Multiple accounts with Alexa/Sonos

[OpenRoad]

Hello - We have a pandora premium family account with multiple family members who all want to play their own music, manage channels, etc.  We use Amazon devices throughout our home.   How can I setup Pandora and Alexa to work together so that, for example, on the kids devices they can add channels, etc against their account - instead of mine.   

I don't want all of my channels mixing with theirs. 

Thanks.

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity

[AdamPandora]

@OpenRoad I moved your post to the Other Devices space to keep the community tidy.

Upgrading to the Family Plan means that you and up to five other accounts can enjoy all of the benefits of Pandora Premium, while keeping your individual Pandora accounts.

You will first need to set up separate Pandora accounts using different email addresses for each family member that wants to join the subscription.

Once those accounts are created (if they aren't yet already), you can then send them an invitation to join your family plan subscription.

They should then be able to accept the invitation to the family plan subscription you sent.

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After those are added to your family plan, each account can then be used to sign into the separate Amazon devices. That way, a different Pandora account will be tied to its own Amazon device. 

I hope this clarifies things a bit! Let me know if you continue to run into issues with this after the new accounts are set up.

[uncdubdiver]

I can see that no answer was ever given to this particular question...?

I have the same situation with Alexa and echo devices.  I have my Pandora account (which is the premium family plan) linked to my alexa account, and when I want to listen to music on 1 device, it'll plan just fine, but when my wife wants to listen to music in her office on her alexa device, this error occurs.

How is this resolved with the premium family plan?  If this doesn't work properly then IMO it's not worth paying the extra for...?

[AdamPandora]

@uncdubdiver To clarify, your account can only be streamed on one device at a time.

If both you and your wife are logged into your account on each of your Alexa devices and attempt to stream Pandora simultaneously, then the "someone else is listening" message will pop up.

What the family plan allows you to do, is create a second account for either you or your wife (using a different email address), and add it to your family plan subscription.

That way, you are only paying for one subscription that will allow the both of you to enjoy the benefits of Pandora Premium on your separate accounts/devices.

Hope this helps clarify. 

[uncdubdiver]

No I get and fully understand that, but it doesn't solve the problem with devices like sonos or alexa.  With alexa, I only get 1 connected account for ALL of the devices.  So if I want to listen to music on pandora through my alexa device, and my wife wants to listen to pandora on her alexa device, we can't.  How is that managed with family account(s) or streaming devices?

[AdamPandora]

@uncdubdiver I reached out to our engineers for some additional assistance with this.

In order for both you and your wife to stream Pandora simultaneously on your Alexa devices, you'll first need to set up Amazon Household. 

Once this has been done, you will be able to create an additional Amazon account that can then be linked to your wife's Pandora account.

If you need additional assistance with the Amazon Household account, feel free to contact their support team to help you get set up.

[bhartman67]

Repeating the same answer over and over doesn't fix the issue.  For Alexa and Sonos users there isn't an option to sign into and out of a new Family account when I move from room to room or go mobile to the car.  If I am listening to Classic rock on the patio and the kids are listening to Rap in the bedroom and they move outside HOW do they sign me out on the patio device and sign themselves in?  Multiple accounts don't solve the issue only makes it move complicated.

[AdamPandora · Accepted solution]

@bhartman67 Unfortunately, this is how the family plan works - it allows up to six total accounts to join one subscription. You won't be able to stream the same Pandora account across multiple devices at the same time.

If you and your other family members typically use separate devices to stream Pandora, then the best option would be to make sure everyone is signed into their respective accounts on each of their devices.

That way, each of you will be able to stream your own Pandora accounts at the same time, without having to worry about "Someone else is listening" error message from popping up.

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Family Plan on your Alexa device:

I provided some information around how you can utilize the family plan on your Alexa device in my message above. 

In order for you and your other family members to stream Pandora simultaneously on your Alexa devices, you'll first need to set up Amazon Household. 

Once this has been done, you will be able to create an additional Amazon account that can then be linked to your other family member's Pandora accounts.

If you need additional assistance with the Amazon Household account, feel free to contact their support team to help you get set up.

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Family plan on your Sonos device:

It sounds like you might be using the Sonos app when streaming Pandora on that device.

What I recommend doing, is letting each member of your family know that they can actually stream to Sonos directly from the Pandora app on their mobile devices.

So for example, if you have an iPhone, you can launch the Pandora app and control your Sonos device directly from there.

To do that, make sure you're connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your Sonos device, and open the Pandora app. 

Tap the casting button on the Now Playing screen to initiate a connection with your Sonos device.

Once you've connected successfully, the casting icon will appear filled in and a new navigation screen (or "device shelf") will appear. This shelf will allow you to edit your Sonos groups, select which devices to play through, or control the volume of your devices.

• To edit the group of currently playing devices click on Show Group.
• To make changes to other groups click Edit.

Utilizing Pandora directly through the app will allow each of you to connect to that device without having to manually sign out of the account already logged in and sign in to your own account each time.

Hope this helps! 

[bhartman67]

With devices like Sonos, Echo, Amazon Fire, Pandora in the Car the account method doesn't work.

Obviously, with the large number of complaints you can see that?

Open up the device limit.  Stop the craziness.  This is a licensing issue, not a technical issue.

When I first got Sonos over 10 years ago you didn't limit the number of streams on a device.

You shouldn't care how many accounts I have (1 account ,2 accounts ,10 accounts) you really care about how many streams I have.

Right now I a have a single PLUS account as your family plan doesn't help me.

Pandora is losing money on me because I WILL NOT UPGRADE because the Family plan make my life more complicated and costs more.

I am VERY WILLING to pay $10 per month more if I could have 2-3 streams on the same account.

I Don't use the Pandora App.  I use Alexa to play music on Sonos through the entire house and the car.

