Shazam to Spotify or Apple Music: is a playlist enough?
Shazam can add every song you identify to a My Shazam Tracks playlist. How to set it up, and why DJs need a keep-or-reject step on top of it.
On this page
- How to sync Shazam to Spotify
- How to sync Shazam to Apple Music
- How to sync on Android
- What a My Shazam Tracks playlist does well
- Why a playlist is a poor holding pen for DJs
- It has no decision state
- Deleting a track erases the decision
- It only collects one kind of find
- It only covers one service's catalog
- It keeps growing
- A better pattern: playlist as intake, inbox as decision
- Clear the old Shazams first
- Doing this with CatchIt!
- Summary
To send your Shazams to Spotify or Apple Music, turn on library sync in the Shazam app's settings. From then on, each song you identify is added to a playlist called My Shazam Tracks in the service you connected. For listening, that's all you need. For a DJ, it's only half a system: the playlist collects everything you identify, but it can't tell you which tracks you've already judged, kept or rejected. Use it as an intake, and add a separate keep-or-reject step before anything reaches your shopping list.
How to sync Shazam to Spotify
On an iPhone or iPad with the Spotify app installed:
- Open Shazam and tap the Settings button on the main screen.
- Tap Connect next to Spotify.
- In Spotify, tap Agree.
- Back in Shazam, tap OK to add identified songs to a My Shazam Tracks playlist in Spotify.
Once connected, you can also open any identified song in Spotify from the Shazam Library.
How to sync Shazam to Apple Music
On an iPhone or iPad:
- Tap the Settings button on the main Shazam screen.
- Turn on Sync your songs to Apple Music.
- Tap Allow, then Continue.
Identified songs then go to My Shazam Tracks in the Music app. Apple's guide frames this for Apple Music subscribers. You can also add a single song to a different Apple Music playlist from inside Shazam with the Add To Apple Music Playlist button. If that doesn't work, Apple says to make sure Sync Library is turned on for your device.
How to sync on Android
Swipe to the Library in Shazam, tap Settings, and under "Music app preference" turn on Sync Shazam Library to Apple Music or Spotify. Identified songs are then added to My Shazam Tracks in that service. If you pick Apple Music without a subscription, Shazam offers a trial sign-up.
What a My Shazam Tracks playlist does well
The automatic playlist solves real problems, and it's worth being clear about them before looking at the gaps:
- Every find becomes playable. A Shazam result is a name. A playlist entry is a full track you can play on decent speakers whenever you have time.
- It works without thinking. After the one-time setup, every identification lands there. No copying, no screenshots.
- It's portable. A playlist has a link you can open on any device, or paste into other tools. In Spotify, the Share menu has a Copy Link option for this.
If all you want is to re-listen to songs you heard while out, stop here. The rest of this guide is for when those songs are candidates for your DJ library. If you're wondering whether you could DJ straight from the playlist, can you DJ with Spotify or Apple Music? covers what streaming can and can't do in a booth.
Why a playlist is a poor holding pen for DJs
A DJ doesn't only want to remember tracks. They want to decide on them, buy the right version and not judge the same track twice. A playlist wasn't designed for any of that.
It has no decision state
Every track in the playlist looks the same: the one you identified an hour ago and haven't heard properly, the one you listened to three times and love, and the one you heard once and know you'll never play. The only ways to record a decision are to delete the track or to move it to another playlist by hand.
Deleting a track erases the decision
Say you listen to a track, decide it's not for you, and remove it from the playlist. Six weeks later you hear it again in a different room, identify it again, and it's back in the playlist with nothing to say you already rejected it. Over a year, that adds up to a lot of second listens to tracks you'd already ruled out.
It only collects one kind of find
Shazam results are only part of what a working DJ collects. Tracks also come from tracklists of sets you liked, links friends send, charts and promos. None of those reach My Shazam Tracks unless you add them by hand, so the playlist quietly becomes one of several lists to check.
It only covers one service's catalog
A playlist can only hold what that service carries. Unreleased edits and promos aren't there. And the version a streaming service offers may not be the one a DJ store sells: a radio edit on one, an extended mix on the other. Before you buy, you still have to check which version you actually heard.
