Consumer Reports: How to move your music off Spotify

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The music streaming service Spotify has been in the news recently over a controversy surrounding alleged COVID-19 misinformation out of Joe Rogan's podcast.

That controversy led users and some musicians, including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and India Arie, to boycott the platform.

The issue is moving playlists from one service to another can be tricky.

Consumer Reports has a few tips that will make the transition easier.

Tracy Justiniano has been a Spotify user for years but said it might be time for a change.

"If it was a seamless transition to move my music over to a new streaming service, I would more likely do that," she said.

Leaving any streaming service can be a big decision, especially if you've spent time curating playlists, which are saved to your account.

And these services don't necessarily make the move easy for you.

"Unfortunately, Spotify and other streaming services don't provide an official way to move your playlists and other music around," said Thomas Germain, tech editor for Consumer Reports.

But Germain said there is some good news.

"The good news is that there are a number of third-party apps and services you can use to move those playlists to another streaming service," he said.

Soundiiz charges $4.50 a month. Songshift costs $4.99 a month.

Although they are subscription services, you can cancel as soon as your transfer is done. Freeyourmusic offers annual subscription plans, or you can pay a one-time fee of $14.99.

"When I did it, the process was pretty easy. It took a little while because I had a big library, but it wasn't that hard to do," Germain said.

All the streaming services do not have identical content, so your new service may not have every single song you saved on your old account.

If that happens, many transfer apps will let you know.

"It's a good idea to check your playlists to make sure that all your favorite songs came through," he said.

In addition, don't forget to cancel the subscription to the service you no longer want, so you're not still paying for it.

Consumer Reports said once you are done transferring your music, make sure to unlink the third-party service from your music streaming accounts so they can't continue to harvest your data.

On Spotify: Head to your Spotify account page > Hit the Apps tab > Select "Remove Access" next to the corresponding service.

On Apple Music: Open the app and hit the Listen Now tab > Select the icon in the top right to open your account settings > Apps With Access > Edit > Remove the service.