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Last year , I had the unfortunate experience of losing all my playlist when I switched from Apple Music to Spotify . To me , playlist are crucial . They ’re snapshots of a sentence in your liveliness ; maybe your summertime of 2016 had a certain soundtrack to it . But , traditionally , music cyclosis divine service do n’t make it easy to take playlists with you to other platforms .
So you’re able to think how excited I was to see that Apple Music created anew playlist transfer toolthrough the Data Transfer Initiative ( DTI ) , a group founded by Apple , Google , and Meta to create data portability tools . Europe ’s Digital Markets Act need these fate “ gatekeepers ” to fund carry-over tools as part of a broader remedy to Big Tech ’s scheme to put away users into their platforms .
last ! Except there was one bighearted problem . The tools do n’t work with the creation ’s most democratic euphony service , Spotify , which seemingly did n’t take in the data portability waving ( or maybe a governor is n’t narrate them to ) . The DTI ’s tool only transfers between Apple Music and YouTube Music , making it a lot less useful for most mass .
The DTI ’s executive theatre director , Chris Riley , is fed up with Big Tech ’s lock - in insurance policy as well . He ’s been trying to get more company to come to the negotiating table and make their service more portable .
“ We ’ve kind of gotten baked into this universe over the past 10 of just feeling stuck , ” say Riley in an audience with TechCrunch . “ I do n’t mean enough people know this is something they should have . ”
acknowledge the DTI ’s limitations , Riley suggested I transfer my playlist from Apple Music to Spotify usingSoundiiz , a innocent third - party tool . alternatively of working directly with pour service of process , Soundiiz build portability tool through existing APIs and acts as a translating program between the table service . Within minutes , I was able-bodied to link my accounts , transfer my playlists , and depart listening to my quondam Apple Music play list on Spotify . It was awesome and well-fixed .
Soundiiz allows you to transfer playlists between Apple Music , Spotify , YouTube Music , Amazon Music , Tidal , Deezer , SoundCloud , and 20 other cyclosis services I ’ve never even heard of . There ’s a bare user port to associate your streaming religious service and pick the playlist you want to transfer over , including ones that someone else has create .
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The history behind Soundiiz might explain why it works so well , and cheaply . It was created in 2013 by two friend in France , Thomas Magnano and Benoit Herbreteau , who loved hear to music while coding together . During nights , they arrange out to produce a music search interface with remark from all over the entanglement . In the process , they create a useful prick .
They never made the music hunting interface , but the play list transfer tool became Soundiiz .
“ I had to manipulate APIs and test match between service . While doing this , I make playlists and strike them between services , just for myself internally , ” said Magnano in an interview with TechCrunch . “ I presented this feature to my fellow worker and we think , ‘ Oh it ’s utilitarian for me ; maybe it is useful for someone else . ’ ”
By 2015 , Soundiiz catch its big break when it partnered with Tidal , the medicine inspection and repair founded by Jay - Z. The medicine platform was trying to make it easy for multitude to leave Spotify and bring together Tidal with all their same playlist , and Soundiiz help . However , Magnano articulate they made sure Tidal allowed people to export playlist as well , not just import — something they postulate of any music service API they shape with .
After that , a portion more citizenry start using the table service , and the creators made Soundiiz their full - metre line of work , but they ’ve save their values . The two father make a keep off of Soundiiz but narrate TechCrunch they ’re “ not looking to get rich . ” Magnano aver Soundiiz has never sought outside investments to keep its prices low , and the founders maintain control of their project .
There are limits to the free Soundiiz , though — it will sheer some of your long playlists short ( there ’s a cap at 200 songs ) . Also , you have to transfer playlist one by one , and each one takes about a minute , so transferring a 12 playlists could take a while . Soundiiz offer up a premium program ( $ 4.50 a month , and you could offset after your transfer ) to get around these limitations .
The two beginner are still the only employee at Soundiiz , despite grow quite a routine : In the last 10 yr , Soundiiz has helped millions of people transmit more than 220 million playlist . They ’ve never drop a dime bag on marketing , according to Magnano , but he order they never needed to .
“ If you searched Google for ‘ how to transfer Deezer to Spotify ’ in 2012 , there was no answer , ” say Magnano . “ So Soundiiz became the first event on Google Search when we came out , and since then , we ’ve maintained a great rank in SEO . ”
Magnano say Spotify credibly has more to lose than gain creating a playlist transfer tool like Apple and Google , and he does n’t expect that to vary shortly . However , he tell all these cyclosis services are aware of what Soundiiz does , and they ’re okay with it — some even promote it in their FAQ . That say , it ’s unlikely any of them are give-up the ghost to upgrade play list transfer services like Soundiiz any more than that .
