Apple Music app customers have a new feature, though not many know it exists. Apple Music subscribers can now grab songs or playlists from other music platforms, notably Spotify, and bring them to Apple. The ability to transfer music from other music services is buried in the Music App settings.
Initially tested in Australia and New Zealand last year, this transfer option has now been rolled out to the US, UK, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany and several other countries. It's powered by the SongShift service, which will need access to the library that you're transferring music from.
When SongShift completes the transfer, Apple Music will attempt to whip up a replica playlist or song choice based on its library. It will ask users to double-check certain matches, and not every song may have a replacement version on Apple Music.
The feature is available, but it seems a little buggy right now. When I tried the Transfer Music button on my Apple device, it was grayed out and said, "Once the current transfer is complete, you can start another." The problem was that I hadn't started transferring any songs yet.
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When I tried on my computer browser, I could transfer from my Tidal account. Still, Spotify said "Currently busy, try again later," an equally mysterious message that kept me from trying any Spotify transfers.
A representative for Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
While it looks like SongShift has knots to work out, if it works, Spotify users should be able to transfer their playlists and maybe their entire subscriptions to Apple.
Apple's Music Transfer option isn't working for me right now, but it has been rolled out to major countries around the world. Tyler Lacoma/CNET
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