How to export Apple Music.M3U playlists, then import them into in Emby

[RLanger7228 54]

I was struggling to get my playlists from Apple Music to play in Emby.  After some forum suggestions & a bit of experimentation I finally got them to work.  I wanted to share the benefit of my experience.

Apple Music allows PlayLists to be exported in M3U format (which is recognized by Emby).  However, Apple Music will, of course, refer to the file path on the computer where they are originally stored.  Since I use the Apple Music organization (Artist/Album/Songs), and I sync the entire music folder on my laptop with a sub-folder under the Shared Folder "/Music" on my Synology NAS, it was a simple matter to edit the ROOT part of the file path(s) in the M3U file to match the proper path on my NAS,  which I obtained from EMBY>SETTINGS>LIBRARY>MUSIC (see SS 1).

To export the playlist from Apple Music, I first selected the playlist I wanted to export, so all the songs are showing.  I went to FILE>LIBRARY>EXPORT PLAYLIST (SS 2).  On the next window, I selected M3U format & the destination where I wanted the file to go on my computer (SS 3).

I opened the PlayList.M3U file using TextEdit, went to EDIT>FIND>FIND & REPLACE (SS 4), then did a search & replace, exchanging my laptop version of the root directory (/Users/Shared/) for the NAS version (/Volume1/Music/), then clicked ALL (SS 5), then FILE>SAVE. 

I used File Station on my NAS to create a new sub-folder:  /Music/Playlists, then uploaded the newly edited playlist there.  I seem to have issues getting newly added content automatically recognized by Emby (discussed a separate forum thread), but re-scanning the music files got the playlist recognized - EMBY>SETTINGS>LIBRARY, lower right corner ellipsis on the MUSIC section>SCAN LIBRARY FILES (SS 6).

I apologize to the more technically minded out there if my instructions seem too pedantic.  I sometimes find it helpful to have steps clearly laid out & wanted to be helpful to those less experienced (like myself).  Everyone has to start somewhere...

I imagine that since the steps are repeatable, there might even be a way to use Apple Automation to create a "script" to do all this automatically.  However, that is beyond my skill set.

Final note: Naturally, this will only work for music you actually have on your computer & not songs in playlists from the Apple Music streaming library because there needs to be a "physical" file path to a stored music file.  I am not sure what will happen to the streaming songs in a mixed playlist.  I assume they would be ignored, but you know what happens when you assume...  I will let you know what happens when I get to a playlist that has a few songs from the streaming service in it.

 

Edited January 19 by RLanger7228

[RLanger7228 54]

FOLLOW-UP ON APPLE MUSIC STREAMING SONGS IN PLAYLISTS:

I found a playlist that had some songs I added from the Apple Music streaming service (I have an active Apple Music Subscription).  Using the Playlist.M3U file I created with the steps in my original post, I searched for one of the song titles in TextEdit to see what the file path was.  I found it in a folder called /Apple Music/   under the main folder  /iTunes Music/.  Then I went to File Station on my NAS and navigated to  /Volume1/Music/MainMusicFolder/Apple Music/Artist/Album  and found a song file: Song.M4P.

M4P is an Apple proprietary format for a MP3 file that is intended to be only playable on a computer that has been "licensed" by Apple to play it.  Anyone who has inherited someone else's music collection, migrated their individually paid for songs to a different computer or terminated their Apple Music subscription will have run into this issue.

When I went to Emby to try to play the song anyway to see what would happen (after uploading the edited M3U file & re-scanning the music library), I found that the playlist was recognized, but had no songs in it (how embarrassing)!   I had this issue before when I was figuring out how to import the Apple.M3U playlists.  I thought I had the problem solved, as evidenced by the first playlist being successfully imported.  The SS shows the beginning of the 2 playlists side by side (successful playlist on the right & the empty one on the left).  I don't see any significant difference between the two, except for content.  Perhaps one of the Forum Moderators could weigh in with some suggestions?  (NOTE: even 1 hour after uploading the playlist & scanning the library, the new playlist remains empty and the 1st playlist is still functional).  The fact that there are streaming originated songs should not be the issue, because there ARE physical song files along the file paths specified in the M3U file.

Since I was not able to do a "live test" at this time, lets assume that the M4P files will NOT play in Emby on an unlicensed computer:  A Google search revealed that there are a number of online services & downloadable programs that will convert M4P files into MP3 or other formats readable by any music player.  Bootlegging streaming music is against the law, but if you legitimately paid $1.29 for each song, you should be able to play them at will.  I recommend using caution when downloading "free" software from shady websites, as some unscrupulous sites use their platform to inject viruses into your computer.  Many of the examples I looked at had a free trial version (often limited in some way), but wanted a fee for full functionality.

You can perform the conversions using your preferred method, placing the converted file in the same folder as the original M4P file.  You should then be able to edit the Playlist.M3U file to find & replace all the instances of M4P with MP3 (or whatever file format you chose to convert them to).  You can either delete the old, converted M4P files or just leave them in place.  Voila!

