What to know

  • Spotify has banned access to music on all modded APKs on smartphones.
  • Users who relied on Spotify mods such as XManagerApp are unable to access their songs and playlists. But there are still some alternatives to salvage music.
  • Other than purchasing Spotify Premium, users can transfer their playlists to another streaming service like YouTube Music or Apple Music, or try other open-source and cross platform alternatives such as Spotube.
  • (Update) Already some Spotify mods are coming back online. So it's not the end of the world.

Spotify has finally done it. The world's most popular music (and audiobook) streaming service is cracking down hard on all cracked and modded APKs of its app. The controversial (though inevitable) move by Spotify has set social media alight and users with modded versions of Spotify are left without access to their music.

Unlike previous interruptions that were overcome by a clever hack or fixed on their own, this one could take longer to get around. Depending on the mod, users are seeing their playlists turn grey or emptied out entirely.

The most popular mod, XManagerApp, is offline for good too.

The move comes just days before the release of Spotify Wrapped 2024. But users are naturally more upset by the fact that all their songs and playlists, curated over years of listening, are just gone.

No, they won't.

But fret not. Your precious playlists may be inaccessible, but they're not dead, nor is your account. If you're impacted by Spotify's move and are unable to access your songs and playlists, there's something you can do about it.

What can Spotify mod users do to access their songs and playlists

As of now, Spotify mod users have a few options.

Option 1: Pay up or use Spotify free: At the risk of stating the obvious, you'll have to get the official Spotify app on your smartphone. You'll still be able to log in and access your songs. However, the free version has severe limitations which can be a downer for the overall listening experience. So you'll inevitably have to get Spotify Premium.

Option 2: Try Spotube: Spotube is an open-source client for Spotify that syncs with your Spotify account and fetches the music from YouTube. It's one of the best alternatives to Spotify mods right now that also lets you select from different marketplace regions, has tons of playback features, no ads, and works on Windows, iOS, and Mac as well. Free music everywhere!

All free and pretty!

Option 3: Switch to another music streaming service: If you're not a Spotify loyalist and care only about the music (as it should be), now is the best time to switch. From Apple Music to YouTube Music to Amazon Music to Tidal, there's no shortage of options.

We recommend going with either Apple Music or YouTube Music. While Apple Music has Lossless (and still goes for $9.99), YouTube Music is bundled with the YouTube Premium subscription. And if you want to stick with freebies, YouTube Music ReVanced still works.

Transfer your Spotify playlists to another service

There are several migration tools that you can use to transfer your Spotify music to another music streaming service. Some of these include:

For our example below, we're using TuneMyMusic to transfer our Spotify music to YouTube Music. Here's how you can do so and salvage your songs and playlists:

Step 1: On a PC, go to Spotify's website and login. If you're transferring playlists, skip to step 5. To transfer Liked songs, continue with the following.

Step 2: Go to your Liked Songs, and select all your songs. To speed this up, click on a song and use Shift + down arrow until you reach the end of your Liked songs list.

Step 3: Once selected, right-click and select Add to playlist > New playlist.

Step 4: You'll see a new playlist appear in your library. By default it's name will be the title of the first song. Change this if you like from 'More options' and select 'Edit details'.

Step 5: Then go to Share > Copy link to playlist.

Step 6: Open a music transfer tool (like TuneMyMusic). Create an account if required and connect Spotify and the other music streaming service.

Step 7: Then select Spotify.

Step 8: Paste the Spotify playlist's URL.

Step 9: Once the songs load, click on Choose Destination.

Step 10: Select your destination (YouTube Music in our case).

Step 11: Finally, click Start Transfer.

Step 12: Wait for the transfer to complete.

Step 13: Once done, your music will be available in your new music streaming service's library.

It may be a sad day for Spotify mod users, but the decision to crackdown on mods is really a blessing in disguise. Spotify has anyway been quite unreliable in recent years. Be it the broken shuffle feature or the indefinitely delayed Lossless, the company has dropped the ball in an attempt to rake up profits.

Over the years, Spotify mods had allowed users access to free and ad-free music as well as access to catalogs outside their region. But other than free music, it also gave users the ability to bypass Spotify's bullish tactics to get them to pay more while making no worthwhile changes.

Fortunately, between Spotube and transferring your playlists to another service, there are enough avenues for you to resume access to your Spotify music on mobile. There's also Spicetify for Spotify's Windows app which still works.

Update 29th November: A few mods have already started coming online. So it doesn't look as bleak as we were led to believe initially. If you know where to look, you can get your tunes back safe and sound.