The Apple Watch is one of the most advanced smartwatches we currently have on the market. Until now, Apple has not created a fully standalone version of this device. In other words, we will need an iPhone to be able to wear one of these smartwatches on the wrist. However, those from Cupertino have worked year after year, model after model and version of watchOS after another to make this product more and more independent of the phone. When listening to music , the Apple Watch does not need to have a permanent connection to the iPhone . And that is what we are going to talk about in this post. So you can enjoy music on your Watch without depending on the iPhone .
Listen to your music directly on the Apple Watch
You can sync your favorite music to your Apple Watch and stream it directly from your wrist to your AirPods—or any other pair of compatible wireless headphones.
These songs are saved to the internal storage of the Apple Watch, and can be of great help when you’re out for a run or even when you’re at the gym. You will be able to store more or less music depending on the capacity of your Apple Watch. Recent models have about 32GB of memory , while early models were limited to 8GB. Of this space, a good part is occupied by the clock’s own operating system.
How to add songs to Apple Watch
To insert your songs into the memory of the Apple watch, follow the steps below:
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone, scroll down to the ‘ My Watch ‘ section and tap ‘ Music ‘.
- If you want to do it fast, tap on the ‘ Recent Music ‘ option. The device will automatically add the songs you have listened to in the last few days to the watch.
- If, on the other hand, you prefer to add specific songs, press ‘ Add Music ‘.
- Then tap ‘Playlist’, ‘Artists’ or ‘Albums’.
- Tap the ‘ + ‘ icon at the top right of the screen to add all the selected songs to your Apple Watch.
- Finally, connect your Apple Watch to its charger so that the synchronization process is carried out correctly. During this process, the iPhone has to be close to the watch. Otherwise, the sync will fail.
Does it only work with lists?
Sure enough, Apple stuff. You can’t choose individual songs to add to your Apple Watch. You can only add specific playlists or albums. To get around this limitation, all you have to do is open the Music app on your iPhone and create an Apple Music playlist that only contains the songs you want to add to your Apple Watch.
Add songs from Apple Music
If you have an Apple Music subscription , you can also do this with songs from this service. This process works with all Apple Music memberships except the Apple Music Voice plan.
The steps you need to follow to add Apple Music songs to the Watch are as follows:
- Open the watchOS Music app and tap ‘Library’, ‘Listen Now’ or ‘Search’ to find the song you want to download.
- Tap the three dots next to the song and choose ‘ Add to Library ‘.
- Now, you can stream this playlist or album directly through your Apple Watch. Of course, you will have to be connected to the Internet. In Wi-Fi models, we will need an available network, while in 4G models (GPS + Cellular) we can always enjoy these functions.
Listen to Apple Music songs on Watch offline
You can also listen to Apple Music songs on your Watch if you don’t have a connection . To do this, perform the same steps that you have done in the previous section. Tap on the three dots icon once again and now choose the ‘ Download ‘ option.
If you don’t see the option, wait until you see the ‘ Added to Library ‘ message on your watch face. Sometimes the process can take a few seconds.
Once this is done, connect a wireless headset to the watch. Then open the Music app on the Watch and go to Library > Downloaded > Songs . Then tap on the song you want to play.
Listen to Spotify on Apple Watch without iPhone
If you are more of Spotify, there is also an option for you. Mind you, full integration with the Apple Watch is only available to users who pay Spotify Premium membership.
The steps we’re about to walk you through will only work on an Apple Watch Series 3 or higher device running watchOS 7.0 or later . Also, to minimize the chance of errors being interrupted, we’ll make sure that you have the latest available version of the Spotify app on your iPhone.
Spotify on the Watch isn’t going to pull music directly from online servers. It doesn’t matter if you have the Watch Wi-Fi or the Cellular version. It will always work with local files synced from the iPhone . Once the process is done, you can go outside without your mobile and you can listen to music, podcasts or whatever you have entered on the watch. Understanding this, let’s go with the steps:
- Install the Spotify app on your Apple Watch. If you don’t have it, install the app on your iPhone first. Then go to ‘ Available Apps ‘ in the Watch app and install it on the watch.
- We open the Spotify app on the iPhone and log in if we have not already done so.
- As with Apple Music, we can only sync lists. We will look for the musical list that we want to send to the clock and we will touch on the icon of the three points.
- We mark the option ‘ Download on the Apple Watch ‘.
During the sync process, the Spotify app should stay open on the iPhone .
This method has a number of limits . First of all, each list can have a maximum of 50 songs. In addition, we have as a limit the space of our clock. In general, a 32 GB Watch is enough for about 10 hours of music with the premium quality of Spotify.
Finally, you should know that the process is slow, and very boring . You can get desperate doing the process. Do not despair if you see that it takes hours to complete, as it is normal. Therefore, if you are going to do it, select your songs very carefully, because the synchronization is not anywhere near as fast as the native option with Apple Music.
