Apple Music Testing Feature That Imports Libraries From Other Services

Apple Music is testing a new feature that allows users to import songs and playlists into their library from rival streaming services like Spotify.

apple music songshift transfer
References to the feature in the latest ‌Apple Music‌ beta for Android were first spotted by a Reddit user, and MacRumors has now independently confirmed that the references are indeed in the APK, or Android Package Kit.

The feature appears to be a collaborative effort with SongShift, a long-running third-party service that enables users to transfer their music libraries and playlists between different music streaming services.

Images shared on Reddit show new prompts in ‌Apple Music‌ for Android that offer to "add saved music and playlists you made in other music services to your ‌Apple Music‌ library." The option also appears in the Android app's settings.

The feature does not yet appear to be fully functional, and the screens are not showing for everyone running the beta, suggesting Apple is at an early stage of A/B testing, or split testing the feature. A/B testing is a method used to compare two versions of the same app, and users are randomly exposed to either version. Statistical analysis is then used to determine which variation performs better for a given conversion goal.

Third-party music transfer services have been available for a few years, but many have limited functionality without a one-off payment or subscription. There's no guarantee that ‌Apple Music‌ will take the SongShift integration through to full development, but if it does retain the feature, there's a good chance it will eventually appear in the ‌Apple Music‌ app for Apple devices.

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

tomtad Avatar
11 months ago
People are going to get a shock going from Spotify to Music on Mac

Hopefully there’s a way to go back ?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
abatabia Avatar
11 months ago
Yes please! This is literally my top holy grail feature request.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kurtfoster Avatar
11 months ago
What they need to do start curating better playlists. As nice as the lossless audio sounds, Spotify is way ahead of Apple and theirs. And I’m speaking from someone that uses Apple Music as my primary music source because of the audio quality, but Spotify has better playlists.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TWINO Avatar
11 months ago
I tried both the paid versions of Songshift and FreeYourMusic to transfer music from Spotify to Apple Music and both were mediocre, in my opinion. I eventually used Playlisty, which is specifically made to transfer music to Apple Music and it is absolutely amazing. Almost all hits were perfect matches. It's also cheap, just a one time payment of 2,99. Therefore I recommend everyone that wants to transfer their music to Apple Music to use playlisty.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chineseguy38 Avatar
11 months ago
Seriously?! Fix the existing with Apple Music first. Syncing existing playlist keeps on creating duplicate with Apple Music.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JippaLippa Avatar
11 months ago

What they need to do start curating better playlists. As nice as the lossless audio sounds, Spotify is way ahead of Apple and theirs. And I’m speaking from someone that uses Apple Music as my primary music source because of the audio quality, but Spotify has better playlists.
I'm pretty sure that'll be addressed in the new OS releases.
Better ai assisted playlists have been teased many times.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)