What to know

  • You can now transfer your YouTube Music playlists to Apple Music using Google Takeouts.
  • Go to Google Takeouts and follow the instructions to start your export.
  • Only playlists can be transferred, and the songs in them need to be available on Apple Music as well. You’ll also need an active subscription for both services.

Apple recently gave users the ability to transfer their playlists from Apple Music to YouTube Music. Adhering to the principles of reciprocity, and mediated by the Data Transfer Project –  an open-source initiative to bring portability to user data, Google is now returning the favor.  

So if you’re jumping ship in the other direction, a must for Lossless lovers, you don’t have to start your musical journey from scratch on Apple Music. Here’s how to transfer your YouTube Music playlists and songs to Apple Music 

Requirements

As is also the case with playlist transfer in the other direction, you can only transfer playlists you’ve created, including collaborative playlists you own. Individual songs, YouTube videos, and playlists curated by YouTube Music aren’t transferred. So make sure to update your playlists with the songs you want to transfer.   

Songs that are not available in Apple Music will not be transferred. You will also need an active subscription of both the services.

Guide

  1. Open this Google Takeout page. 
  2. Click Continue.
  3. Choose the Google account associated with YouTube Music. 
  4. Click Continue.
  5. Apple Music should already be selected. Click Continue.
  6. Log in to your Apple Account.
  7. Click Allow to give Google Takeout permission to add playlists to Apple Music.
  8. Click Agree and continue.
  9. The transfer can take some time depending on how many playlists you’re transferring, and the songs therein.
  10. You’ll also get emails from Apple and Google when the transfer begins and ends.
  11. Find your YouTube Music playlists in your Apple Music library. It’ll be available under ‘Playlists’ and ‘Recently Added’.  
    • YouTube Music
    • Apple Music

With this new arrangement, Google and Apple are offering users the ability to transfer data between their services. As of now, there’s a two way street between Apple Music and YouTube Music, as well as iCloud and Google Photos.