Your Apple Music playlists deserve to come with you.
Apple Music has a way of blurring into the phone itself. It's already there, it's tied to the same account as everything else, and after a few years your library stops feeling like a subscription and starts feeling like your stuff.
Which makes leaving feel bigger than it is. So let's be specific about what's actually yours, what moves, and how to move it — in about a minute per playlist, on the phone you're already holding.
First, the honest distinction.
An Apple Music library is usually two things wearing the same coat.
There's the streaming part: playlists you've built from Apple's catalogue, albums you've added, and your listening history. That part depends on your subscription. What we're moving today isn't the audio files themselves, but the list of songs, so Zene can find its own copies.
Then there's music you actually bought from the iTunes Store, or imported from CDs long ago. Cancelling Apple Music doesn't cancel those purchases. Your own original music files are separate from the streaming subscription, and nothing in this guide changes them.
The names, the songs, and the order you spent years getting right. Zene uses that information to rebuild the collection in its own catalogue.
That's the part worth saving before you leave: the organising work that made your library feel like yours.
Zene never asks for your Apple ID.
Worth saying plainly, because many transfer tools do ask you to connect an account.
Zene itself has no Apple Music connection, no Apple ID sign-in field, and no permission prompt asking to read your Apple Music account. It can't sign in to your account and doesn't try.
The move works through a file instead. You produce a list of song names and artists from your Apple Music library, hand that file to Zene, and Zene searches its own catalogue for each one.
The file is read on your device. Zene uses the track names and artists to find matches, rather than asking for access to your Apple account.
You'll use TuneMyMusic to create the export. That service may ask you to authorize access to Apple Music. Zene receives the CSV file you choose, not your Apple ID credentials.
Six small steps. Your library, moved.
-
01
Open Import playlists in Zene
In the app, open your account menu from Home and choose Import playlists. There's a button there that opens TuneMyMusic in your browser.
Home → Account → Import playlistsThis is an in-app job. The file import runs in Zene on iPhone, iPad or Android. The web version explains the process, but the actual file-choosing happens in the mobile app.
-
02
Choose Apple Music as your source
TuneMyMusic will ask which service you're moving from. Choose Apple Music and follow its connection instructions. If Apple asks you to sign in or authorize access, do that through the provider's sign-in flow, not inside Zene.
Once connected, let TuneMyMusic read the playlists you want to export.
-
03
Pick one playlist
Not the whole library. One.
This matters more than it sounds. A playlist imported on its own arrives in Zene still carrying its name — Sunday Morning, Gym, Songs For The Drive Back.
Export six at once and you can end up with one undifferentiated collection. Six separate trips are easier than trying to un-mix one big heap afterwards.
-
04
Export to a file, not another service
When TuneMyMusic asks for a destination, don't choose another music service. Pick Export file, then Export to file, then CSV, and start the transfer.
Export file → Export to file → CSVWhen it finishes, download the file. You're not moving the audio itself — you're saving the list Zene will use to find the songs.
-
05
Find the file on your phone
On iPhone or iPad, open the Files app and check Downloads, or the location you chose when saving the file. On Android, check your Downloads folder.
It's a CSV document, so don't look for it in Photos or inside the Apple Music app.
-
06
Choose the file in Zene
Back in the app, tap Choose CSV file and pick the file you downloaded.
Zene reads it and shows you what's inside — how many playlists, how many songs — before adding a single track. Then a counter runs as it works: matching 38 of 52, then 52 of 52.
You get to review the results before anything joins your library.
About the songs that don't match exactly
Apple's catalogue and Zene's catalogue are not the same catalogue. You'll have tracks that exist in both places under slightly different names — a remaster, a deluxe-edition version, a single edit, or a live recording from a particular year.
When Zene can't find an exact match, it adds the closest version it can find and tells you which ones those were, by name. You'll see them together under Closest matches.
It's where the two or three songs you actually care about might be hiding. You can review the alternatives and replace anything that isn't quite right.
Not knowing a song was swapped is the thing that can make a new library feel subtly wrong. Better to know exactly what came across.
How much can you move at once?
A free Zene account imports 250 songs every 30 days, which for many people covers several playlists in one sitting.
It's a rolling thirty days counted from your first import, not a calendar reset. If a file runs past the limit, Zene doesn't discard the batch: it saves what fits and tells you how many songs are left in your allowance.
Premium removes the import limit if your library is genuinely enormous.
Things that will not come across
A CSV is a useful way to move a playlist, but it isn't a complete backup of everything attached to your Apple Music account.
- Play counts, love/dislike history and dates added. Zene's CSV import doesn't recreate that listening history.
- Playlist descriptions and custom artwork. The playlist name survives, but the decoration doesn't.
- Smart playlists. If your export includes one, it can bring over the songs currently in it, but not the rules that automatically update it.
- Podcast subscriptions. Those live in Apple Podcasts, not Apple Music, and aren't part of this music export. You'll follow those shows again in Zene.
If the file misbehaves
Two failures cover most of the common problems.
If Zene says the file doesn't look like an exported playlist, it may be missing its first line — the row of column headings that tells the importer what each column contains. Export again and keep the whole file intact.
If Zene says there are no track names in it, the export may have been made without titles. Redo it with track names and artists included; a file of links and nothing else may not provide enough information to match against.
If a large playlist behaves strangely, try importing one playlist at a time. Smaller files make it easier to identify which row is causing trouble.
Cancel afterwards, not before.
One practical note: do the imports while you still have Apple Music access. After your subscription expires, Apple Music catalogue playlists are no longer available. Don't rely on being able to export them later.
Play a few of them in Zene and make sure the important songs are there before ending your old subscription.
If Apple bills you directly, you can cancel on iPhone or iPad through Settings → your name → Subscriptions → Apple Music → Cancel Subscription. You can also follow Apple's official cancellation guide.
If you subscribed through Google Play on Android, cancel through Google Play subscriptions instead. The service that bills you is the one that manages the cancellation.
By the time you do, the part you were actually attached to is already somewhere else, with its name intact.
Then let it settle.
Once your playlists land, the useful thing to do is nothing in particular. Play a few of them. Let Zene see what you actually reach for.
Your old app took years to learn you. The new one starts from the songs you just handed it — which, as a starting point, is a considerable head start.
Zene is free to use on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web.
Conversation
Comments
Post a Comment