How to Export Apple Music Playlists to YouTube Music

In a recently updated support document, Apple has gave instructions on how it music subscribers can send a copy of their Apple Music playlists to another rival service. However, it's important to know that this service is only available to YouTube Music at the moment.

"From Apple's Data and Privacy page, you can request to transfer the playlists that you’ve made in Apple Music to YouTube Music," the support page partly read.

After many years of competition, this is actually the first time Apple is offering this kind of support for a rival music service. Although, without this service, many people have moved their Apple Music playlist to other streaming services using a third-party service.

Despite that there are risk attached to using third-party tools to transfer music and podcast playlist from one service to another, subscribers still use them to fulfil their demands. Who knows, that may be the major reason Apple Music now officially supports porting playlists to other streaming platforms with YouTube Music as its first target.

In this article, we'll walk you through how you can easily transfer your playlist from Apple Music to YouTube Music. Furthermore, we'll keep updating this page when Apple Music support for other streaming service comes in. Hence, you can bookmark this page for future references.

Requirement to Export Playlists from Apple Music

Here are the things you need to have before you could be allowed to proceed with the porting processing:

1. You need an active subscription to either Apple Music or iTunes Match.
2. Ensure you have an active YouTube Music account.
3. Only the playlists you've created or own, including collaborative playlists, are transferable.
4. Actual music files themselves aren't transferred.
5. Playlists that have been shared with you but are not collaborative won't be transferred.
6. Curated playlists provided by Apple Music aren't transferable.
7. Any folders you've used to organize your playlists in Apple Music won't be transferred.
8. Only songs available on YouTube Music will be included in the transferred playlists.
9. Playlists containing podcasts, audiobooks, or user-uploaded audio files will not be transferred.

It also worth noting that when you transfer playlists to YouTube Music, they remain on Apple Music. The transfer process usually takes a few minutes but could take several hours depending on the number of playlists. This service is available to Apple account holders in regions where Apple Music is offered, but it is not available for child accounts or Managed Apple ID accounts.

Export Apple Music Playlists to YouTube Music

Exporting music from Apple Music to YouTube Music must be done on web. Apple Music app doesn't currently support this service. Hence, you have to login to your Apple Music Account on a web browser and proceed with the processes outlined below:

• On the web browser, visit the Apple's Data & Privacy page and sign-in to your Apple ID profile.
• Choose the option "Transfer a copy of your data".
• Then Apple will ask what you'd love to export. Choose "Apple Music Playlist" and click "Next".
• Now, you'll be highlighted the amount of Playlists you can export. Click "Continue" to proceed.
• In the pop-up, sign in to your YouTube Music account and grant Apple access to your Google account. Make sure to select the option to view and manage your YouTube Music data.
• Now, click "Confirm Export" to begin the transfer.

Note: The transfer process usually takes a few minutes, but it may take several hours depending on how many playlists you're transferring. Once the transfer is complete, go to the Library tab in YouTube Music to find all your playlists.

The Bottom Line

Your Apple Music playlists have now been successfully transferred to YouTube Music. However, this isn't a sync service, so any changes made to your Apple Music playlists after the transfer won't automatically appear in YouTube Music—you'll need to transfer again. Some songs might also be missing if they're unavailable on YouTube Music.

Currently, Apple Music doesn't allow direct transfers to other services, so you'll need a third-party tool for moving playlists to platforms like Spotify or Amazon Music. Apple may be working on making playlist imports easier, as seen in a recent Android beta that supports using SongShift for this purpose.