Collaboration is the art of seamless teamwork. There may be ups and downs, but mostly, it’s a smooth partnership. To collaborate is to share ideas, and mutually and respectfully bring them together with a suitable middle ground. Many spaces, mostly work-related, require this kind of collaboration to make things happen.

If you strongly believe in more the merrier when it comes to music or if you’re simply looking for a better way to unite different/more musical interests, Spotify has the perfect feature for you. With Spotify’s collaborative playlist feature, you can now work with fellow music fanatics and bring together a blast of a playlist.

Spotify allows you to make playlists collaborative on the desktop and mobile app. Here’s how you can collaboratively extend a playlist on both devices.

About Collaborating a Playlist on Spotify

Making a playlist collaborative essentially opens modification options to the public. Anyone who reaches your playlist can add, remove, and reorder tracks in it. However, collaborative playlists aren’t visible in search results. This is a security measure to keep the playlist from falling into unwelcomed hands.

The owner of the collab playlist would have to share the link to the playlist. The link may be further circulated to invite more participants. A collaborative playlist opens to participation only via the playlist’s link. The owner can make a collaborative playlist non-collaborative at any time – and the participant’s tracks would become the owner’s.

You cannot have a collaborative playlist displayed on your profile. You cannot make a public playlist collaborative, as you’ll lose the option to make a playlist public when you make it collaborative. They’re mutually exclusive. This is most probably a feature to help protect a collaborative playlist from random participation.

You can only make playlists created by you, collaborative.

Making a Collaborative Playlist on Spotify Dekstop App

Launch Spotify on your computer and select the playlist you want to make collaborative. You can directly choose from the left list of playlists, via your Spotify library, or on the playlist’s page.

Choosing from the left list of playlists. Locate the playlist you want to make collaborative from the left list of playlists on your Spotify screen. Double-finger tap or right-click on it and select ‘Collaborative playlist’ from the menu.

Choosing from your library. Click the ‘Your Library’ option to the top left of the screen and select the ‘Playlists’ tab on the right. Now, select the playlist you want to make collaborative. Double-finger tap or right-click on it and choose ‘Collaborative playlist’ from the menu.

Choosing from the playlist’s page. Click to open a playlist you want to make collaborative. Now, click the ellipsis icon below the playlist’s information and select the ‘Collaborative playlist’ option from the menu.

The chosen playlist is instantly open to collaboration. You can identify a collaborative playlist by the tiny icon of the outlines of two people next to it. Also, the menu option to make a playlist collaborative (‘Collaborative playlist’) will have a tick mark next to it.

Sharing the Collaborative Playlist

Once you’ve made the collaborative playlist, stay on the playlist’s page and click the ellipsis icon (three horizontal dots) below the playlist’s info.

Select ‘Share’ from the next context menu and then choose ‘Copy link to playlist’.

You can either share the copied link by pasting and sending it in a sharing medium, or you can create a Spotify Code and then share it. We recommend taking the code route because it is way easier to access and looks much neater on screen.

Making a Playlist Collaborative on Spotify Mobile App

Open Spotify on your phone and tap the ‘Your Library’ to head to your Spotify library. Now, select the ‘Playlists’ tab at the top of the screen.

There are two ways to make a playlist collaborative on Spotify. One provides direct sharing options, and the other doesn’t. We’ll cover both here.

With direct sharing options. Open the playlist (made by you) that you want to make collaborative. Tap the icon with the online of a person and a ‘+’ (plus) mark. This is the collaborative icon.

You will receive a prompt – asking if you want to make the playlist collaborative or not. Tap the ‘Make collaborative’ button in the prompt to confirm your choice.

The next screen you see is the ‘Share’ screen. Choose your sharing option here and directly share the link to your collaborative playlist.

Although you have sharing options at your disposal, you can still choose to copy the link to the collaborative playlist and share it as a Spotify Code.

With no direct sharing options. Navigate to the playlist you want to make collaborative and tap to open it. Now, tap the ellipsis icon (three vertical dots) below the playlist’s info, next to the ‘Collaborative’ icon.

Select ‘Make Collaborative’ in the following menu.

Your chosen playlist is collaborative and you’ll be immediately notified.

To share the collaborative playlist, go back to the playlist you just made collaborative and tap the ellipsis icon (three vertical dots) below the playlist’s info.

Next, select the ‘Share’ option in the following menu.

You will next redirect to a familiar screen – the sharing screen. Choose your sharing option and paste the link there to send it. You can also copy the link, make a Spotify Code, and share the same as well.

Participating in a Collaborative Playlist

The process to add, remove, or arrange/sort songs in a collaborative playlist is the same for both the owner and the participants. You can add, remove, and sort songs on the mobile app, and you can do all that plus reorder songs on the Spotify desktop app.

Adding Songs to a Collaborative Playlist

On your computer. There are three ways to add songs to your collaborative playlist on your desktop – via your personal selections and Spotify’s suggestions.

Method 1. Click or double-finger tap on the name of the song when you come across a track that would fit the collaborative playlist. Then, select ‘Add to playlist’ from the menu and choose the collaborative playlist from the following list.

You can also open the song to view it individually or as part of a playlist. Hover the cursor over the song, tap the ellipsis icon (three horizontal dots), and select ‘Add to playlist’. Now, choose your collaborative playlist in the adjacent menu.

Method 2. Based on the tracks in your collaborative playlist, Spotify recommends numbers that could work. Scroll a little on your collab playlist to find Spotify’s suggestions. Now, click the ‘Add’ button next to the track that you deem fit.

