In our post-album, post-physical music world, playlists are one of your most important streaming service possessions. We use them to capture a mood, tell someone how much we love them, and score a specific project or mood. Exclusive, highly-curated playlists are a big draw for services likeSpotify, and getting your playlists off of a streaming service is one of the big challenges of trying to use a different service.
Third-party options exist, but the best case scenario is one where the owners of music streaming services actually cooperate to make their playlists portable. Well, one such option finally exists. Apple has built a tool to transfer a copy of your playlists fromApple MusictoYouTube Musicand vice versa. If you’re considering making the jump to either service and have your login information handy, you don’t need to leave your beloved playlists behind. Here’s how to make it happen.
How to get Apple Music for free
Free Apple Music subscription deals are few and far between, but I’ve found a few actually decent offers available so you can start listening today.
How to transfer playlists between Apple Music and Youtube Music
How to move a copy of your playlists to YouTube Music
Before you start copying over your playlists, you’re going to need both Apple Music subscription (or an iTunes Match subscription) and a YouTube Music subscription. If, for example, you already pay forYouTube Premium, you should be covered, but if you’re not sure, make sure you’ve signed up beforehand.
Once you have the logins for both of your accounts, head to a web browser to get started:
Apple says transferring a copy of your playlists to YouTube Music can take up to 24 hours. You’ll receive an email once the transfer is complete.
Playlists will not be deleted once you transfer them.
How to move a copy of your playlists to Apple Music
You’ll need the same information to initiate a transfer in the other direction. In this case, though, you’re going to start on Google’s website:
Your playlists deserve to be free, whether they live with Apple or YouTube
Hopefully, more transfer tools are on the way
Transferring your playlists isn’t quite the same thing as being able to move your entire library of music. Nor is it a complete transfer – playlist cover art has to be re-added individually by hand. Still, something is better than nothing, and in a world where no one actually owns the media they love, it should at least be easy to move from service to service as needed.
In a world where no one actually owns the media they love, it should at least be easy to move from service to service as needed.
There’s currently no official tool to move Apple Music playlists to Spotify or Tidal, butmethods exist. Hopefully, if Apple and Google can come to some kind of understanding, then Spotify and Tidal can reach an agreement with the companies as well.
