Find out how to upload the songs you’ve collected over the years to Apple’s server and stream them to all your devices when you use Apple Music.
When you sign up for Apple Music for $10.99 per month, $16.99 per month for family, or another plan, you obviously get ad-free online and offline listening access to over 100 million songs.
Additionally, Apple Music subscriptions include an old, little-known iTunes Match feature that lets you upload your songs and stream them online.
So, if you’ve been downloading songs online, ripping CDs, or shopping elsewhere to build a curated collection, an Apple Music subscription means you can take them with you. No need to switch apps to listen to them.
How does this work
It’s a simple process that involves using a Mac or Windows PC to add your song files to the Apple Music app, where they’ll be automatically synced and uploaded to the cloud.
Compare: If a song in your personal collection is already available in Apple Music’s catalog of 100+ million songs, then that song file is not uploaded from your computer to Apple’s server to save time and internet bandwidth. Instead, it’s simply synced, and a version of the Apple Music catalog is added to your music library.
Upload it: If a song from your collection is not yet available on Apple Music, its file will be uploaded to Apple’s server and made available in your Apple Music library so you can stream and download it on all devices when you use Apple Music.
When songs won’t match or load
The following songs in your collection will not be matched or uploaded to Apple Music:
- The bitrate of the song is less than 96 kbps
- The size of each song file is more than 200 MB
- The playing time of the song is longer than two hours
- The file is a music video (MP4 or other video formats)
If some of your local files match the conditions above, they are not suitable for uploading to Apple Music for streaming to other devices. As a result, they will only be available within the Music app on your Mac or PC where you imported them.
Add custom songs to Apple Music
1) Open the Music app on your Mac or Apple Music on a Windows PC. Make sure you have an Apple Music subscription, and it works in the Music app.
2) Click File > Add to library from the top menu bar.
3) Select individual songs or a song folder in the Finder interface and click Open it to add them to the music app.
4) The music app will now automatically match or upload a song to your library. You can check the status by clicking the small information icon ⓘ next to “Updating Cloud Library…” in the lower left corner.
5) Once the song is uploaded, open the music app on your iPhone, iPad, other Mac or PC, Apple TV, Android phone, Tesla car, smart TV, or anywhere you use Apple Music, and you’ll find the uploaded song ready to stream or download.
If you delete a song from within the Music app on any of your devices, it will be deleted everywhere (except the default macOS Finder or Windows File Explorer folder/disk storage).
Also, check out: How to find out where the music app stores songs on your Mac