It keeps growing
Nothing empties a My Shazam Tracks playlist. Will Lynch, writing for Pioneer DJ about managing music, warns about this kind of pile: "Leave it too long and your crate will get chaotic and overgrown." A playlist of 800 unsorted tracks is a backlog, not a crate.
A better pattern: playlist as intake, inbox as decision
You don't have to give up the playlist. Change its job.
- Intake. Keep My Shazam Tracks syncing. It's a reliable net for everything you identify by ear.
- One inbox. Once a week, move new playlist entries into the same place as your other finds: tracklist IDs, links, chart picks. Whatever that place is, it should let you mark each track.
- Decide. Listen to each track properly and mark it keep or reject. Keep the rejects recorded, not deleted, so a repeat find shows its old verdict.
- Buy. Shop only from the keep list, and mark each track as bought.
If you prefer a pure-streaming setup, you can approximate this with two extra playlists, "Keep" and "Rejected", and move tracks between them by hand. It works, but expect to search across three playlists to find out whether you've heard a track before.
Clear the old Shazams first
If you turn on sync today, the playlist covers your next finds. For years of older Shazams, start with how to export your Shazam history, then sort that list in batches. If songs seem to be missing from your Library or the playlist, why your Shazam history isn't showing covers the sync settings to check. For moving a playlist's worth of tracks to a store, see how to move a Spotify playlist to Beatport.
Doing this with CatchIt!
CatchIt! is a Mac app with a free iOS companion, built for the decision step that a playlist lacks.
- Import My Shazam Tracks as a tracklist. Paste the playlist's Spotify or Apple Music link into the Add Tracklist sheet on the Mac. CatchIt! imports playlists of up to 500 tracks, as long as that service is connected in CatchIt!. See Importing tracklists.
- Or skip the playlist for new finds. The iOS app's Shazam button and its Shortcut (which you can pin to Control Center) send identified tracks straight to the Mac's Inbox under Mobile Shazams. See Capturing tracks.
- Decide with two keys. In the Inbox, Return keeps a track (green) and Space rejects it (red), then moves to the next one. A track found from several sources merges into one row, and a track you've judged before shows its previous decision.
- Listen in place. CatchIt! plays tracks through Apple Music, or through Spotify with your own Spotify developer Client ID: full tracks on Spotify Premium, 30-second previews on Spotify Free.
- Send keepers back to Apple Music. From the Wishlist, Save to Playlist creates or adds to an Apple Music playlist. Spotify isn't supported for this yet.
Summary
- Turn on My Shazam Tracks sync in Shazam's settings; it's the easiest intake there is.
- Don't treat that playlist as your crate. It has no keep or reject state, and deleting a track loses the decision.
- Move new entries weekly into one inbox with your other finds, decide keep or reject, and buy only from the keep list.
For the full capture system, see how to keep track of every track you hear. Terms are explained in the glossary.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you connect Shazam to Spotify?
- In the Shazam app on iPhone or iPad, tap the Settings button on the main screen, tap Connect next to Spotify, agree in Spotify, then tap OK to add identified songs to a My Shazam Tracks playlist.
- How do you send Shazams to Apple Music automatically?
- Tap the Settings button on the main Shazam screen and turn on "Sync your songs to Apple Music", then tap Allow and Continue. Identified songs are added to a playlist called My Shazam Tracks in the Music app. Apple describes this for Apple Music subscribers.
- Can you sync Shazam to two services at once?
- Apple's support pages describe connecting Apple Music and Spotify separately, but don't say whether both can sync at the same time. If you use both, check each service's My Shazam Tracks playlist after you identify a song.
- Why isn't a song showing up in My Shazam Tracks?
- A playlist can only hold songs the streaming service has in its catalog. Unreleased tracks, promos and some edits won't be there, even if Shazam identified them. The Shazam Library still lists every identified song.
- Does Shazam sync to Amazon Music, Deezer or YouTube Music?
- Apple says you can connect Shazam on iPhone or iPad to services such as Amazon Music, YouTube, YouTube Music, Deezer and Audiomack to listen to identified songs. The automatic My Shazam Tracks playlist is described only for Apple Music and Spotify.