YouTube Collaborative Playlist: How to Make One & How It Works [Verified]

Collaborative playlists have become a must for streaming services – always have been, actually. Sharing music is in the basic nature of all music fans, so of course you want your streaming platform to allow you to make playlists with friends.

YouTube is keeping up with the trends in this department. Both YouTube and YouTube Music support collaborative playlists, much like Spotify, and since the update in October 2024, you can even share them with your friends using a simple QR code.

When you think about it, collaboration is the essence of our product here at Tune My Music, too. We want to bridge the gap between streaming platforms and allow you to transfer and share playlists on any service you choose.

Anyhow, this article will explain how to make a collaborative playlist on YouTube and YouTube Music, a few reasons why the feature may not be working for you, and more. Let’s get going!

How to Make a YouTube Collaborative Playlist: Fastest Way

The easiest way to make your YouTube playlist collaborative is to open it on your computer, tap the vertical three-dot symbol next to the “Play Now” button, and click “Collaborate” to start inviting your friends. A YouTube playlist must be public to activate collaboration.

How to Make a Collaborative Playlist on YouTube

Making a YouTube collaborative playlist is very easy but you just need to make sure that your playlist is public first. We will add this to our step-by-step guide and we will take you through the steps for desktop and mobile devices separately.

To create a collaborative playlist on YouTube on your desktop or laptop computer, follow these steps.

1. 1. Open the YouTube site or the YouTube desktop app and make sure you are logged in.
2. 2. Open a video on YouTube that you want to include in the playlist.
3. 3. Tap the three horizontal dots on the right side of the likes counter and select “Save“.

1. 4. Select “New playlist“.

1. 5. Name your playlist, set the visibility to “Public”, switch the “Collaborate” toggle on, and click the “Create” button.

1. 6. Set whether you want to allow new collaborators and click on “Copy invite link“.

1. 7. Share the invite link with your friends and family.

If you already have a playlist on YouTube and want to make it collaborative, then these are the steps to follow.

1. 1. Open your YouTube desktop app or go to the YouTube website.
2. 2. Click the three vertical lines in the top-left corner and select “Playlists” from the menu.

1. 3. Click “View full playlist” under the playlist you want to make collaborative.
2. 4. To check if the playlist is public, click the pencil symbol and see if Privacy is set to Public in the menu that pops up. If the playlist is Private, set it to Public and click Save.

1. 5. Click the three vertical dots and select “Collaborate” from the menu.

1. 6. Switch the “Collaborate” toggle on.
2. 7. Set whether you want to allow new collaborators and then click the “Copy invite link” button.

1. 8. Send the invite link to your friends and have fun.

If you are using a mobile device, the steps are a bit different and a bit simpler because the “Playlists” page has a “+” symbol so you can create an empty playlist instead of going to a random YouTube video first. The steps are as follows.

• 1. Open your YouTube app or website with your browser and tap your profile image in the lower-right corner.

• 2. Tap the “+” sign next to “Playlists”.

• 3. