realroywalker]

No further update to the above, just waiting on the service call to be added into the Music Assistant code at the moment. I spoke with @marcelveldt on discord recently and he's understandably busy with work, life and other MA updates at the moment. But it's on his radar to do when he has time 😁
Once that change is in we should hopefully be most of the way there (assuming it works as intended)

[kingunlim]

thx for your update on this topic, that sounds very promissing 😬
if you guys manage this, that would be a milestone in terms of missing features!
i hope everything will work how you guys intend it! thx for all of your works!

[proffalken]

Also willing to volunteer my echos to test this - I've got the following:

• Original Echo
• Echo Dot
• Echo Flex
• Echo Dot Kids

Let me know if I can help!

[janstadt]

Curious if there has been any progress on this or if there is a targeted release that might provide this functionality? TIA!

[OzGav]

I haven’t heard any talk about this for a while so I assume little to no progress at this time. Maybe someone will,pick it up after the next release (due this month)

[zepheris]

Not a coder, just a dabler.
I found this which may help with creating a custom skill
https://github.com/dabblelab/3-alexa-audio-streaming-example-skill
This is the video that helps add the skill to your Alexa development console
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoCPUypkimc

From what I understand. Activating this skill will have the backend load up an audio stream. The URL in this stream could be changed to point to your home assistant instance (or I believe nabu casa URL) for the .m3u file. If it's possible to code an audio stream, then we could use this skill.

The scenario would be to have the audio stream process start when opening the media player
Person says the invocation phrase (which you can set to whatever you want) "Alexa, open home streaming"
Alexa connects to your home assistant instance
You play some music and it's streamed to Alexa.

If this is achievable, then we could adapt the stream URL to other players. Using a m3u app on your phone to stream is one example that comes to mind.

Edit:
I just noticed that this scenario appears to have already been suggested :)

[phirestalker]

Any more progress on using the Alexa Media Player integration in conjunction with this?

[alexandreghez]

I have installed nano inside the music assistant docker. Le lun. 29 sept. 2025 à 09:33, kanceles ***@***.***> a écrit :

…

Another Frenchman here, thanks for your tips ! I was able to make it work by modifying langage directly on Alexa echo speakers (via Alexa app), so network problems should be excluded, but I want to use it in French and I can't find a way to edit _init.py correctly to "Demander à music assistant de jouer de la musique" only for the special character "à" How did you do it ? I can't seem to find a way to type it using vi in my docker... — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#431 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APNY55WFLTLOOEPEGYXYMA33VEYMPAVCNFSM5ZFEEO42U5DIOJSWCZC7NNSXTOSENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQ5TCNBVGQZDGNBS> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.*** com>

[kanceles]

Thanks, that did it ! It's finally working, although I lost some time before thinking I had to reboot MA docker for the change to be effective

[pippo73]

Hi all,
I'm trying to use it on my machine, but when I try to import from github the script it does not work.
I get the following error message: There was an issue creating your skill. Skill resources were not provisioned. Please try again later.
What it could be?

[alexandreghez]

I have the same problem. You must be in locale EN for the import to succeed. Le lun. 29 sept. 2025 à 16:25, SKAL ***@***.***> a écrit :

…

Hi all, I'm trying to use it on my machine, but when I try to import from github the script it does not work. I get the following error message: *There was an issue creating your skill. Skill resources were not provisioned. Please try again later.* What it could be? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#431 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APNY55U5POGYOJUS7QRRKMD3VGITFAVCNFSM5ZFEEO42U5DIOJSWCZC7NNSXTOSENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQ5TCNBVGQ2TONBQ> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.*** com>

[pippo73]

Thanks... I think they should write it in the guide.
I can also not understand what are the USER and PWD I have to use? the HA, the Amazon or what else?

