How to Get Echo Show to Display Lyrics

Evan Gower October 18, 2019

From a music perspective, the Echo Show goes a step further than some previous Alexa devices. Primarily because it has a nice smart speaker and a high-quality display.

Thanks to this, you can do much more than just listen to your favorite tunes. Now you can watch music videos, and even better, sing along with the lyrics displayed.

All Echo devices have access to Amazon Music library with millions of songs (and lyrics). However, you’ll need a bit more than access to the database to display these lyrics. Keep reading to find out more.

Amazon Music Library – Door to Millions of Lyrics

Amazon music library is the music database from which your Echo Show will play your favorite songs. Of course, you can integrate another streaming service such as Spotify, but Alexa browses the Amazon Library by default. Therefore, when you ask your Echo Show for a particular artist, song, or genre, it should delve into Amazon library first.

This music library has over two million different songs, including album covers, release date, and information about the artist and particular albums. The majority of songs in the Amazon music library have integrated lyrics.

Unfortunately, Amazon’s free music service has plenty of limitations. One of them is absence of lyrics from the display. If you want lyrics to appear you need to be either an Amazon Prime subscriber or a member of have one of Amazon’s Music Unlimited plans. Users of a free music library program will only see the album cover, artist name, and the song title displayed.

How to Display Amazon Lyrics

When you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber or an Unlimited program member, displaying on-screen lyrics is simple. You just need to use the voice command: “Alexa, play (name of the song)”. The song should appear with the displayed lyrics. Furthermore, the lyrics will be synchronized with the song and light up when it’s time to sing, resembling a mini-karaoke screen.

If you’re a member of the aforementioned Amazon premium programs, and you don’t see the lyrics, it’s possible another service is involved. Certain settings can add priority to services such as Spotify, and sometimes if a song isn’t available in Amazon library, Alexa will look for it in alternate online sources. Alternatively, you may try the command: “Alexa, show lyrics” , as sometimes the option is disabled.

To avoid inconvenience, you should add a more specific command: “Alexa, play (name of the song) on Amazon Music”. This will only play the song from Amazon’s library. Therefore, if Alexa says it’s unable to locate the song, it means that it’s not a part of Amazon’s database.

Are There Any Other Ways to Display Lyrics?

Currently, there are no other services that display the on-screen lyrics in a way Amazon Music does. One of the viable alternatives would be to play a YouTube lyric video instead of a regular audio song.

A lot of your favorite songs are probably on YouTube with unofficial lyrics videos that are displayed on screen in similar fashion to Echo lyrics or karaoke lyrics. Although the sound quality might be lower than the Amazon Music songs, it will at least show the lyrics.

If you want to play a lyric video via YouTube, you just have to say: “Alexa, play (insert song name) lyrics on YouTube”, and Alexa will try to search for the best and most-played option.

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A Wide Range of Music Choices

Amazon Prime music is a good way to display and learn lyrics of songs that you’ve never heard before. For example, if you say: “Alexa play psychedelic rock music on Amazon Prime”, it will play a custom playlist of songs = that fall into that genre category.

Thanks to this, you can hear some new tunes and have lyrics displayed on-screen automatically so you can learn to sing the song as soon as possible.

Would you throw a karaoke party using your Echo Show? How smooth do the lyrics flow? Tell our readers in the comments section bellow.