Apple Music enhances music parties with collaborative playlists

By Andrew Orr

Apple Music's latest feature, collaborative playlists, is a game-changer in how music lovers share and experience songs. The company released a video on how to use it.

Apple Music listeners can collaborate in playlists

Apple has steadily enhanced its Apple Music service, introducing various features to improve user experience and engagement. One of the notable updates in recent times has been the introduction of collaborative playlists, a feature that was much anticipated and has added a significant social dimension to the music streaming service.

The addition of collaborative playlists, initially slated for release in late 2023 as part of the iOS 17 update, finally made its debut. The feature allows multiple users to add songs, modify the playlist order, and remove tracks from a shared playlist, transforming how people interact with music on the platform.

In Apple Music, collaborative playlists are a feature that allows multiple users to create and edit a music playlist together. Introduced as part of the service's ongoing updates, the feature enhances the social and interactive aspects of music listening on the platform.

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When a user creates a collaborative playlist in Apple Music, they can invite others to add their favorite tracks, remove songs, or rearrange the order of the playlist. It makes it an ideal tool for curating music for group activities like parties and road trips or even for compiling a collection of favorite tracks among friends and family.

Adding collaborators is straightforward, with the playlist creator simply needing to share a link to the playlist with others. Once they accept the invitation, they can start contributing to the playlist.

Also, Apple Music's latest addition to SharePlay lets passengers in a car to manage the music directly from their devices. This feature allows all those joining the journey to take turns being the DJ on Apple Music.

How to collaborate on a playlist in Apple Music

  1. Open the Apple Music app and create a new playlist or select an existing one.
  2. Click on the "Collaborate" button at the playlist's top.
  3. Choose your collaboration settings: Enable "Approve Collaborators" to manually approve those you invite. Or, turn off "Approve Collaborators" to automatically allow anyone with the link to join.
  4. Tap "Start Collaboration" to activate the collaborative feature.

Adding collaborators is straightforward

You can invite others to your playlist via message, email, or other options. To add more collaborators later, tap the "Collaborate" button again and either share the invite link or generate a QR Code for others to scan and join.

To initiate SharePlay while driving, the driver must first play music from an iPhone running on iOS 17 or newer through CarPlay or Bluetooth. After starting the music, the driver activates the SharePlay session. The process generates a QR code that passengers can scan to join the SharePlay session.