A good playlist takes time to build, and sometimes you want it as files: for a road trip on a USB stick, a running playlist on an old MP3 player, or a backup before you leave Apple Music. Here's how to turn an Apple Music playlist into MP3 or M4A files for free with TunesLoader, step by step, plus how to keep the songs in order once they're saved.
What you'll need
- A playlist link that opens without signing in. Apple's own playlists always do, and so do playlists people have shared publicly. A private library playlist can't be read.
- Any browser on a computer or phone. TunesLoader runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook, iPhone and Android, with nothing to install and no account.
- A little patience for long playlists. Up to 3 downloads run at once and 3 can start per minute, so 30 songs take roughly ten minutes.
Step 1: Copy the playlist link
In Apple Music, open the playlist and choose ••• › Share › Copy (Copy Link on a computer). Playlist links look like music.apple.com/us/playlist/…/pl.…. For a playlist you made yourself, sharing it this way creates a link others can open. To check, paste it into a private browser window: if the playlist shows up without signing in, TunesLoader can read it too.
Step 2: Paste it into the playlist downloader
Open the playlist downloader, paste the link and choose your format. TunesLoader reads the track list from the playlist's public page on music.apple.com and lists every song with its own button.
- MP3 if the songs are going to a USB stick, a car stereo or an MP3 player: it plays everywhere.
- M4A for phones and computers: smaller files, and the matched recording's audio is kept as it is, with no second round of compression.
Step 3: Save the songs
Click Download next to each song you want. TunesLoader finds each song among publicly available recordings by its title, artist and length, converts it and hands you the file, named after the artist and song (for example “Billie Eilish - Birds of a Feather.mp3”). There's no single ZIP of the whole playlist; pick the songs you want, and if a song isn't ready because the per-minute limit is reached, wait a moment and click it again.
Step 4: Keep the playlist in order
The files are named “Artist - Song” without track numbers, and they don't carry tags yet, so most players and car stereos sort them alphabetically. Two easy ways to keep your playlist's order:
- Number the files. Rename them “01 - Artist - Song”, “02 - …” in playlist order. Every player and car stereo respects that.
- Make an M3U playlist. Create a plain text file in the same folder as the songs, list the file names in order (one per line), and save it as “Road Trip.m3u”. VLC, Windows Media Player and many other players open it as a playlist.
Export the track list as text or a spreadsheet
It's worth keeping a written list of what's in the playlist, especially before you cancel a subscription. On a Mac, select the playlist in the Music app and choose File › Library › Export Playlist, then save it as plain text: it opens in Numbers or Excel as a table of songs, artists and albums. iTunes on Windows has the same command. The exported file is a list, not the music itself.
Long playlists, albums and whole libraries
- Long playlists: TunesLoader listed all 100 songs in the playlists we tested, but for very long playlists Apple's public page can list fewer songs than the playlist has. Split a huge playlist into a few smaller ones and convert each.
- Albums: paste the album link into the album downloader; songs are listed in disc and track order.
- Artists: the artist tab lists up to 25 of an artist's songs. For a full release, use its album link instead.
- A whole library: there's no one-click library export. Gather the songs you care about into playlists, then convert those.
MP3 or M4A for a playlist?
If you're unsure where the playlist will end up, MP3 is the safe bet: every car, player and app reads it. If it's staying on a phone or computer, M4A gives smaller files with no extra quality loss. What file format does Apple Music use? covers the details, and our USB guide shows how to put the finished playlist on a flash drive.
Keep what you save to personal, non-commercial use: don't share, sell or publish it. Whether it's allowed depends on the law where you live and on the rights to each song.