Yes, I have Alexa (Echo) in the car also.

Apps are so old.  Voice control is the way forward.

[AdamPandora]

@bhartman67 Thank you for your feedback around the family plan - this information is very useful for our product team as we work to improve our services for all listeners.

In the meantime, I recommend creating a feature request for your specific suggestion to allow multiple streams on one account, as I'm sure this is something many others would be interested in seeing as well.

Hope we continue to see you around the community! 

[Sc00by22]

Agreed. 

Because of what I found, I’m probably going to start using Amazon music on one of my devices instead of streaming Pandora. I foresee that after putting in the effort to curate new stations on Amazon that I’ll eventually tire of paying for Pandora premium family and cancel it altogether. I have multiple Amazon Echo devices, but the Pandora skill for Alexa is linked to only one of the family’s email/Pandora accounts, so when I try to stream String Music on my echo dot in my office while my kids stream Classical For Studying in the kitchen on our Facebook Portal, we get the “someone else is listening on your account” error message even though I have shared my stations to my wife’s Pandora account. Alternatively, I can manually connect to my Echo Dot via Bluetooth through my phone, but this kills the pleasant hands-free Alexa experience and therefore makes me dissatisfied with Pandora as a service that I’m paying for.

[AlyssaPandora]

Hey there, @Sc00by22. 👋

I completely understand where you're coming from with this. In the meantime, @AdamPandora has provided some helpful information regarding the Amazon household workaround when using Alexa devices here.

You may be interested in this existing feature request: Listening to More than One Device at the Same Time 

You can upvote ideas by clicking on the ❤️icon to express your interest. 

Thanks so much for posting on the Pandora Community! 

[ImRevKimbera]

Yes, thank you! Someone who finally gets it! I'm also dealing with same issue. I'll continue on down the thread however, to see if anyone has posted an update (a helpful one, not spamming the same answer repeatedly lol). 😩

[hayes00]

Wow that **ahem**.  We have the same problem.  Alexa's Pandora skill is linked to my Pandora account.  We have echo dots sprinkled throughout the house.  Asking customers to change the ownership of the echo dot between people's Amazon accounts as they move throughout the household is idiotic. 

I'm very disappointed.  I've been a long time Pandora customer and feel their music selection algorithm is better than Amazon, but it looks like I'm going back to Amazon due to this shortcoming and the way Pandora is seemingly giving the middle finger to their customers instead of fixing the problem.

[Petesy]

Hey Adam,

What about the issue of using a Sonos access as was described in the earlier two posts??

[AlyssaPandora]

Hey there, @Petesy. 👋

Nice to see you around the community space. To keep the space organized, I moved your post over to this existing thread: Multiple on Pandora Family Account with Alexa/Sonos 

I would recommend checking out the accepted solution for this post as it has some helpful information. Please note, only 1 Pandora account can be logged into any specific device at a time. With Alexa and Sonos a single account can be logged in. @AdamPandora mentions that utilizing Pandora directly through the app instead, will allow each of you to connect to that device without having to manually sign out of the account already logged in and sign in to your own account each time you want to listen. 

Other listeners would like to have the ability to listen without experiencing this. You may be interested in this existing feature request: Listening to More than One Device at the Same Time 

• To upvote this idea, please click on the ❤️ icon to express your interest in seeing this option implemented.
• For more details about how feature requests work on the community, please review this helpful infographic: "How do requests become features?"

Thanks so much for posting on the Pandora Community!

[chip578]

Your answer is incorrect. While Pandora allows for multiple members, in order for a family member to use their account on an Amazon device (Echo, etc.) they must have their own Amazon account. Not as a family member, but their own Amazon account. They then must download the Alexa app, create their own account, and then they can control the device. If you previously had control of the device, you must go in to your Alexa app and de-register it so that they can then register it. It's ridiculous, but I just got off the phone with a huffy Amazon tech and he said there is no way around it. 

[DinoG]

Hola, beautiful people!

My girlfriend and I each share my Sonos account in my home, but she now has to listen to my music.

We both have Pandora accounts. She prefers HER music to my noise.

How can she access her Pandora account and playlists to play on my Sonos system?

Many thanks!

DinoG

[AlyssaPandora]

Hey there, @DinoG. 👋

Nice to see you around the community space.

Please keep in mind, Pandora accounts follow the email address, not the device or phone number. You can sign into the same Pandora account on any computer or supported device, as long as you use the same email address and Pandora password. This applies to both free and paid Pandora accounts.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to listen to Pandora on one Sonos device under two different Pandora accounts at the same exact time. Unlike broadcast radio, which all drivers hear in the car at the same time, each internet-connected device used to access Pandora receives its own unique stream of personalized music. Similar to other online streaming services, our music licenses limit our ability to stream from a single account on more than one device at a time. As a result, your subscription to Pandora Plus, Pandora Premium, or Pandora Premium Family will only cover the cost of one stream to one device (per Pandora account).

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I moved your post over to this existing thread to keep the community organized: Multiple on Pandora Family Account with Alexa/Sonos

Please check out the accepted solution on this thread for more information about multiple Pandora accounts with devices like Alexa and Sonos.

I've taken a look and I do know that you do not have a Premium Family plan. However, if you're logged into the same Sonos device(s) (under 1 Sonos account) this should help with allowing her to listen from her individual Pandora account.

As @AdamPandora mentioned, utilizing Pandora directly through the app will allow each of you to connect to that device without having to manually sign out of the account already logged in and sign in to your own account each time.

[DinoG]

Thank you, Alyssa. We appreciate your prompt response. 

As it happens, before we got your missive, we just put all our playlists on one Pandora Premium account, which we access via Sonos.

Problem solved!

Your explanation is perfect, by the way.

Cheers,

DinoG