[alexandreghez]

USER and PASSWORD are relative to the module music-assistant-Alexa-api Because this module is exposed on internet. It should be protected. Otherwise some hacker can change your music streamed on your echo… Le lun. 29 sept. 2025 à 16:44, SKAL ***@***.***> a écrit :

…

Thanks... I think they should write it in the guide. I can also not understand what are the USER and PWD I have to use? the HA, the Amazon or what else? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#431 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APNY55TSMESY5RY2U27S7Y33VGK2BAVCNFSM5ZFEEO42U5DIOJSWCZC7NNSXTOSENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQ5TCNBVGQ2TQNRQ> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.*** com>

[pippo73]

so, where should I have to set them? sorry... I don't understand. :-( I feel so dumb

[alexandreghez]

Look at this project. All is explained : https://github.com/alams154/music-assistant-alexa-api Le lun. 29 sept. 2025 à 17:14, SKAL ***@***.***> a écrit :

…

so, where should I have to set them? sorry... I don't understand. :-( I feel so dumb — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#431 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APNY55QBCJ56POVG7TZ6ZK33VGOLNAVCNFSM5ZFEEO42U5DIOJSWCZC7NNSXTOSENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQ5TCNBVGQ3DENZW> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.*** com>

[reryro]

It may be explained there, but it's confusing. It's hard to tell where it's step-by-step instructions and where it's presenting options. The README really needs to be rewritten and clarified.

…

On Sep 29, 2025 at 3:03 PM, Alexandre GHEZ ***@***.***> wrote: Look at this project. All is explained : https://github.com/alams154/music-assistant-alexa-api Le lun. 29 sept. 2025 à 17:14, SKAL ***@***.***> a écrit : > so, where should I have to set them? sorry... I don't understand. :-( I > feel so dumb > > — > Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub > <#431 (reply in thread)>;, > or unsubscribe > <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APNY55QBCJ56POVG7TZ6ZK33VGOLNAVCNFSM5ZFEEO42U5DIOJSWCZC7NNSXTOSENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQ5TCNBVGQ3DENZW>; > . > You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: > ***@***.*** > com> > — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[spiegela]

I just finished this write up for another Github issue. Perhaps this step-by-step will be helpful for you.

[nholben]

No audio for me. Everything is set up according to the guide. I have https access to the api container, and am able to stream via https connection to the MA streamer (Thanks @spiegela for writing up the troubleshooting guide). I can change volume on my echo devices, however no music plays. I do have this in my Alexa logs:

{
"message": "Device playback error",
"type": "MEDIA_ERROR_INVALID_REQUEST"
}

UPDATE: I'm able to get the skill to play audio directly in the testing tab in the dev console AND on a Samsung soundbar. None of my 2nd-5th gen dots are able to play the stream.

[fergalom]

I had a similar issue to you and managed to solve as follows. Have 2nd gen dot.

I found the skill needs to have the same language / location as the device. I added English (UK) to the skill in my case and made it the primary language.

I then also added custom intent for the English (UK) language using this file as a guide: https://github.com/alams154/music-assistant-alexa-skill/blob/mainline/skill-package/interactionModels/custom/en-US.json

Re-build the skill and then it finally works.

Query - play / pause on an alexa speaker in MA does not seem to be reflected in MA (always shows play).

[nholben]

Everything is English (US) for me. I double checked, but no need to change anything.

[spiegela]

@nholben that is strange. I have it working with a 5th Gen Dot. Particularly strange, if its working playing to one device but not another -- is it possible that the soundbar is actually using a different protocol (like Airplay, Google Cast, etc.)?

You might also ensure that DNS is resolving as you expect from outside your local network. For this I use nslookup and target a remote DNS server like Cloudflare (1.1.1.1)

$ nslookup
> server 1.1.1.1
Default server: 1.1.1.1
Address: 1.1.1.1#53
> mass-stream.example.com
Server:		1.1.1.1
Address:	1.1.1.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:	mass-stream.example.com
Address: X.X.X.Y

If DNS is working externally, and since you're able to stream from using VLC or a browser, then I would suspect the Alexa skill code. I would log the podcastUrl variable there, and ensure through Cloudwatch that it matches what you expect, and you can also play that stream address.

