If you’re making the switch from iTunes to Spotify and Spotify Mobile one of the big challenges you’ll face is getting your new music streaming service set up in the same way iTunes was.
Chances are you’ll have had a large library of music in iTunes, organised into playlists and smart playlists.
Playlists are easy enough to move into Spotify, as we’ll see, but smart playlists are not supported.
A smart playlist is one that updates automatically, based on a set of criteria. For instance, you could create a smart playlist based on your most played tracks, or tracks that you’ve rated as five stars, or tracks by an artists beginning with the letter B.
Each time one of these values changes, the smart playlist updates—rate a track as five stars, and it will automatically be added to your five star smart playlist.
It is possible to export a smart playlist into Spotify, but you need to convert it into a static playlist first.
Let’s take a look
Convert a smart playlist into a static playlist
First, then, open iTunes and locate your playlists in the sidebar.
Smart playlists are identified by a cog icon next to them; static playlists have a musical note icon.
To convert a smart playlist into a static playlist click on it with your mouse and drag it up onto the word Playlists.
A static playlist will now be created with the same name as the smart one. It’ll contain all the tracks that were within the playlist at the time you created it—obviously if the smart playlist updates in future these changes will not be reflected in the static one.
Import a playlist into Spotify
Now switch to Spotify on the desktop.
Go to File > Import Playlists and select iTunes from the list.
All of your static iTunes playlists will now be shown as Spotify playlists, in their own iTunes folder.
If you want, you can drag your chosen playlist out of the iTunes folder into the main playlists area. You can also delete the leftover iTunes playlists if you don’t need them.
Click on the imported playlist. All of the tracks within the playlist will be matched with their corresponding track in the Spotify database.
Any tracks in the playlist that are not on Spotify will still be playable in the desktop app. These will use the local file, so make sure you don’t delete those if you still want to be able to listen to them.
Imported playlists in Spotify Mobile
Finally, open the Spotify Mobile app on your smartphone.
Swipe in from the left to open the sidebar, and choose Your Music. Now swipe to the left-most tab to see your Playlists.
Your imported iTunes playlists can now be viewed here. Again, tracks will be matched to the Spotify database, including tracks that you have already downloaded for offline use.
However, those tracks that are in your playlist but not in the Spotify database will be greyed out. These won’t be playable on your mobile device, and it’s not currently possible to import local files. Spotify says this feature will be added in future.
Once you’ve done that check out our other great Spotify tips.