Spotify's New Playlist Import Feature Targets Streaming Churn
By Trevor Loucks
Founder & Lead Developer, Dynamoi
Spotify is finally making it painless to jump from rival streamers without leaving years of playlists behind.
The company has launched a built-in integration with TuneMyMusic that lets users import playlists from services like Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and others directly inside the Spotify app.
A Frictionless Exit Ramp From Rivals
From the user side, the feature lives in the “Your Library” tab on mobile. Scroll to the bottom, tap Import your music, pick a source service and start the transfer.
Nothing gets deleted on the original platform; playlists are simply duplicated into Spotify, which lowers the perceived risk for anyone curious about switching.
Spotify has quietly turned a long-standing third-party workaround into a native acquisition funnel, positioned right next to listeners’ existing catalogs.
Data Portability As A Growth Hack
Playlist lock-in has been one of the few defenses incumbents had in the streaming wars. Once a listener spent years curating, churn felt expensive and emotionally costly.
By baking migration into the product, Spotify is betting that reducing that friction will pay off in higher net subscriber gains, even if it also normalizes switching services over time.
It also aligns with growing regulatory pressure around data portability and user choice, letting Spotify claim the pro-consumer high ground while still capturing richer behavioral data on converts.
Implications For Labels, Distributors And Artists
For rightsholders, the move will not change per-stream payouts overnight, but it will subtly shift where heavy playlist users land over the next year.
If Spotify successfully converts high-value listeners from Apple Music, YouTube Music and others, catalogs with strong playlist penetration could see more overall streams on Spotify’s platform.
At the same time, the TuneMyMusic integration keeps a third party in the loop, which means privacy policies, consent flows and data-sharing terms need closer reading from anyone running data-driven campaigns.
- Retargeting newcomers. Imported playlists reveal taste profiles instantly, giving labels and marketers a fast way to seed Release Radar, Marquee and custom audience lists.
- Re-activating lapsed fans. Catalog tracks buried on a rival service can reappear in fresh campaigns once those lists land in Spotify.
- Competitive benchmarking. Comparing imported playlists against on-platform saves can highlight which tracks travel well across ecosystems and which die outside home territory.
What Industry Teams Should Do Now
First, pressure DSP reps for reporting on imported-playlist behavior: which lists are coming in, which services they come from and how those users perform over 30, 60 and 90 days.
Second, work with distributors to tag priority tracks so they appear in top positions when legacy playlists are refreshed or algorithmically extended on Spotify.
Third, bake playlist-migration messaging into your own funnels: “Bring your Apple Music playlists with you” is now a promise you can make without sending fans off-platform.
For labels and managers already running performance marketing into Spotify, this feature effectively raises the ceiling on ROI by making each acquired subscriber more likely to bring their entire listening history along.
It may look like a small quality-of-life tweak, but in a saturated streaming market, the service that owns the most playlists owns the deepest share of listener habit.
About the Editor
Trevor Loucks is the founder and lead developer of Dynamoi, where he focuses on the convergence of music business strategy and advertising technology. He focuses on applying the latest ad-tech techniques to artist and record label campaigns so they compound downstream music royalty growth.
