Find and share Playlists with Apple Music

If you get an Apple Music subscription you can explore playlists created either by Apple’s own staff or by friends who are also using the service… Here’s some of what you can do…

Before you get started, you should double check that you’ve turned on the iCloud Music Library option on your iPhone or iPad in your iOS Settings.

Open the main Settings panel and then scroll down and select the Music app.

Turning on iCloud Music Library allows you to select songs and playlists that you find on Apple Music and transfer them into the My Music section of the Music app so that they’re stored permanently and always available for you to listen to.

We’re using the Music app on an iPhone, but turning this option on also allows you to share your music and playlists with other iOS devices as well as Macs with iTunes.

The best place to start with Apple Music

is the For You section, which offers you a selection of playlists based on the bands and music genres that you picked when first setting up your Apple Music account.

There are actually a number of options for organizing playlists here. If you press and hold on the name of a playlist you will activate a menu containing options that apply to the entire playlist.

Tap on Add To My Music and this playlist will be permanently added to your own playlists that are stored in the My Music section of the app.

Tapping Make Available Offline will download all the songs in the playlist onto your iPhone so that you can still play them even if you don’t have an Internet connection.

And, of course, the Share Playlist option allows you to post a link to the playlist on Twitter, Facebook or other social sites.

Instead of pressing-and-holding, you can just tap once on the playlist to see a full list of all the tracks in that playlist.

You can then manage individual tracks by tapping the options menu (•••) to the right of the track’s name.

You can share individual songs on social media, just as you can with entire playlists, but there are some other options here as well.

The Genius Playlist command tells the Music app to create a new playlist of similar songs that will work well with your original choice – maybe selecting a group of fast-paced songs for a gym workout.

You can also select Start Station, which will immediately start playing a personalized radio station that streams similar songs and artists.

Also read: How to use Apple Music: Everything you need to know and Apple Music price & how to get it

You can also select individual tracks from Apple Music playlists and add them to your own playlists that are stored in the My Music section of the Music app.

I’ve got a ‘70s playlist on my iPhone, so I’ll tap Add To Playlist in order to select a few of these old Bowie classics and add them to my existing playlist.

And, right in the middle of writing this article, Apple announced an iOS update – version 8.4.1 – that includes an update for the Music app.

It wasn’t available to download in time for this article, but Apple’s release notes say that you can now select one song from an Apple Music playlist and then use it to create a brand new playlist in the My Music section of the app, rather than just adding it to an existing playlist.

The playlists you have in My Music will generally include songs that you already own and that are actually stored on your iPhone or Mac, whereas the Apple Music playlists will consist of tracks that you can stream over the Internet.

But if I go into my ‘70s playlist and select one of those Bowie tracks I can open this menu and select Make Available Offline in order to download the song onto my iPhone.

The song will then remain on my iPhone so that I can play it without an Internet connection – but only as long as I continue to renew my Apple Music subscription.

There’s another new option that you can explore when creating your own playlists in My Music. In the past, you could only create playlists using music that was stored on your iPhone or your Mac.

However, you can now go online and search the millions of songs on the Apple Music service and then add those songs to your personal playlists as well.

You can also download those tracks to play offline, or buy them from the iTunes Store (just in case you decide not to renew your Apple Music subscription).

The playlists in For You can be interesting, but they’re also a little predictable as they’re based on songs and artists that you already know and like. To explore more varied playlists you can look at the New and Radio sections of the Apple Music service.

The New section is a bit random, as it will play many tracks that are only linked by the fact that they’re recent releases. But if you scroll down a bit you’ll find a number of more organized playlists with themes such as classic rock, gospel, or music for weddings.

You can also tap the Genres button at the top of the screen to see a list of all the different genres that are available. Mind you, many of the songs on these playlists aren’t actually new, so we’re not entirely sure why they’re listed in the New section of the app.

There’s a similar list of musical categories and genres in the Radio section, although you’ll need to scroll down past the headline Beats 1 radio station to find them.

The music played by these radio stations is chosen by Apple’s own staff, and is designed to play straight away when you select each station.

But if you hear a track that you like then you can tap on the option menu (•••) by the name of the track and you’ll again see options that allow you to add that song to one of your existing playlists in My Music.

Read: Complete guide to Apple Music: questions answered and Top 12 Apple Music tips