HOW TO Create a collaborative playlist

1 Pick a playlist

In order to share a playlist, we’ll need to create or choose one. Open the Music app on iPhone, iPad or Mac then tap or click on Library > Playlists. You can now select one of your existing playlists or use the big red ‘+’ to add a new one.

2 Don’t go local

For collaborative playlists, you can only use songs from the Apple Music catalogue; if your playlists also contain songs from your local music library, you’ll get this message and your playlist will be duplicated without the local tracks.

3 Choose your songs

We’ve put together a playlist of Apple Music tracks that we want to share. As you can see, our name appears just below the playlist title. To add friends, tap on the icon showing two silhouettes towards the top right (not shown).

4 Set your sharing

You should now see the option to ‘Invite People to Join’. This will enable you to share your playlist, and it’ll create a shareable link; anyone who gets sent the link can then edit the playlist. You can use Approve Collaborators to limit that.

5 Share the songs

Tap on Start Collaborating and you’ll see your Share options (we’re using iOS here), with all the various different apps and your most recent contacts at the top. Now it’s just a matter of picking the person you want to share with.

6 Add more people

You can use the Collaboration icon (two silhouettes) to add more people at any time, and once you’ve shared a playlist for the first time this is the screen you’ll see. You’ve got two choices here: Share Invite Link and QR Code.

7 Crack the code

A QR code enables you to share locally; get the person to point their iPhone camera at the code and it’ll take them to the playlist in the Music app. Don’t post QR codes publicly without turning on Approve Collaborators.

8 Start to share

Collaboration works just like it does in Pages or Sheets; when the other person accepts your invitation, you’ll get a notification on your device and you’ll see another person listed in your collaborative playlist in the Music app.

9 Turn it off

If you decide that you no longer want others to collaborate on your playlist, you can uninvite them as easily as you invited them. In the Collaboration page for your shared playlist, simply tap the Stop button to end collaboration.