How to Use SharePlay Apple Music

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Grace
April 30, 2025

Apple offers a SharePlay feature, allowing you to share experiences with friends and family in real-time. It works with Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Fitness+, and some third-party apps such as NBA, Paramount+, TikTok, and Twitch. When starting a SharePlay session with Apple Music, everyone participating can listen to the same music and control the playback. Participants sometimes don’t even need an active Apple Music subscription. Follow this step-by-step guide to SharePlay Apple Music on your iPhone, Mac, and in your car.

How to Start Apple Music SharePlay on iPhone

You can easily SharePlay Apple Music between iPhones and iPads. It supports devices with iOS 18 or later. The host sharing the music needs an active Apple Music subscription. However, the participants DON’T need a subscription. Remember to enable Bluetooth on all hosting and participating iPhones while sharing.

  1. Go to the Music app on your iPhone and select a playlist or album to play.
  2. Tap the player at the bottom of your screen and select the SharePlay icon (a person icon with two curved lines).
  3. A QR Code will be displayed. Anyone who scans this code with their iPhone can join the Apple Music SharePlay session. They can see the playing queue and control the playback, such as pausing, skipping songs, adding, and deleting tracks.
apple music shareplay iphone

  1. To end an Apple Music SharePlay session on iPhone, simply tap the SharePlay icon and select “End.”
turn off shareplay apple music

How to Use Apple Music SharePlay on Mac

To SharePlay Apple Music on Mac, you need to be on a FaceTime call with your friends. Please keep in mind that the host and the participants both need an Apple Music subscription. Apple Music SharePlay through FaceTime requires MacBooks running macOS 15.2 or later for the host.

  1. Open FaceTime on your Mac and click “New FaceTime.”
  2. Enter a phone number, an email address, or a name from your contacts list, and press Return
  3. Click the Camera button to make the FaceTime call.
start facetime call

  1. Once your friend has joined the call, open the Music app and begin playing. If it’s your first time using SharePlay, a confirmation window will appear. Click “SharePlay,” and it will automatically start SharePlay whenever you listen to Apple Music during FaceTime calls.
start shareplay apple music mac

  1. With SharePlay, everyone in the session can control playback, manage the playing queue, and view lyrics. You can check how many people are listening at the top of the player.
shareplay apple music mac

  1. To stop Apple Music SharePlay on Mac, click the SharePlay icon in the top menu bar and select the “X” button.
end shareplay mac

How to SharePlay Apple Music in a Car

When you’re focus on driving, SharePlay allows passengers – no matter where they’re sitting in the car – to control the music, making it quite handy for road trips. Here are the requirements for using SharePlay with Apple Music in CarPlay:

  • For the host: iPhone with iOS 17 or later and an active Apple Music subscription
  • For the participants: iPhone with iOS 17 or later and Bluetooth enabled; an Apple Music subscription is not required.

Follow these steps to start SharePlay Apple Music with CarPlay:

  1. Open Apple Music in CarPlay and play something.
  2. Tap the SharePlay button (a person icon with two curved lines) at the top right.
  3. Ask your friend or family member to scan the QR Code displayed on the CarPlay screen with their iPhone.
  4. Once connected, the participant will have access to the playing queue in Apple Music and be able to control playback. The song will continue to play through your car stereo.
apple music shareplay carplay

  1. To end SharPlay Apple Music on CarPlay, tap the SharPlay icon and select “End.”
end apple music shareplay carplay

How to Turn Off Apple Music SharePlay

SharePlay is great for sharing, but sometimes you might want to have some private time. Apple allows you to turn off SharePlay on your devices. Here’s how to do it on your iPhone and Mac.

On iPhone

  1. Go to Settings on your iPhone or iPad and select “Screen Time.
  2. Select “Content & Privacy Restrictions” > “Allowed Apps & Features.”
  3. Find SharePlay and toggle it off.
turn off apple music shareplay iphone

On Mac

  1. Open FaceTime on your Mac and click “FaceTime” > “Settings” from the top menu.
  2. Select the “SharePlay” tab.
  3. Uncheck the box next to “Music” to turn SharePlay Apple Music off. If you want to disable SharePlay entirely for all apps, uncheck the box next to SharePlay.

Extra Tip: How to Keep Apple Music after Subscription Ends

With an active Apple Music subscription, you can download music for offline playback on both mobile and desktop devices. However, the downloaded content is only accessible within the Apple Music app, and can’t be transferred to other devices or played by other apps. If your subscription expires, access to your downloaded music will also end.

To keep Apple Music downloads forever, you can use Pazu Apple Music Converter. This safe and efficient tool enables you to download any Apple Music playlists, albums, or songs to popular formats such as MP3, AAC, and FLAC on Mac or Windows. Downloaded songs preserve the original audio quality, ID3 tags, and metadata, so you won’t lose any important information. It features a fast download speed – almost 10 times faster than similar software. Additionally, Pazu Apple Music Converter is integrated with the Apple Music web player, allowing you to batch convert any Apple Music playlist or album to the format you choose without iTunes or the Music app.

Key Features of Pazu Apple Music Converter

  • Download Apple Music songs, albums, and playlists
  • 10x Fast Music download speed
  • Advanced DRM removal
  • Unlimited downloads
  • Adjustable output options
  • Lossless audio quality
  • Keep original ID3 tags & metadata
  • User-friendly interface

The following tutorial will show you how to download Apple Music to MP3 with Pazu Apple Music Converter. 

Step 1. Launch Pazu Apple Music Converter

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

Apple Music Converter

Step 2. Choose the Output Format

Click the gear icon to customize settings such as the output format and output folder. The default format is M4A in 256kbps. Apple Music Converter also supports MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, and AIFF.

Apple Music Converter Settings

Step 3. Choose a Playlist, Artist, or Album to Download

Search for a playlist, artist, or album you want to download. Click the “Add to List” button to load all songs in the album or playlist.

Add to List

Step 4. Download Apple Music Songs

Uncheck the songs you don’t want. Click the “Convert” button to start downloading.

Once downloaded, click the clock icon in the upper right to view the converted Apple Music songs. Click the Folder button to locate them in the output folder. You can play them on any supported device, even after your subscription ends.

convert Apple Music

Apple Music Converter

Apple Music Converter

Download Apple Music to MP3, M4A, etc.