While Spotify is the leader in the music streaming industry, Apple Music is one of its strongest competitors. Apple Music offers supreme audio quality (think Dolby Atmos spatial audio) and it is definitely a convenient option if you already have other Apple’s devices. With Apple Music subscription, all tracks are available at your fingertips and you can listen to music offline. All you have to do is download songs and albums directly to your device. Read further to learn how to do it.
Does Apple Music work offline
If you travel by plane, want to save up battery, don't have access to the network, or have run out of internet package - you can still listen to your favorite music. Apple Music offers an offline mode where users can download tracks. However, remember that If you download music from Apple Music while you’re subscribed to it, and then you unsubscribe, the music you downloaded will no longer play. For this reason, if you ever decide to cancel Apple Music, transfer your playlists first.
How to download all songs on Apple Music
The first thing to know is the fact that in order to download music on Apple Music, you need to first add that music to your Library. You can set up Apple Music on certain devices like iPhone to automatically download new music that you add to your library.
You can enable this by going to the Settings app on an iPhone, selecting “Music”, and then scrolling down to the downloads section and selecting “Automatic downloads”.
Here you can also toggle on downloading Dolby Atmos, and make edits to the already downloaded content.
If you don't see this option on your iPhone, try in on MacOS/iTunes. Go to Apple Music, make sure it's an active window, click Music in the menu bar and select Preferences.
Now toggle "Automatic downloads" and you will automatically download music for offline listening when it's added to your Library.
How to download music on Apple Music
By storing downloaded music, you may listen to it later, even if you don’t have access to the Internet connection. However, note that the downloading process requires a lot of data, so find a Wi-Fi hot spot, and then use it to download music content. Then, you may enjoy your favorite tracks wherever you want, regardless if there's the Internet or not.
Just like Spotify, Apple Music enables you to download both single songs, albums and playlists.
Follow these steps to download a chosen single/playlist or albums:
- Find and open your Apple Music app;
- Navigate to the songs/album/playlist you want to download - you can either open the "Listening Now" page or search for the exact name of the song or album you want to download.
- Tap the “+” sign next to the song or album, to add it to your Library (if you haven’t already done that)
- Go to your Library and choose the songs/album/playlist you want to download.
- Tap the download icon (cloud with arrow down);
If you want to listen to your downloaded tracks on all your Apple devices, you must sync your Library.
How to download the entire music library on Apple Music
If you're planning a long trip, and you don't have time to select and download individual songs, it's a good idea to put all of them into a single playlist. This trick is great if you want to download your entire library without tapping the download button over and over again.
To do so, you have to create a Smart Playlist:
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In iTunes or the Music app, click File > New > Smart Playlist. Name your playlist whatever you want, for example "All songs".
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There are different ways to set the rules for the Smart Playlist. If you want to download the entire music library, you can set the rules to "Time" -> "is greater than" -> "0:00" and any song longer than 0 seconds will be added to your Smart Playlist. There are many options for creating your Smart Playlist and it's up to you what rules you set. For example, you can also populate your playlists with songs you've added in the last 3 months. To do that, change the box for "Date Added" -> "in the last" - "3 months".
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Make sure Live updating feature is toggled on.
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Go to the Library, find your Smart Playlist and click on the download option.
How to delete the downloaded content
Streaming music is a convenient option as the files don’t take up memory space on your device. However, if you’ve downloaded a large amount of music, your iPhone is filling up again. Therefore, remember to delete downloaded songs that you no longer listen to. In order to remove such items, that you no longer need, just tap "Delete" button. If your Apple device is running low on storage space, you can enable the “optimize storage” option to automatically remove music from your iPhone that you haven’t played in a while and select the minimum amount of music you want to download to your iPhone.
Transfer your music from Apple Music
If you want to move your playlists from Apple Music and start using another streaming service, you don’t have to download all your songs first. In fact, the only thing you'll need is FreeYourMusic: a music transferring app. With this service, you can effortlessly move playlists, albums, and songs between any two music streaming platforms. Let it be Apple Music and Spotify or Tidal - all variants are possible. Check the steps below, to learn how to transfer your music:
- Select Apple Music as a source.
- Pick up another music service as a destination. Then, just one button click will do the magic!
- Find tracks, albums, or playlists you want to transfer from Apple Music and select all the music you want to move.
That’s it, your new music service has all your favorite tracks - enjoy it!
Did you successfully download songs from Apple Music? Other music streaming services also have the option to download music for offline listening.
Learn how to download songs from Spotify.
Learn how to download songs from Apple Music.