[nholben]

DNS appears to be working as expected. I'm looking at the Cloudwatch logs and can see the proper URL issued to both the soundbar and my other echo's - I can connect and listen to the expected sound through those respective links. The soundbar works as expected but I see the same playback error for all the echos.

"message": "Device playback error",
"type": "MEDIA_ERROR_INVALID_REQUEST"

[fergalom]

Just addidng in case its helpful here as had similar to others above with no audio.
https:///ma/latest-url, you should have a Json response with a streamURL access to this stream URL --> Must have a sound convert this stream (replace with your public domain of music assistant) --> Must have a sound.
However, no repsonse or audio on alexa.

I found the language in the alexa skill needs to match the device / lcoation. My device was English (UK) and skill was English (US), added the language in the dev console.
Now, alexa would just say skill had been triggered.

Because of the new language, I had to add a custom intent for the English (UK) language with sample utterances.
I used the intent as per this file https://github.com/alams154/music-assistant-alexa-skill/blob/mainline/skill-package/interactionModels/custom/en-US.json

Build skill and then bingo, speaker works.

Question - play / pause is not reflected in an alexa speaker in MA or does it work for others?

[kanceles]

No play / pause status in MA here either. Don't know if it's langage related (FR for me). But the Play button can still stop and start media

[alexandreghez]

Look at my post :
https://github.com/orgs/music-assistant/discussions/431#discussioncomment-14470409
https://github.com/orgs/music-assistant/discussions/431#discussioncomment-14528870

[alexandreghez]

Have instead of avec. I will edit my comments. Le ven. 3 oct. 2025 à 16:56, reryro ***@***.***> a écrit :

…

Just an FYI...you use the word "avec" a couple times, which is not an English word. But its translation to English ("with") doesn't seem to fit your context either, so I'm not sure what you mean when you say avec. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#431 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APNY55RSWUT2PCO73Z7AV4D3V3PGXAVCNFSM5ZFEEO42U5DIOJSWCZC7NNSXTOSENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQ5TCNBVHA3TSMZW> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.*** com>

[mcinnes01]

I'm having a few issues still with this, so I'm running HAOS and so for simplicity's sake around running the container, I created a HA Addon for the music assistant alexa api and I've opened a PR @alexandreghez

Below is my addon if anyone wants to try it in the meantime:
https://github.com/mcinnes01/music-assistant-alexa-api

I've got the skill added to alexa, ended up having to manually add it, as it just wouldn't import from the github link, not sure if related to the locale differences i.e. I'm en-GB and selected UK for hosting region too, but the locale file in the repo is en-US. Anyway I just renamed that file to en-GB.json and managed to create the skill.

• I've run my addon in HA and set a username and password in the config for it.
• Created a subdomain musicassistant.mydomain.co.uk, and setup with Nginx Proxy Manager in HA with an ssl.
• I updated the skill to reference that as below:

const API_HOSTNAME = 'musicassistant.mydomain.co.uk';
const MA_HOSTNAME  = 'ha.mydomain.co.uk';  // **IS this just your home assistant url or does it need to be the ingres (ha.mydomain.co.uk/d5369777_music_assistant/ingress) or does it need it's own url binding too like that api?**
const API_USERNAME = 'user';
const API_PASSWORD = 'password';

• I then added the details to the alexa player in music assistant
• Then I tried to play something from spotify on an alexa device to which alexa announced "I'm not quite sure how to help with that".
• I can also see a log of the request in addon logs I created

Just wondered if anyone can spot what I'm doing wrong.

Many thanks

Andy

[rinosaur681]

I'm in the same position as you via a different route.

I used cloudflare tunnels using cloudflared and made a couple of new URLs for the API and MA domain (I tried ports 8097 and 8095. Best I could get was Alexa saying "I'm not quite sure how to help with that" too.

I had no issues importing the skill even though I'm UK based as well

[mogim0gi]

i made it work using cloudflare, in the end issue was in alexa skill https:// is not needed and also i had to edit streamserver with https:// in MA

However its slow and well .. expermental, sometimes doesnt work. far from production

[C0dezin]

@mogim0gi how did you edit streamserver with https?

