How to play music on Apple Watch – 5 Ways(2023 Ultimate Guide)

coco

December 29, 2023

One of the most important uses of the Apple Watch is listening to music. Apple Watch supports a variety of music streaming apps like Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, Tidal, Pandora, etc. You can also play music stored on Apple Watch, control music on your iPhone.

Whether you have your iPhone handy or not, listening to music on Apple Watch is a convenient option. To stream Apple Music, Spotify or other music streaming services even when you’re away from your iPhone, you need Apple Watch Series 3 or later connected to Wi-Fi or cellular. 

Apple Watch models

• Apple Watch Series 8, Ultra, SE 2 (Gen 2) – 2022
• Apple Watch Series 7 – 2021
• Apple Watch Series 6 – 2020
• Apple Watch SE – 2020
• Apple Watch Series 5 – 2019
• Apple Watch Series 4 – 2018
• Apple Watch Series 3 – 2017
• Apple Watch Series 2 – 2016
• Apple Watch Series  1 – 2015

Related: How to get Spotify for free?

How to play music on Apple Watch?

You can listen to music-streaming apps like Apple Music. Pandora, Spotify, and iHeartRadio, etc. on Apple Watch.

First, make sure your watch is running the latest operating system. Open the Watch app on your iPhone or the Settings app on your watch. Go to General > Software Update. The app will tell you that your software is up to date, or it will prompt you to download and install the latest update.

1. Play Apple Music on Apple Watch

Requires Apple Music subscription.

1. Connect Apple Watch to Bluetooth headphones or speakers.
2. Open the Music app on your Apple Watch.
3. Raise your wrist, then request an artist, album, song, genre, or portion of a song lyric.
4. Or Tap Library, then tap a playlist, artist, album, or song. To play music downloaded to your Apple Watch, tap Downloaded, then choose music.
5. Or scroll to the top of the screen, then tap Listen Now to view a curated feed of playlists and albums based on your likes and dislikes.

How to download Apple Music songs on Apple Watch?

You can stream Apple Music songs on Apple Watch when you have a internet connection. To play music when you’re not connected to the internet, you must first download it.

1. Open the Music app on your Apple Watch.
2. Tap Listen Now or Search.
3. Tap a playlist or album, tap …, then tap Add to Library.
4. To download the music to Apple Watch, tap…again, then tap Download.

2. Play Spotify on Apple Watch

Spotify rolled out a new and improved listening experience for Apple Watch users on NOVEMBER 9, 2022. The upgrades to the Spotify app for Apple Watch allow users to browse and choose favorite music and podcasts in Your Library more easily, as well as more quickly download music to listen offline from the watch itself. There’s also a new sleek design with larger artwork, animations, and added functionality—like swiping to like a song. It’s also super easy to spot new episodes marked with a blue dot, so you’ll never miss fresh episodes from your favorite creators.

Download Spotify on your Apple Watch

1. Press the Digital Crown to see the Home screen, then tap the App Store.
2. Tap Search to find Spotify.
3. Tap Get.
4. When prompted, double-click the side button under the Digital Crown to download and install the app.
5. Log in your account and start streaming.

How to download Spotify music to Apple Watch?

Requires Spotify premium subscription.

1. On your iPhone, go to a playlist or podcast you want to download.
2. Tap ….
3. Tap Download to Apple Watch.
4. Head over to the Downloads section on the Apple Watch to check on the progress.
5. Once playlists, albums, or podcasts in your library are downloaded, you’ll see a little green arrow next to their names.
6. Connect your headphones and start listening, no matter where you are!

3. Play Tidal on Apple Watch

Set up TIDAL on Apple Watch

1. Download and launch TIDAL on your Apple Watch.
2. Go to link.tidal.com and log in your account.
3. Enter the code shown on your watch screen.
4. Select Done on your Apple Watch and begin streaming.

4. Play music stored on Apple Watch

1. Connect Apple Watch to Bluetooth headphones or speakers.
2. Turn the Digital Crown to scroll through album artwork, then tap a playlist or album to play it.

How to sync music to your Apple Watch?

To transfer songs to Apple Watch, you will need the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.

1. Make sure that it’s charging and that your iPhone is within range of your watch.
2. On your iPhone, tap Settings – Bluetooth. Turn it on.
3. Open Apple Watch app on your iPhone and tap My watch tab.
4. Scroll to Music and tap it.
5. Tap Add Music, then find the song or album that you want to sync.
6. Tap the Add button next to the music to sync it. If you can’t add specific albums or playlists, try downloading them to your iPhone before you sync with your watch.

How to remove music from your Apple Watch?

1. On your iPhone, open Apple Watch app, then tap the My Watch tab.
2. Scroll to Music and tap it, then tap Edit in the upper-right corner. If you don’t see Edit, no music is synced to your watch.
3. Under Playlists & Albums, tap the delete button next to any music that you want to remove, then tap Delete.

Control music on your iPhone

1. Connect Apple Watch to Bluetooth headphones or speakers.
2. Scroll to the top of the screen, tap On iPhone, then tap a playlist, artist, album, or song to play it.

Extra tip: How to play Apple Music on Apple Watch after cancelling subscription?

To stream Apple Music songs or download them on Apple Watch, you need a subscription. Once your subscription expires, you can no longer play Apple Music on any devices. The downloaded songs will also become unavailable. Luckily, with Pazu Apple Music converter, you can easily download Apple Music songs, albums and playlists to MP3 and then sync them to your Apple Watch.

Pazu Apple Music Converter lets you convert any copy protected Apple Music and iTunes songs you have in your library to MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, M4A, AIFF without any loss in quality. One of the distinguishing features of Pazu Apple Music Converter is that it can download and convert Apple Music at a really fast speed — almost 10 times faster than any other similar software. It is integrated with the Apple Music web player, so you can batch convert any Apple Music playlist or album to the format you choose without iTunes app. The following tutorial will show you how to download Apple Music to MP3 and get Apple Music for free. 

Step 1 Launch Pazu Apple Music Converter

Download, install and run Pazu Apple Music Converter on your Mac or Windows.

Step 2 Choose output format

The default format is M4A in 256kbps. Apple Music Converter also supports MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV and AIFF. Click the gear icon if you want to change output format or output folder.

Step 3 Choose a playlist, artist or album you want to download

Follow the on-screen instructions to choose a playlist, artist, or album that you want to download.

Step 4 Start to download Apple Music songs

Click “Convert” button to start downloading Apple Music songs, albums and playlists to mp3, so you can play them anywhere you want, even after cancelling Apple Music subscription.