If you don’t find anything that interesting, don’t quit. Hit the ‘Refresh’ button and Spotify would refresh its recommendations.

On your phone. The Spotify mobile app offers three ways to add songs to your playlist. In addition to the desktop app’s options, the mobile app also has an ‘Add songs’ button.

Method 1. Manually search for the song you want to add to your collaborative playlist or find it in a playlist and tap the ellipsis icon (three horizontal dots) next to the track.

Select the ‘Add to playlist’ option in the next menu.

Tap to choose the collaborative playlist you want to add the current track to in the ‘Add to playlist’ screen.

Method 2. Scroll to the bottom of your collaborative playlist to find Spotify’s recommendations. Tap the music note icon with a ‘+’ (plus) mark to add the track to the playlist. Hit the ‘Refresh’ button at the end of the list to refresh the recommendations.

Method 3. This is a similar method as the first, but with the added provision to directly search and add songs from the collaborative playlist’s page.

Tap the ‘Add songs’ button below your collaborative playlist’s information.

You can either search for the songs manually in the ‘Search’ field and add them or you can add them by tapping the ‘+’ button next to Spotify’s suggestions. Swipe through these ‘Suggested’ cards to find more recommendations coming from different spaces like your ‘Liked songs’, and ‘Recently Played’, in addition to Spotify’s suggestions.

Removing Song in a Collaborative Playlist

Removing songs on your collaborative playlist is a straightforward process. There’s only one way to do it on both desktop and mobile devices, but via different routes.

On your computer, reach the collaborative playlist, and hover the cursor over the song you want to remove, and tap the ellipsis icon (three horizontal dots). You can also double-finger tap on the song. Select ‘Remove from this playlist’ in the context menu.

On your phone, long-tap on the song you want to remove from the collaborative playlist or tap the track’s ellipsis icon (three vertical dots).

Then, select ‘Remove from this playlist’ in the following menu.

The track is now out of your collaborative playlist.

Reordering Tracks in Your Collaborative Playlist

Spotify does not have the option to reorder songs on the mobile application – only the option to sort. Reordering used to be available on the mobile app as of 2020. All collab partners can and will only be able to rearrange tracks on their respective desktop apps.

To reorder tracks on the Spotify desktop app, simply double-tap and drag the track to the desired position. Follow the guiding green line to determine the new position of the track.

You can also ‘Sort’ the tracks on your desktop app by clicking the drop-down box to the top right corner above the playlist and next to the ‘Search’ icon. Now, choose your sorting preference – by title, artist, album, date of addition, or custom order (the order in which the songs were originally added).

All options except ‘Custom’ can be arranged in an increasing or decreasing order. Simply click the ‘Arrow’ icon next to the chosen option to sort your playlist likewise.

Though the Spotify mobile application does not provide the option to customize and reorder songs, you can arrange the tracks in pre-set orders.

Reach your collaborative playlist on the Spotify mobile app, and tap the ‘Sort’ button to the top right corner of the screen.

Now, choose your sorting arrangement in the upcoming ‘Sort by’ pop-up menu. Tap the green arrow next to the respective choice to arrange tracks in ascending (downward arrow) or descending (upward arrow) order. Here too the ‘Custom’ option will not have the increasing/decreasing option for obvious reasons.

Making a Playlist Uncollaborative

If you change your mind and want to close a playlist to any collaboration or any more of it, here’s what you do.

On your computer, simply double-finger tap or right-click on the playlist. Select the ‘Collaborative playlist’ option which has a tick mark.

This would remove the tick mark from the option and make the playlist uncollaborative. You can make a playlist uncollaborative via any of the methods explained previously.

On your phone, go back to the collaborative playlist and tap the ellipsis icon (three vertical dots).

Select the ‘Make Non-collaborative’ option in the next menu to make your playlist uncollaborative.

The playlist is no longer open to public modifications.

How Collaboration Works on Spotify?

Once you send the link or Spotify Code, the receiver would directly reach your collaborative playlist either via the link or the code. They can view the collaborative playlist just like the owner.

The collab partner will only be able to add, remove, and sort the collab songs on all Spotify devices and reorder them on their desktop app. The procedure to do any of this is the same for everyone in a collaborative playlist. However, collab partners cannot edit the name of the playlist.

When partners begin adding their music to the collab playlist, you will see their respective profile picture icons next to their additions. This is visible only on the Spotify mobile application. When you make a playlist non-collaborative, all songs added by other partners will become your (the owner’s) added tracks.

The number of collaborative partners in a playlist is viewable only on the Spotify mobile app. You will see a label with the owner of the playlist in addition to the number of partners right below the name of the playlist.

Tap this space to view the participants.

You can now see all the people involved in the collaborative playlist along with the number of songs they’ve added.

Tips

  • Encourage your collab partners to either pin the collaborative playlist or like it (click/tap) the ‘Heart’ icon on their respective devices for faster access.
  • If you want your collaborative playlist to go live/public, make it non-collaborative and then add it to your profile.
  • If you want a playlist similar to your collaborative playlist, choose to make a similar playlist (backlink guide for ‘How to create similar playlists on Spotify’).
  • To find more artists and music similar to the ones in your collaborative playlist, head to the playlist’s radio.

And that’s about Spotify’s ‘Collaborative Playlist’ feature. It is a great feature to brainstorm music ideas, share musical interests, or even make kickass playlists together! Hope you’ve found our guide useful in understanding everything about Spotify’s collaborative playlists. Happy collaborating!