Apple Music may allow users to import Spotify playlists

Apple Music may be working on an official way to import music from Spotify and other music apps.

According to 9to5Mac, Reddit users have reported seeing an option to “transfer music from other services” on the Apple Music library page. Based on this, it’s possible that Apple is A/B testing the beta version of this feature on Android.

The new feature appears to draw inspiration from SongShift, a well-established third-party app. For years, SongShift has empowered users to seamlessly transfer music across various streaming platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify. This functionality ensures that users can enjoy their entire music library in any preferred application without skipping a beat.

If Apple is planning to natively integrate SongShift (or a similar music-transfer app) with Apple Music, there’s precedent. In the past, Apple has acquired popular third-party apps instead of developing competing apps. In 2018, Apple bought Shazam, a music app. In 2020, it acquired the Dark Sky weather app and Apple’s native Weather app adopted most of its features.

Adding native integration to import songs from Spotify is a strategic move. However, it’s surprising that Apple would want to play nice with its biggest competitor. Apple was recently fined 500 million euros for allegedly favoring Apple Music over other music apps (e.g., Spotify) on the App Store.

Still, one benefit of this reported new import feature is that migrating from Spotify to Apple Music should be seamless, encouraging more users to switch to Apple’s popular music app.