Playlists are a core component of Spotify. From the company's own playlists to creating and sharing your own, you're likely to have a lot of them in your library.

Below, we share some tips to help you manage your Spotify playlists. While we focus on the desktop app since it's easier to edit playlists there, you'll enjoy the benefits when using Spotify on mobile, too.

1. How to Select Multiple Songs on Spotify

It's basic to click and drag a song in a playlist to move it, or press Delete to remove a highlighted song. However, there may be times when you want to remove many songs from a playlist or move songs around in batches.

To select multiple songs on Spotify, hold down Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) and click to select multiple songs. Then, drag and drop them all to move them to another playlist, or to a different position in the current playlist. To delete all the songs you selected at once, right-click on one of the chosen tracks and click Remove from this playlist (or hit the Delete key).

Spotify Select Multiple Tracks

To select consecutive songs in a playlist, click the first one, then hold down Shift while you click the last one. This highlights all tracks, inclusive, between the two. After that, you can delete or move the block of songs as above.

If you want to select everything in a playlist, press Ctrl + A or Cmd + A. This will save time in large playlists.

Keep these methods in mind, as they're used in several of the below tricks.

2. How to Import Local Music Into Spotify

Using the Spotify desktop app, you can transfer your own music to Spotify by importing it. First, make sure the desired songs are on your computer in an easily accessible folder. Once that's done, in Spotify, click the three-dot menu button at the top-left and go to Edit > Preferences. Scroll down to Local Files and make sure the Show Local Files slider is enabled.

After you turn on this slider, you'll see sources for various music folders on your PC. You can disable any you don't need. To import new ones, click Add a Source.

Spotify Show Local Files

From the file selection window that appears, choose the folder of songs you just made and click Open. You'll then see it appear in the Show songs from list; make sure it's enabled.

If you've previously imported music from other local sources, you might want to uncheck them here temporarily before moving on. This will make it easier to select only the music you just added and put it in a new playlist.

Now, click Your Library at the top-left of Spotify, and in the Playlists tab, you'll see a new Local Files option. Click this and you'll see all the local music you selected earlier inside.

Spotify Local Files Playlist

Since imported music doesn't feature clickable artists and albums, you can use the sorting option at the top-right of the playlist (likely Custom order by default) to sort by artist, track name, and similar. Click Create Playlist in the left sidebar to add your local music to a fresh playlist for easy categorizing.

Once you've sorted it all, you can go back into the Local Files settings and show the sources you imported from in the past again.

3. How to Identify the Current Spotify Playlist

Sometimes, you might hear a great song while listening to Spotify and wonder what playlist it's in. When using the Spotify desktop app, click on the album art in the bottom-left corner to immediately jump to the current playlist (or album). You should see the current track playing, allowing you to identify where the song came from.

Spotify Identify Current Playlist

Avoid clicking the arrow icon in the top-right of the album art, which will toggle the cover art size.

4. How to Duplicate Spotify Playlists

Copying a Spotify playlist is handy if you want to make a backup or customize a playlist to send to someone else. You have to duplicate Spotify playlists manually, but it's not difficult.

To duplicate a playlist in Spotify, first, click Create Playlist on the left sidebar to create an empty playlist. Give it a name, then open the playlist you want to duplicate. Click the first song title once to select the track.

Then press Ctrl + A (Cmd + A on Mac) to select all the songs in your current playlist. Finally, click and drag (or copy and paste) the highlighted songs to the new playlist in the left pane.

Spotify Duplicate Playlist 2021

Note that if you right-click on an existing playlist, you'll see a Create similar playlist option. This doesn't duplicate a Spotify playlist; instead, it creates one that has music similar to your current playlist. It's a great way to discover more music you'll love on Spotify.

5. How to Add All Liked Songs Into One Spotify Playlist

If you want to make a mega-playlist of all the songs you've saved to your library, you can copy them into a new playlist using a similar method to the above. This is a great option if you have a Spotify Premium subscription and want to download a big playlist for on-the-go listening without using data.

First, create a new playlist as explained earlier. Next, choose Liked Songs from the left panel. Click on one track in the list to highlight it, then press Ctrl + A (or Cmd + A on Mac) to select all the songs. Finally, drag or copy and paste them to the new playlist.

Spotify Liked Songs

Note that Spotify treats Liked Songs as its own playlist. Thus, you can click the Download button to save this for offline listening (as long as you have Premium). This is more convenient than turning your liked songs into a playlist manually, because Liked Songs will update automatically when you like a new song.

6. How to Share Spotify Playlists With Others

Want to share your favorite Spotify playlists with a friend, or create a new one specifically for them? Spotify makes it easy to share playlists with anyone who uses the service.

To share, open a playlist, click the three-dot menu at the top, and mouse over the Share field. You'll see two ways to share it: Copy link to playlist or Embed playlist. Use the former to get a URL you can paste anywhere, such as in a messaging app or on social media. Embedding is used to add a clickable version of the playlist to your website or similar.

