Apple lowers its walled garden, but favors YouTube Music over Spotify

Apple is infamous for its walled garden and pretending other brands don’t exist. In recent years, however, companies and lawmakers have pressured the Cupertino overlord to loosen its grip. In its latest move, the iPhone maker has provided Apple Music subscribers with an official tool that can export their playlists to YouTube Music — but not Spotify.

According to a new Apple support document, users with an active Apple Music or iTunes Match subscription can now export their playlists to YouTube Music. To do so, they must visit the company’s Data and Privacy page, select the relevant option, and follow the on-screen instructions. The process detailed in the support document is pretty straightforward and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes for most users.

Notably, this tool won’t transfer playlists you haven’t personally created, even if you’ve added them to your Apple Music library. So, only playlists you own will appear on the other end. Expectedly, tracks exclusive to Apple’s platform won’t appear in your YouTube Music library, nor will playlist folders.

It’s currently unclear why Apple has decided to exclude Spotify from this tool — despite being the most popular music streaming app. One potential reason could be their tense relationship.

For years, Spotify has actively complained about Apple’s App Store commission fees and dropped in-app purchasing support to avoid paying up to 30% of its sales. Meanwhile, Apple has seemingly stopped featuring Spotify in its App Store’s curated app lists.

Whether Apple Music’s playlist transfer tool will eventually support Spotify remains unknown. For now, those moving to Spotify will have to rely on third-party playlist transfer services.