I switched music streaming services and kept all my playlists - here's how you do it

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Whether it’s to save money or sample new audio features, you might think changing music streaming services would be a headache, but it’s not. Here’s how I did it

I switched music streaming services - here’s how I did it
(Image credit: Tero Vesalainen - Getty)

As music fans, we’ve never had it so good. We can buy albums both in their physical and digital forms and stream most of the music we hold dear thanks to the wide array of music streaming services available.

But with the streaming landscape constantly evolving, services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music Unlimited,Qobuz  and Deezer are all jostling for your attention with special offers, features such as Spatial Audio, 360º sound, digital masters and more. As a result, choosing a music streaming service that's right for you can take a bit of thought.

But once you’ve been with a particular music streaming service for a while, you might fancy dipping your toe into another one to sample new features or because you’re looking to save some money. But does changing streaming providers mean you’ll lose your library of albums and carefully selected playlists?

This is something I pondered a few months ago when I was looking to make the jump from Spotify to Apple Music. I'd been with Spotify for years and amassed a great deal of curated content in the process. But I was changing things up as I wanted to experience higher resolution audio to feed through the new headphones I’d bought. I simply wanted a higher quality audio experience. 

There are many third-party apps out there which will transfer all your content from one music streaming service to the other including SongShift, Soundiiz, FreeYourMusic, Transfer Your Music and Playlisty.

I decided to go for SongShift and it was a far easier experience than I imagined. First you select your source from within the app, which allows you to select from the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Weezer, Pandora, Tidal and YouTube. Then you simply select the music streaming service you wish to copy your content to. It’s then just a case of linking accounts and you’re off.

You can use SongShift for free, but this option only allows you to copy one playlist or one album at a time and there are a variety of payment options if you want to transfer all your content in one go. Just bear in mind – and this goes for whatever service you're transferring your content to – that it’s possible that not all tracks will be available on different streaming services, so some gaps may appear in your lists.

It's also worth noting that I could also transfer playlists created by third-party sources on Spotify directly to Apple Music - something I was surprised to discover.

I'd put off moving music streaming services for months in the fear that my years of 'best of' playlists, artist mixes and background music would be lost – and taking the time to recreate them would have been too laborious. I needn't have worried as it's really straightforward to do.

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Scott Munro
Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving into e-commerce in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more for Louder. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, The Tragically Hip, Marillion and Rush.