This post offers hints on how to connect Pandora to Echo Dot smart speakers. Note that Echo Dot speakers do not come with Pandora turned on by default. That is, Pandora will not play if not first connected to your Echo Dot account. E.g. If you ask a Dot to play Pandora when not properly connected, she says something like, “To play a station, first register your Pandora account using your Alexa app.”
So, we demonstrate here how to make that Pandora connection to Echo Dots.
How to Connect Pandora to Echo Dot: Preparation Steps
1. Connect your Echo Dot to Alexa
Before you can access any of the services offered by Alexa, connect your Alexa speaker to the internet. Then register it with Amazon via the Alexa app. See our piece here for details on how to complete these tasks.
2. Set Up a Pandora Account
If you do not have a Pandora account already, visit the Pandora web site here. Click the Sign Up link in the top right corner of the screen. Then, answer the questions to create a new account. Suggestion: take advantage of any free trial offers working currently.
How to Connect Pandora to Echo Dot: Step by Step
Note that the screenshots below came from an iPad Air tablet and the Alexa app for iOS.
1. Find the Alexa App on your Mobile Device
We’re running this demo on an Apple iPad tablet, which is running the iOS operating system. So on our Home screen, we find the Alexa app on the third page.
2. Bring Up the Alexa App on your Mobile Device
You’ll then see the Alexa Home screen.
3. Tap the Hamburger Control
Find the Hamburger item in the top left corner of the Home screen.
This brings up the Alexa App’s Main Menu.
4. Tap the Settings Link to Continue with How to Connect Pandora to Echo Dot
Find this link in the dark blue menu on the left side of the screen.
Tap the item, and then you’ll then see the Settings screen.
5. Tap the Music Link
You then get the Music screen.
6. Tap the Link New Service Option
Find the Link New Service link, as shown in the last screenshot above, pointed at by the green arrow. It’s in the top left quadrant of the screen.
Running the Link New Service option brings up the Link Service screen.
7. Tap the Pandora Button
Find the Pandora music service option in the top left screen quadrant, as pointed at in the previous picture by the green arrow.
Tapping Pandora brings up the Pandora Skill Screen.
8. Tap the Blue Enable To Use Button to Continue with How to Connect Pandora to Echo Dot
Find the Enable to Use link on the Pandora screen, shown in the last picture, pointed at by the green arrow, near the top of the page.
Pressing this button enables the Pandora skill on your Alexa Amazon account. Needed for enabling Pandora before you can enter the login credentials for your Pandora account.
Then, once you enable the Pandora skill, you get the Link Account screen.
9. Tap the I Have a Pandora Account Option
Find the I Have a Pandora Account link on the previous screenshot, pointed at by the green arrow. It’s the dark blue bar in the center of the screen. Note that if you haven’t set up a Pandora account before now, rather than the next screen, the Alexa app will prompt you to sign up for a new Pandora account. It will guide you through several screens. But eventually, once you’ve answered all the questions, you’ll return to the next page, where you enter your new Pandora account credentials.
10. Enter your Pandora Login Email Address and Password
11. Tap the Log In Button
The Log In button is the dark blue rectangle at center screen in the last screenshot.
Tapping Log In logs you into Pandora. Then, assuming that you entered your correct Pandora user Id (email address) and password, you’ll see Alexa requesting permission to access your Pandora account.
12. Tap the Approve Access Button to Continue with How to Connect Pandora to Echo Dot
We find the Approve Access button in the previous screenshot, again, in the center of the screen.
Approving access for Alexa allows the Amazon assistant to request media streaming data from Pandora on your behalf when you play Pandora on your Echo Dot speakers.
When access approval succeeds, you get a screen from the Pandora Alexa skill, informing you that Pandora has been successfully connected to your Amazon account, as shown in the next screenshot. The appearance of this screen means that you may now play Pandora audio on your Echo Dot speakers that are associated with your Amazon account.
Note that the system no longer prompts you to set up your device the way it used to in earlier versions of the Alexa app. Nowadays, once you connect Pandora to your Alexa account, all Echo speakers connected with that same Amazon account may play Pandora, without any further device authorization steps.
13. Tap the Done Button
Tapping Done closes the Pandora Linkage Succeeded screen, and takes you back to the Pandora Skill Enabled screen.
14. Tap the Back Button on the Pandora Skill Screen
The Back button is the left arrow (less than math symbol) in the top left corner of the Pandora Skill Enabled screen.
Tapping Back returns you to the Link Service screen, as shown next.
Now that we’ve successfully connected to Pandora, that music service is now added to your Amazon account. Thus, Pandora no longer appears on this screen. Only streaming services that have not yet been added show up here.
15. Next, Tap the Back Button on the Link Service Screen
Again, find the Back button (the less-than symbol) in the left top corner of the Link Service screen.
Tapping Back returns you to the Music screen. But notice now that Pandora appears on this screen. Remember when we last saw this page above in step 4, that Pandora did not yet appear. Why? Because Pandora had not yet been enabled and linked to your Amazon account. But its appearance now, hints that it is in fact, activated. So, it should now work with your Echo Dot smart speakers.
16. Test out Pandora on your Alexa Dot Speaker to Continue with How to Connect Pandora to Echo Dot
You may now speak commands to your Dot to play or create custom stations from Pandora’s library of tens of millions of recordings. Just ask, as in
- Alexa, play funk on Pandora.
- Computer, play some party music on Pandora.
- Echo, play 1970s hits on Pandora.
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