Spotify Share Playlists 2021

If you want to let other people add songs to the playlist, select Invite collaborators from the three-dot menu. This copies a link to your clipboard that you can share with friends, allowing them to add and remove tracks from the playlist. You may want to make a backup for yourself to protect the current version of the playlist before sharing.

7. How to Change Playlist Sorting Options in Spotify

By default, Spotify playlists sort tracks based on the order you added them. However, you can change this by clicking the headers at the top. This works for your own playlists, as well as those from others.

Click Title or Album to sort alphabetically by these fields (first A-Z, then Z-A). This also works with the Date Added field, which lets you sort from newest to oldest or oldest to newest. The Clock icon represents the track length; clicking it lets you sort by the shortest or longest tracks.

If you prefer, you can also change the sorting options by clicking the dropdown box in the top-right corner. This gives you the same options as sorting using the headers, in addition to alphabetical ordering by Artist. Clicking a third time on any field will remove the sorting.

Spotify Sort Playlist Order 2021

When you haven't applied any sorting (no green arrows show next to any of the headers), you can manually rearrange the tracks in your own playlists. Simply click and drag a song and you'll see a green line appear. Let it go to drop that song in the new position. You can also move songs in bulk, as explained earlier.

This lets you fine-tune the order of a Spotify playlist before sending it to someone, gradually ramp up the tempo as songs progress, and make other tweaks. Just remember doing so won't have much effect if you turn shuffle mode on!

8. How to Edit the Cover Image for Spotify Playlists

By default, Spotify creates playlist art using the first four album covers from songs in that playlist. For your own playlists, you can change that generic image to anything you wish.

Open the playlist, then hover your cursor over the existing playlist image and you'll see Choose photo; click this. This will open up an Edit details box.

Spotify Edit Art for Playlist 2021

Click the picture on the left side to upload a new image from your computer. To confirm, hit the Save button in the Edit details box. If you want, you can also type a brief description for the playlist, which can provide more info to those you share it with.

We have a guide detailing how to create the perfect artwork for Spotify playlists if you need some help.

9. How to Like All Songs in a Playlist on Spotify

Spotify allows you to "like" an album or song by clicking the Heart icon. This appears to the left of the Duration field for a track, as well as at the top of an album page. This lets you add the songs to the Your Library section of Spotify for easy access—kind of like a virtual music shelf.

If you find a playlist you love and want to save all (or many) of its songs, simply select them as discussed before. Use Ctrl + A (or Cmd + A) to select them all, or hold Ctrl (or Cmd) to select multiple songs. Then, either right-click and choose Save to your Liked Songs or drag them to the Liked Songs folder on the left sidebar.

Spotify Like Many Songs

Unfortunately, there's no option to save all the albums represented in a playlist to Your Library, so you'll have to save albums one by one.

10. How to Filter and Search Spotify Playlists

Spotify playlists can contain thousands of songs, making it difficult to find the right track quickly. To easily search inside a playlist, press Ctrl + F (Cmd + F on a Mac) with that playlist open. You can also click on the small magnifying glass icon that appears to the left of the sorting box.

Type into the box that appears and Spotify will show matches in the song title, artist, and album name. You can use this to confirm whether a song is in a playlist, see all the songs by a certain artist, check for duplicates, and similar.

Spotify Search Playlist

Once you have just those songs pulled up by searching, you can easily select them all and right-click to add them to the queue, remove them from the playlist, copy them elsewhere, or take other actions.

11. Enhance Spotify Playlists

If it feels like a Spotify playlist isn't as strong as it could be, there's an option that can help. Right-click one of your own playlists and choose Turn on Enhance to try Spotify's Enhance function. This adds one suggested track for every two existing songs in the playlist, with a green icon next to it.

Spotify Enhance Playlist

If you like the song, click the Plus button to keep it in your playlist. If you don't like it, hit the Remove button. When you click the Enhanced button again to turn the feature off, any tracks you haven't saved will disappear from the playlist. If you run it again, you'll get different suggested songs.

12. Exclude Playlists From Your Tastes

If you have some Spotify playlists that you don't want the service to use as part of learning what you like, you can exclude them. To do this, right-click a playlist and choose Exclude from your taste profile. You'll still be able to access the playlist, but Spotify won't use it as part of your listener profile.

Spotify Exclude From Taste Recommendations

This is handy if you have playlists of music for your kids, white noise for sleeping, or similar that's outside of your normal preferences.

Manage Your Spotify Playlists Like a Pro

Now, with the help of these handy tips, you know how to get much more out of your Spotify playlists. Having the right mix for every moment is a strength of the service, and these tips should help you keep your collection tidy.

Spotify tricks aren't limited to just playlists, either. There are lots of ways to maximize your experience with the platform.