How to Create Collaborative Playlists in Apple Music

Apple Music has introduced one of its most anticipated features: collaborative playlists. This exciting feature allows users to share and co-create playlists with family and friends. Here’s a guide on how to get started with collaborative playlists in Apple Music.

What Are Collaborative Playlists in Apple Music?

Collaborative playlists provide a way to share and enjoy music with friends and family. With this feature, you can collaboratively add, remove, or rearrange songs within an Apple Music playlist, all while enjoying the shared music experience. The advantage of this feature is the fun and convenience it offers for exploring new music, creating themed playlists for special events or gatherings, or simply enjoying music together.

Additionally, you can express your “musical moods” using emojis in the “Now Playing” section, adding a different and fun dimension to the app when sharing music with friends. In previous iOS versions, sharing a playlist required manual sharing, but with iOS 17.2 or later, the process becomes much simpler.

How to Create a Collaborative Playlist in Apple Music on Your iPhone

If you’re eager to create your first collaborative playlist on Apple Music, follow these steps:

1. Open the Apple Music app on your iPhone.
2. Navigate to the “Library” tab and tap on “Playlists.”
   • If you don’t see this option, tap “Edit” and select “Playlists.”
3. Create a new playlist or open an existing one.
4. Once you’re in the playlist you want to share, open the three-dot menu in the top right corner and select “Collaborate.”
   • Alternatively, you can directly tap the “Collaborate” button at the top.
5. Activate the “Start Collaborating” option and tap “Start Collaboration.” You can disable this option if you want anyone to join without approval.
6. Select a sharing option to generate the collaboration link.

Once your collaborative playlist is created, you’ll have control over adding people, removing existing contacts, or stopping sharing the playlist altogether. You can also edit the actions that people you’ve shared the playlist with can perform. You can specify whether they can add new songs, modify the song order, change the playlist’s name, or update the cover photo.

To keep track of contributors adding new music to a collaborative playlist, simply tap the “Collaborate” button in the top right corner of the screen. You’ll see a list of everyone who has access to the playlist.

Collaborative Playlist Support

As of now, collaborative playlists are only available on iPhone models with iOS 17.2 or later installed. However, Apple is expected to extend this feature to other devices like iPads and Macs in the future, although an exact release date for this expansion has not been specified.