[rinosaur681]

Alright I'm up and running now. I'll try and give all the information I can to make this a worthwhile read.

I set up two new URLs in my cloudflare tunnel

• alexa.mydomain.co.uk -> pointing to 192.168.4.56:3057 (this is the API port for the bridge container)
• music.mydomain.co.uk -> pointing to 192.168.4.23:8097 (this is the streaming port on my home assistant addon)

Here is how I have the skill code setup

// Define global variables for hostnames const API_HOSTNAME = 'alexa.mydomain.co.uk'; // Public HTTPS hostname for the Alexa API bridge const MA_HOSTNAME = 'music.mydomain.co.uk'; // Public HTTPS hostname for the Music Assistant streaming server const API_USERNAME = 'admin'; // Basic auth username for the Alexa API bridge const API_PASSWORD = 'test'; // Basic auth password for the Alexa API bridge

In the MA alexa settings it has
API URL = alexa.mydomain.co.uk
API username and password as above

**Make sure the Locale in the developer console build section is the same as the locale for your echo device. Mine was English US and Echo was English UK and it kept giving the "not sure how to help with that" error until I swapped them both to be US

**

[mogim0gi]

yep, its working with same setup for me, however its super slow - starting a song takes 30 seconds. is it faster for you ?

[rinosaur681]

Yeah mine is super slow as well, can be inconsistent though. Just had one take a full minute but I've also had it fast in the past. Interestingly when I was debugging, the local and public .flac URLs worked straight away so I'm not sure why the echo is taking forever

[rinosaur681]

Okay the first song can play immediately, then it will immediately queue up the next song if you let that play to the end. Its when you try and give it a new song to play instead of the queue it seems to shit the bed

[C0dezin]

I did the same setup as @rinosaur681 but I keep getting "to get help, please contact amazon support". can someone help?

[Nagusia]

I struggled to get this to work until I changed the Echo device language to English (US) to match up with the skill language. (This is mentioned previously in the thread.) But it still isn't working quite as it should. If I initiate a track in MA, Alexa plays a random track which isn't in my MA library. (In the 'voice history' log in the alexa app on my phone it has 'Ask music assistant to play audio'.) But then, if I stop the track, and say 'Alexa, ask music assistant to play audio,' it plays the track I had originally initiated. It doesn't take long to start playing - about 5 seconds. And if I have set up a queue, it carries on as it should although there is no 'now playing' display in MA. So, although the MA/Coldflare setup appears to be working the music assistant skill does not work as it should with my first gen Echo.

[Nagusia]

Update: I changed both the Echo device language and the skill language to English (UK) as described by @fergalom. Now when I initiate a track from MA I don't get the random track playing. To get the MA track to play I have to do the 'Alexa, ask music assistant to play audio' business and it starts almost immediately. I have created a button with a script in HA to do this but would like to find a way to cut this extra step out.

[Nagusia]

Having spent more time than I should have using ChatGPT's suggestions to edit the skill's index.js code (none of which worked), I accepted defeat and ChatGPT's affirmation that it was a problem with the firmware on older versions of the Echo:

Early Echo firmware (especially first-generation Echo and Echo Dot, circa 2014–2016) had a bug where Alexa ignores AudioPlayer.Play directives if the skill response also includes a Speak directive and ends the session in the same response.
Later generations fixed this, but Gen 1 treats the Speak output as a “foreground” action and queues the audio directive after speech, without auto-starting it. When speech finishes, playback doesn’t start unless the user says “play”.
Older Echo firmware (and even some early Gen 2) never automatically transitioned from a “custom skill session” into the AudioPlayer interface. Amazon later fixed this, but those devices still need a user-initiated playback trigger.
So, even if the directive is perfect, the device internally flags it as “queued until playback resumes.”
That’s why the same skill works perfectly on newer Echos, but not on your Gen 1.

I subsequently have obtained an Echo Dot Gen5, and although it takes a while to set up the stream, it works without my having to send a 'play' command. Phew!