The main reason you can’t directly share a playlist on YouTube Music is that the feature to share full playlists is not yet available. While you can share individual songs or videos, there is currently no option to generate a shareable link for an entire custom playlist.
Sharing Options in YouTube Music
YouTube Music does allow sharing of individual songs, albums, and music videos. When you are listening to a song or viewing a video, you can tap the “Share” icon to copy a link to that specific piece of content. You can then paste this link elsewhere to share it.
However, there is no such share option for entire playlists. The only current workaround is to manually copy and paste each link individually. This is inconvenient if your playlist contains more than a few songs.
Why Playlist Sharing is Limited
There are a few possible reasons why YouTube Music lacks a full playlist sharing feature:
- As a relatively new service, features are still being built out. Playlist sharing may be coming eventually.
- Music licensing issues may limit certain sharing capabilities.
- YouTube wants to encourage sharing of individual songs/videos, not full playlists.
- Playlists are tied to personal YouTube accounts, so sharing full access poses risks.
YouTube Music rolled out in 2015, but only fully replaced Google Play Music in 2020. As a newer service, it is still building up features and functionality. Adding the ability to share complete playlists may be on the roadmap for future development.
Additionally, licensing deals with record labels and music publishers impose certain restrictions on how music can be shared. That’s why you can’t download songs to listen offline, for example. Similarly, the ability to share full, custom playlists may be limited by licensing constraints.
There are also strategic reasons why YouTube may want to restrict playlist sharing. Encouraging shares of individual songs, albums, or music videos makes that specific content more discoverable. YouTube likely wants to drive traffic to those standalone pieces of content.
Finally, sharing full access to custom playlists tied to personal accounts does carry risks. Playlists on YouTube Music are intrinsically connected to the user who created them. Allowing full playlist access essentially grants others access to aspects of your YouTube account and data.
Workarounds to Share Playlists
Until YouTube Music adds playlist sharing features, there are some workarounds and alternatives:
- Manually copy and share links to each song in the playlist.
- Use the YouTube website to view and share playlists.
- Export playlists and share the file.
- Use a third party playlist sharing service.
The most direct option is to manually copy the link for each song or video in your playlist, then paste those links into a message or post to share. This can be tedious for long playlists, but gives recipients access to all the content.
On the YouTube website (not the YouTube Music app), you can view your playlists under your account options. From there, YouTube gives you the option to share the full playlist. Recipients can view and play the playlist on YouTube, though not in the Music app.
You can also export your YouTube Music playlists as files, then share those files. On desktop, you can export playlists as .csv files. On mobile, exporting generates a .json file. You can then share these files through email, cloud storage, social media, etc. Keep in mind recipients will need to import the files back into YouTube Music to view as a playable playlist.
Using a third party playlist sharing service is another option. Sites and apps like Tunemunk, Listnr, and ShareMyPlaylists allow you to import your YouTube playlists then generate a shareable link. However, these services often have limitations and may require subscriptions for full access.
Will YouTube Music Add Playlist Sharing?
YouTube has not officially announced plans to add playlist sharing capabilities to YouTube Music. However, given user demand for the feature, it seems likely playlist sharing will be added at some point.
In fact, some users have reported seeing glimpses of prototyped playlist sharing features in YouTube Music. This suggests the ability to share full playlists may currently be in development, though only YouTube knows the status and potential release timeline.
For now, users have to rely on makeshift workarounds. But enabling simple sharing of full YouTube Music playlists could provide a better user experience and make it easier to discover new music.
Hopefully YouTube is actively working towards implementing this much-requested capability. As a company focused on social and community aspects of content sharing, a full playlist sharing feature seems like a logical addition to YouTube Music’s functionality.
Other YouTube Music Sharing Limitations
Beyond just playlists, YouTube Music currently has limited sharing capabilities compared to other streaming music services. For example, you also can’t directly share:
- Your personal music library and uploads
- Stations you’ve created
- Listening history and recently played songs
Again, this is likely related to licensing restrictions, an intentional focus on only sharing discrete content, and protecting account privacy. But additional sharing features would help provide a more social music experience.
Services like Spotify already enable sharing recent listening activity to social media, as well as collaborating with other users on playlists. Adding similar collaborative options to YouTube Music could make it more competitive.
Turning to Other Apps for Sharing Music
Due to the current limitations around sharing in YouTube Music, many users turn to alternative apps to share playlists and music:
- Spotify – Makes it easy to share playlists and listening activity.
- Apple Music – Also allows playlist sharing and social integration.
- SoundCloud – Designed with music sharing in mind.
- Facebook – Share songs/playlists to friends and groups.
Apps like Spotify and Apple Music have robust built-in sharing capabilities, allowing you to send playlists to friends or post listening activity to social media. SoundCloud is inherently designed around sharing music.
You can also leverage broader social platforms. Share music through Facebook groups and messages, Instagram stories, Twitter posts, etc. These provide alternative avenues for sharing content.
While migrating away from YouTube Music isn’t always an option, combining it with other apps can fill in the gaps around music sharing functions.
Stay Tuned for Sharing Improvements
YouTube Music still has significant room to improve when it comes to social features and content sharing capabilities. But new functionality is likely in development.
Keep an eye out for updates that may add the ability to share full playlists, listening history, and other content. And utilize available workarounds in the meantime.
With YouTube’s vast catalog and personalization capabilities, adding more sharing options could make it one of the best destinations for enjoying and discovering music.
