Syncing Apple Music across devices

With Apple Music content from your library is either matched or uploaded. Where items are matched you will use the iTunes Store version of the track on another device. If the track is uploaded then your exact version is used everywhere, although the audio format may sometimes be modified. See Identify cloud status icons in your music library on your Mac or PC - Apple Support. When your library and your device both have Sync Library/iCloud Music Library enabled changes you make to playlists and metadata in one computer or device should sync to your others automatically over the air.

tt2

Hello amd1,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities!

We understand you'd like to sync playlists from your iPhone to your Mac. We'll be glad to assist.

You can Turn on Sync Library with Apple Music to access your music on all your devices. This will help move the music on your Mac to your iPhone and iPhone to your Mac.

If you have a lot of music it will take some time to match it with the Apple Music catalog. If you prefer not to complete this step, there isn't a way to manually sync the music to your Mac. You'll need to create the same playlist on your Mac: Create, edit and delete playlists in Music on Mac

Take care.

If you had started from scratch there would have been no local music or purchase history, so your iCloud Music Library would only have had the content that you added from Apple Music. It would have been possible to create a separate library before enabling Sync Library/iCloud Music Library, which would have had the default playlists and your purchase history. Unwanted lists can be deleted and purchases hidden. Apple clearly assume that if you're talking out a subscription to their Apple Music or iTunes Match services you're going to want your existing content and playlists to be included.

While you cannot stop Apple Music matching/uploading content you add to the local library, if you really don't want it to appear elsewhere you can open a second library or use your iPhone to remove it from your cloud library. Then in the original library the tracks will be marked as removed (see Identify cloud status icons in your music library on your Mac or PC - Apple Support again) and can play there, but don't go back into the cloud unless you right-click and use add to cloud library to match/upload them again.

tt2

Spotify, involves streaming songs from their servers, or listening to downloaded (DRM protected) copies of the somgs from their servers. That is all.

Apple Music, when locally stored files not bought from the iTunes store are imported, matches them with copies on Apple’s server for legal reasons I suspect, and then synchronises those. In addition, Apple Music can do streaming.

Maybe this article will help? Turn on Sync Library with Apple Music – Apple Support (UK)

You're welcome. 🙂

I suspect if you started Apple Music with no purchase history or locally added content it would be much the same.

tt2