Last yr, I had the unlucky expertise of shedding all my playlists after I switched from Apple Music to Spotify. To me, playlists are necessary. They’re snapshots of a time in your life; perhaps your summer time of 2016 had a sure soundtrack to it. But, historically, music streaming providers don’t make it simple to take playlists with you to different platforms.
So you may think about how excited I used to be to see that Apple Music created a brand new playlist switch instrument via the Data Transfer Initiative (DTI), a gaggle based by Apple, Google, and Meta to create information portability instruments. Europe’s Digital Markets Act requires these designated “gatekeepers” to fund switch instruments as a part of a broader treatment to Big Tech’s technique to lock customers into their platforms.
Finally! Except there was one huge downside. The instruments don’t work with the world’s hottest music service, Spotify, which seemingly didn’t catch the information portability wave (or perhaps a regulator isn’t telling them to). The DTI’s instrument solely transfers between Apple Music and YouTube Music, making it rather a lot much less helpful for most individuals.
The DTI’s government director, Chris Riley, is fed up with Big Tech’s lock-in insurance policies as effectively. He’s been attempting to get extra firms to return to the negotiating desk and make their providers extra transportable.
“We’ve sort of gotten baked into this world over the previous decade of simply feeling caught,” mentioned Riley in an interview with TechCrunch. “I don’t assume sufficient folks know that is one thing they need to have.”
Acknowledging the DTI’s limitations, Riley prompt I switch my playlists from Apple Music to Spotify utilizing Soundiiz, a free third-party instrument. Instead of working straight with streaming providers, Soundiiz builds portability instruments via present APIs and acts as a translator between the providers. Within minutes, I used to be in a position to hyperlink my accounts, switch my playlists, and begin listening to my previous Apple Music playlists on Spotify. It was superior and straightforward.
Soundiiz permits you to switch playlists between Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, SoundCloud, and 20 different streaming providers I’ve by no means even heard of. There’s a easy consumer interface to attach your streaming providers and decide the playlists you need to switch over, together with ones that another person has created.
The story behind Soundiiz would possibly clarify why it really works so effectively, and cheaply. It was created in 2013 by two associates in France, Thomas Magnano and Benoit Herbreteau, who beloved listening to music whereas coding collectively. During nights, they got down to create a music search interface with inputs from everywhere in the internet. In the method, they created a useful gizmo.
They by no means made the music search interface, however the playlist switch instrument turned Soundiiz.
“I needed to manipulate APIs and check match between providers. While doing this, I created playlists and moved them between providers, only for myself internally,” mentioned Magnano in an interview with TechCrunch. “I introduced this function to my colleague and we thought, ‘Oh it’s helpful for me; perhaps it’s helpful for another person.’”
By 2015, Soundiiz bought its huge break when it partnered with Tidal, the music service based by Jay-Z. The music platform was attempting to make it simpler for folks to depart Spotify and be a part of Tidal with all their identical playlists, and Soundiiz helped. However, Magnano says they made positive Tidal allowed folks to export playlists as effectively, not simply import — one thing they require of any music service API they work with.
After that, much more folks began utilizing the service, and the creators made Soundiiz their full-time jobs, however they’ve saved their values. The two founders make a dwelling off of Soundiiz however inform TechCrunch they’re “not trying to get wealthy.” Magnano says Soundiiz has by no means sought outdoors investments so as to maintain its costs low, and the founders preserve management of their challenge.
There are limits to the free Soundiiz, although — it should minimize a few of your longer playlists brief (there’s a cap at 200 songs). Also, it’s a must to switch playlists one after the other, and every one takes a few minute, so transferring a dozen playlists may take some time. Soundiiz gives a premium plan ($4.50 a month, and you may cancel after your switch) to get round these limitations.
The two founders are nonetheless the one workers at Soundiiz, regardless of rising fairly a bit: In the final 10 years, Soundiiz has helped tens of millions of individuals switch greater than 220 million playlists. They’ve by no means spent a dime on advertising, in keeping with Magnano, however he says they by no means wanted to.
“If you searched Google for ‘easy methods to switch Deezer to Spotify’ in 2012, there was no reply,” mentioned Magnano. “So Soundiiz turned the primary end result on Google Search once we got here out, and since then, we’ve maintained an important rank in website positioning.”
Magnano says Spotify in all probability has extra to lose than win making a playlist switch instrument like Apple and Google, and he doesn’t anticipate that to alter quickly. However, he says all these streaming providers are conscious of what Soundiiz does, they usually’re okay with it — some even advertise of their FAQs. That mentioned, it’s unlikely any of them are going to advertise playlist switch providers like Soundiiz any greater than that.
