Music streaming is now an unstoppable juggernaut that more people are making use of. Ease-of-use and ease-of-access have helped to propel the competing apps into some of the most popular on the planet.
One of the best things about the growth of services like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music is music sharing and music discovery.
You no longer need to sit and listen to the radio for hours to record your workout songs or make a mixtape for your crush. Instead, you can make your playlist in minutes and share your playlist in seconds.
With that in mind, here are the best ways to find and share music playlists.
1. Spotify
One of the simplest ways to share a playlist is to use Spotify itself. It’s the best tool if you want to make playlists for parties or create joint lists with friends.
The first step is to create a new playlist. You do this by navigating to File > New Playlist. Give the list a name and click on it to open it. Add a couple of songs, and you’re ready to share. At this point, there are a few different routes you can take:
- Make the list public: Use this option if you’re planning to share it using some of the other tools on this list, but be aware that anyone will be able to find it by using Spotify’s search function.
- Share the playlist’s URL: The list itself will remain private, but anyone who has the link will be able to access it.
- Make the playlist collaborative: This is a great option for parties and family get-togethers; anyone who has a Spotify account will be able to add music and choose what’s currently playing.
You can access all of these features by clicking the three horizontal dots and choosing your desired option.
2. 8tracks
8tracks went offline in 2019 due to financial issues. However, following a buyout, the service is back. Today, 8tracks is once again one of the best places on the web for both sharing playlists and discovering new ones.
The name “8tracks” comes from the nature of the playlists offered—each one needs at least eight tracks to be accepted into its library. The service does not work with Spotify, SoundCloud, or any other similar service. It’s a standalone product that is ad-supported and legal.
A premium subscription tier will remove the ads. Once you’ve registered, you can either browse the site and listen to user-created playlists or create your own list for other people to enjoy.
3. SoundShare
SoundShare is a playlist-sharing app rather than a website. It works by pulling together music and playlists from Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, and YouTube.
The app’s main purpose is to bring a social element into the various services, but a great offshoot of this is the ability to share and create collaborative playlists with friends and family, regardless of which music service they subscribe to.
The social features include liking songs, commenting on what your friends are currently listening to, and a way to find and follow users with similar musical tastes. The app also supports Apple AirPlay and has a Shazam-esque music recognition tool.
Sadly, the app is only available on iOS at the time of writing.
4. r/SpotifyPlaylists
Reddit has two playlist subreddits that are worth having a look at. The first is r/SpotifyPlaylists. With tens of thousands of subscribers, there’s a steady flow of new playlists getting shared every day.
The community is also active, so it’s rare that a playlist is posted without a few users providing feedback and suggesting changes and additions.
(NB: As the name suggests, this subreddit is only for playlists created using Spotify. Playlists from other services will be removed by the mods.)
5. r/Playlists
Another of the best ways to share playlists on Reddit is to head to the service-agnostic r/Playlists. Most of the playlists come from Spotify, but there are some from other apps too; YouTube Music playlists are posted frequently.
Finally, if you’re a Reddit user, make sure you have a look at the subreddit dedicated to your music streaming service of choice (most mainstream services have one). The focus of the dedicated subreddits is typically split 50/50 between troubleshooting and playlist sharing.
6. Playlists.net
Playlists.net is a site that allows anyone with a Spotify account to submit and subscribe to playlists. Adding your own playlist is easy—you just need to make it public and add the URL.
Where the service really shines, however, is in playlist discovery. Discovery features include a playlist generator, a daily chart of the hottest songs on the site, and an extensive search function.
There’s even an extensive blog post on how to make a shareable playlist—it’s definitely worth reading if you’re serious about creating and sharing playlists.
7. Playlist Party
If you’re looking for the best way to share music with friends, check out the Playlist Party app. It allows you to create and share playlists among a group of friends, then listen to the tracks simultaneously so you can share the listening experience.
All 57 million tracks on the site are free to listen to and you can use any of them in your shared playlists. Better yet, there are more than 1 million existing playlists for you to dig into; you don’t even need to go through the hassle of creating your own playlist if that’s not your thing.
When you’re listening to your playlists with friends, the app offers a chat feature so you can talk about the music without interrupting the audio.
At the moment, Playlist Party is only available on iOS. The developer has promised that an Android version is in the works. You can also tune in via the web player.
More Things to Do With Playlists
These methods will provide you with a starting point for creating and sharing playlists with family and friends. It’s not easy to find a reliable way to send playlists to other people when there are so many streaming services around, but these options should cover most bases.
If you’d like to learn more about playlists, check out our articles detailing how to set a Spotify playlist as an alarm and the best ways to download YouTube playlists.
Read the full article: 7 Awesome Ways to Find and Share Music Playlists
