How to add audio files from Finder to a playlist in Music on a Mac

Drag the audio files from Finder onto the playlist’s name in the Music sidebar. Music adds them to your library and to that playlist in one step. Whether it also copies the files into its own folder depends on one setting, and it is worth checking that before you add a large batch.

Drag straight onto the playlist

1. Open Music and find the playlist in the sidebar, under Playlists.
2. If the playlist does not exist yet, choose File > New > Playlist, type a name and press Return.
3. In Finder, select the audio files you want.
4. Drag them onto the playlist’s name. It highlights when the pointer is over it. Let go.

The songs appear in the playlist, and they are in your library as well: look under Recently Added or Songs. You can drag a folder the same way, and Music takes every audio file inside it.

Where you let go matters. A drop on a playlist’s name adds to the library and to that playlist. A drop on the main part of the Music window adds to the library only, and you are left to find the new songs and sort them into a playlist afterward. If you already did that, select the songs under Recently Added and drag them onto the playlist.

Check whether Music copies the files

Choose Music > Settings, click Files, and look at the checkbox labeled “Copy files to Music Media folder when adding to library”.

When it is on, Music makes its own copy of each file in its media folder, and plays that copy from then on. The location is shown at the top of the same settings pane. The originals stay where they were, untouched. You now have two copies of each file, so you can delete the originals if you have no other use for them, or keep them as a backup.

When it is off, Music does not copy anything. It remembers where each file is and plays it from there. That saves space, but the song depends on the file staying put. Move it, rename its folder or unplug the drive it lives on, and Music can no longer play it until you point it at the file again.

To go against the setting for a single drag, hold Option while you drag the files into Music. With copying on, an Option-drag adds the songs without copying; with copying off, it copies.

A sensible rule: leave copying on for files in Downloads or on a removable drive, since those places do not last. Turn it off only if you keep an organized music folder that will not move.

Formats Music accepts

Music imports MP3, AAC (usually ending in .m4a), AIFF, WAV and Apple Lossless files. Other formats, FLAC and Ogg Vorbis among them, are not imported. Music does not always say so. The drop simply produces nothing.

If files go missing from a batch, check their type. Select one in Finder and press Command-I; the Kind line names the format. Files that Music will not take have to be converted to one of the formats above before they can go into a playlist.

Order, duplicates and the cloud library

Order. Songs do not always arrive in the order they had in the Finder window. To arrange them yourself, choose View > Sort By > Playlist Order, then drag songs up and down the list. Dragging to reorder only works in that sort mode.

Duplicates. Adding a file that Music already has can leave you with the song twice. Choose File > Library > Show Duplicate Items to list songs that share a name and artist, and remove the extras.

Removing a song. Select a song in a playlist and press Delete to take it out of that playlist only. It stays in the library and in any other playlist. To remove it everywhere, Control-click it and choose Delete from Library.

Sync Library. If you subscribe to Apple Music and Sync Library is on in Music > Settings > General, songs you add are matched or uploaded so they appear on your other devices. That is usually what you want. If a recording is private, know that adding it with Sync Library on sends it to your cloud library.

Gathering files from several folders first

The drag is easy when the files sit together in one folder. It is slower when they are scattered: two tracks in Downloads, a recording on the desktop, a few on an external drive, one that arrived as a message attachment. Each source means another trip. You arrange a Finder window beside Music, make sure the sidebar is in view, drag, and go back for the next lot. Miss the playlist name on one of those trips and that batch lands in the library with no playlist.

Ledge lets you gather first and add once. As you come across each file, drag it up to the notch at the top of the screen and let go. It lands on a shelf that drops from the notch and stays there while you go and look for the rest. Files from different folders, drives and apps can sit on the shelf together.

When the set is complete, bring Music forward with the playlist showing in the sidebar. Open the shelf with Option-Space or a click on the notch, and drag the whole set onto the playlist’s name. Music receives the files and treats them like any other drop from Finder, so the copy setting above applies as usual. On a Mac without a notch, the shelf sits at the top center of the screen.

This is the same pattern as adding photos from Finder to a specific album in Photos, and how to gather files from different folders in one spot describes the collecting step in more detail. If the tracks you want are mixed in with others in one folder, how to drag files that are not next to each other shows how to pick them out.

To be plain about what Ledge is not: it does not convert audio, read song information or organize a music library, and it does not read or index your files. It holds what you drag to it until you take it somewhere. It has no account and no cloud, so the files stay on your Mac while they are on the shelf. What Music does with them afterward, including Sync Library, is up to Music’s settings.

Questions

Why did nothing happen when I dropped the files?

The usual cause is a format Music does not import. The other is letting go before the playlist name highlighted, which adds the songs to the library without a playlist. Check Recently Added before you try again.

Can I add files to a playlist without copying them into the Music folder?

Yes. Turn off the copy setting in Music > Settings > Files, or hold Option while dragging to reverse the setting for that one drag. The files then need to stay where they are.

Where is a song’s file after I add it?

Control-click the song in Music and choose Show in Finder. A Finder window opens with the file selected, whether it is Music’s own copy or your original.

Can I delete the originals after adding them?

If the copy setting was on when you added them, yes: Music plays its own copies. If it was off, no. The originals are the only copies, and deleting them breaks the songs in your library.