Add all songs from playlist to library Spotify

HBO's hit series Big Little Lies captivated audiences a few years back, in part because of its compelling soundtrack. One character's child, for example, creates super-hip playlists on her iPod touch with songs like "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" by the Temptations and "The Wind" by PJ Harvey; songs that reflect the various dramas taking place in the show.

Though I'm skeptical that a young kid could have such super-cool playlists, it inspired me to create my own cool or (more accurately) not-so-hip playlists, and I'm not alone.

A playlist is simply a list of songs or sound clips played on an audio device or via a streaming service. Rather than click around Spotify to get from song to song, you can compile favorite tunes into customized playlists for parties, working out, or just hanging around the house.

All you need is a subscription (free or paid) to Spotify, and you can create playlists on your phone, mobile device, or computer. Here's how.

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To begin, sign up for one of Spotify's two subscription options: a free, ad-supported account or a Premium version, which costs $9.99 per month. Then download the Spotify app on your devices. You can create a playlist on mobile devices or on your computer using its web player; they'll sync up across devices.

On desktop, you can listen to any song by any artist and can skip ahead or go back to a previous song to play it, whether you have the free or paid version (the free version will interrupt with ads, though).

But those with the free version can only shuffle-play their own playlists on mobile. Spotify offers 15 "self-driving" playlists—including Daily Mixes, Discover Weekly, and Release Radar—that allow those on the free tier to play songs in any order with unlimited skips. Premium users can listen to all playlists in any order with unlimited skips, and download their playlists for offline listening, like on a plane or in the subway.

Playlist creation differs slightly on free and Premium subscriptions; here's how to get started on both versions.

If you have a free account, select Your Library and tap Create playlist (I'm using the iOS app; the Android version should look similar). In the pop-up window, type in a name for your playlist and hit Create.

On the free version, the next window will include an Add Songs button. Tap that to search by title, artist, or genre. I created a playlist called "Songs that make me weep." I wanted to add "Without You" by Harry Nilsson to that list, but I couldn't quite remember his last name. So I typed "without you harry" in the search box, and the correct one popped up. I then tapped the plus sign to the right of the title, and that song was added to my weeping playlist. After I added it, the app produced a list of similar songs, including "All By Myself" by Eric Carmen and "Mandy" by Barry Manilow; these seemed very appropriate for the list, too.

To add songs later, tap the search icon and enter a term up top. When you find something, tap the arrow on the right, and tap Add to Playlist.

If you have a Premium account, open the Spotify app, and tap the Your Library icon on the bottom of the screen. Then, tap Playlists under Music at the top, and select Create Playlist. In the pop-up window, type in a name for your playlist and hit Create.

After you create a playlist on the Premium version of Spotify, a white Add Songs button will appear. Tap that for some suggestions, or tap the Search button if you already have a song in mind. If your playlist has a descriptive-enough name, Spotify will serve up some song suggestions. The playlist name PCMag, for example, didn't really give Spotify enough of an idea what type of music it should include, but Dance Favorites was more descriptive and allowed for its AI to offer recommendations.

When you find a song you'd like to add to a playlist, tap the three dots on the top right. A menu pops up. Tap Add to playlist and on the next menu, and select the playlist in which you want it to reside. On Premium, you can also add albums to playlists. On the album's page, tap the three dots in the middle of the screen and select Add to playlist.

Open the Spotify web player. Look for the New Playlist option on the bottom left. Click the plus sign, and a pop-up will appear. Type a name for the playlist, and hit Create (there's the option to add a photo and description, but that's not required). Your new playlist will then show up on the left-hand menu under Playlists.

Say I'm on my computer listening to Spotify, and I find the song, "Runaway Train" by Soul Asylum and want to include it on my "Songs that make me weep" playlist. I just move my cursor over the song in the web player, look for an icon with three dots, click on it, and choose Add to Playlist. A list of my playlists will appear, I select the one I want the song added to, and it's then included.

To remove songs from a playlist in the web player, click the three-dot icon to the right of the song, click Remove from this Playlist, and it's gone.

On the free version of the Spotify mobile app, go into your playlist, tap add more, tap the three-dot icon to the right of the song, and select Remove from this playlist.

On Premium, tap the three-dot icon to the right of the song, and select Remove from this playlist. To quickly delete a number of songs, go into your playlist, tap the three dots in the middle of the screen, and select Edit. A white circle with a line through it will appear next to the songs in your playlist. Tap to delete. (If you delete something by accident, tap Cancel > Discard.) When you're done, select Done on the top right.

If you're bored with your playlist, you can delete the whole thing. On the PC, right-click it and select Delete. On mobile (free and Premium), tap the three-dot menu, and select Delete playlist.

Once a song or playlist is deleted from one device, say a phone, it's immediately removed from others as well, including the web player. If you delete a playlist by accident, log in to your profile page on Spotify's website, and click Recover Playlists on the left, where you'll find deleted playlists. Click Restore to get them back.

You can make your playlists interactive by making them collaborative. It’s just like sharing your own playlists, but instead of selecting Share, tap the chat head icon (mobile) or Collaborative playlist (PC). When you send it to your friends, they can add, delete, and reorder the songs.

Of course, if you don't want to create your own playlists, Spotify has a fantastic selection to choose from. The service uses a machine-driven approach to find songs that are most popular with its subscribers. In fact, you can check out these playlists, including Daily Mix, Discover, Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and Fresh Finds, select songs you like, and create personalized playlists from these lists.

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