Now, If I can just figure out why the second playlist remains empty... 

Edited January 19 by RLanger7228
Added a thought

[Luke 39648]

12 hours ago, RLanger7228 said:

FOLLOW-UP ON APPLE MUSIC STREAMING SONGS IN PLAYLISTS:

I found a playlist that had some songs I added from the Apple Music streaming service (I have an active Apple Music Subscription).  Using the Playlist.M3U file I created with the steps in my original post, I searched for one of the song titles in TextEdit to see what the file path was.  I found it in a folder called /Apple Music/   under the main folder  /iTunes Music/.  Then I went to File Station on my NAS and navigated to  /Volume1/Music/MainMusicFolder/Apple Music/Artist/Album  and found a song file: Song.M4P.

M4P is an Apple proprietary format for a MP3 file that is intended to be only playable on a computer that has been "licensed" by Apple to play it.  Anyone who has inherited someone else's music collection, migrated their individually paid for songs to a different computer or terminated their Apple Music subscription will have run into this issue.

When I went to Emby to try to play the song anyway to see what would happen (after uploading the edited M3U file & re-scanning the music library), I found that the playlist was recognized, but had no songs in it (how embarrassing)!   I had this issue before when I was figuring out how to import the Apple.M3U playlists.  I thought I had the problem solved, as evidenced by the first playlist being successfully imported.  The SS shows the beginning of the 2 playlists side by side (successful playlist on the right & the empty one on the left).  I don't see any significant difference between the two, except for content.  Perhaps one of the Forum Moderators could weigh in with some suggestions?  (NOTE: even 1 hour after uploading the playlist & scanning the library, the new playlist remains empty and the 1st playlist is still functional).  The fact that there are streaming originated songs should not be the issue, because there ARE physical song files along the file paths specified in the M3U file.

Since I was not able to do a "live test" at this time, lets assume that the M4P files will NOT play in Emby on an unlicensed computer:  A Google search revealed that there are a number of online services & downloadable programs that will convert M4P files into MP3 or other formats readable by any music player.  Bootlegging streaming music is against the law, but if you legitimately paid $1.29 for each song, you should be able to play them at will.  I recommend using caution when downloading "free" software from shady websites, as some unscrupulous sites use their platform to inject viruses into your computer.  Many of the examples I looked at had a free trial version (often limited in some way), but wanted a fee for full functionality.

You can perform the conversions using your preferred method, placing the converted file in the same folder as the original M4P file.  You should then be able to edit the Playlist.M3U file to find & replace all the instances of M4P with MP3 (or whatever file format you chose to convert them to).  You can either delete the old, converted M4P files or just leave them in place.  Voila!

Now, If I can just figure out why the second playlist remains empty... 

Re: 

 

[RLanger7228 54]

HOW TO CONVERT "IMPORTED" PLAYLISTS INTO "NATIVE" EMBY PLAYLISTS, THAT SHOW UP IN "ADD TO PLAYLIST" LISTING:

When you try to add new items to the "imported" playlists, they do not show up in the "native" Emby playlists listing as options to add to.  Apparently, only playlists actually created within Emby will allow you to add new material to them.  "imported" playlists CAN be converted into "native" playlists by adding an "imported" playlist to a newly created playlist.  Emby will add all the items from the "imported" playlist to the newly created "native" playlist, then the old "imported" playlist file can be deleted.  The specific steps are outlined below:

I navigated to HOME>MUSIC>PLAYLISTS, where all the "imported" & "native" playlists appear together (Master Listing).  I selected one of the "imported" playlists, then clicked the ellipsis (...) to get to the "Add To Playlist" option.  From the "Add to Playlist" screen, I created a new playlist.  I had to repeat the navigation from home>music>playlists to get the new playlist to show up, but there it was!  it had the same number of items & in the same order.  The new PlayList also now shows up in the "Add To Playlist" listing!

However, there are now 2 versions of the same playlist showing up in the Master Listing.  I had added a custom description to the Metadata of the "imported" playlist.  It was a simple matter to edit the "imported" playlist metadata, copy the description, edit the new "native" PlayList Metadata & paste the description, then Save.  Since I couldn't delete the "imported" playlist from within Emby (separate question in another post), I went to File Station on my NAS & moved the PlayList.m3u file to a non-Emby-Indexed folder (effectively deleting it from Emby, while keeping a copy).  I had to Re-Scan the music library to get Emby to recognize that it had been removed.  When I went back to the Master Listing I saw that the "imported" version of the playlist was gone & the new "native" playlist remained, with the same content.  I was concerned that deleting the original playlist would also remove the items from the new playlist, since the "source" was removed.  However, apparently Emby imported the individual items from the original to the new playlist, so the new playlist remained intact when the original was deleted.  Voila!

[Luke 39648]

Thanks for sharing.