How-To

How to Make a Collaborative Playlist on Apple Music

By Jeff Butts

Updated March 1, 2024

Sharing music playlists is great, but it’s even better to collaborate with your friends and family on that perfect song mix. Here’s how to make a collaborative playlist on Apple Music.

One thing that improves my Apple Music experience is sharing my playlists with others. What’s even better is being able to make a collaborative playlist, something Spotify users have been able to do for years. This allows me not only to share my music with friends and family, but work with them on a “mix tape” we’ll all love. I used to need a third-party app to do this in Apple Music, but not anymore. Let me walk you through how to make a collaborative playlist directly within Apple Music.

How to Make a Playlist on Apple Music Collaborative

Beginning with iOS 17.3, you can not only share your playlists with your friends but also invite them to add or delete music from them. It’s very easy to use. Assuming you’ve already got your playlist created, making it collaborative only takes a couple of steps. Of course, you can also start with a brand-new playlist.

1. In Apple Music, go to the playlist you want others to collaborate with you on.
2. In the top right corner, tap the Collaboration and Sharing icon, which looks like the silhouette of a person with a plus (+) sign.
   
3. If you want control over who collaborates with you on the playlist, toggle on Approve Collaborators. Otherwise, anybody with the link to your playlist can join and modify it.
   
4. Next, tap Start Collaborating.
   
5. The Share Sheet will open, so you can copy or text the link to your playlist.
   

That’s all there is to it. Now, the folks you’ve invited to join your playlist fiesta will be able to make changes to it, helping you build the ultimate music mix tape for all of you.

When Good Things Must Come to an End: How to Stop the Playlist Collab

There may come a time when you want to pull back that playlist and stop collaborating. That’s easy, too.

1. In Apple Music, go to the shared playlist.
2. Tap the Collaboration and Sharing icon, a silhouette of two people, this time.
   
3. Next, tap the Stop button next to Collaboration.
   
4. Finally, tap Stop in the dialog.
   

Once that’s done, nobody but you will be able to make changes to your playlist.

Enjoying Your Music With Friends and Family

Now that Apple Music includes a proper collaborative playlist feature, it’s one step closer to being as robust as Spotify. There will always be folks who prefer one over the other, so it’s important for Apple to offer its users as many of the features its competitors provide as possible.