Apple Music is currently experimenting with a new feature on its Android app that could make transitioning from other streaming services, such as Spotify, a breeze. Here’s what’s happening.
A vigilant Reddit user recently noticed an interesting addition to the latest beta version of Apple Music for Android: integration with SongShift. For those unfamiliar, SongShift is a handy third-party service designed to facilitate the transfer of music libraries across various streaming platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This integration, seemingly being tested through an A/B approach, aims to empower Android users by offering them the convenience of switching from a rival music service to Apple Music effortlessly.
The prompt displayed under the header ‘Transfer Music from Other Services’ invites users to “Add saved music and playlists you made in other music services to your Apple Music library.”
While this integration makes transferring saved music and playlists easier, it’s important to note that it doesn’t support Spotify’s algorithmically generated playlists. So, if you love Spotify’s ‘Discover Weekly’ playlist, unfortunately, you won’t be able to move it to Apple Music.
Currently, this feature appears to be only for Android users. This isn’t surprising given that Apple Music was initially only for iOS devices until it expanded to Android in 2015. As Apple focuses more on its Services division, it seems to be embracing platform agnosticism for services like Apple Music and Apple TV. By offering Android users a seamless way to transfer playlists from Spotify, Apple Music is giving a convenient perk to those thinking about switching services.
It’s important to look at the bigger picture. Spotify has had a partnership with Samsung since 2019, which means Spotify comes pre-installed on all Samsung Galaxy devices. Since Samsung controls a significant 33.8% share of the Android market as of February 2024, it’s clear that many Android users default to Spotify, partly because of attractive premium offers for new sign-ups lasting three to six months.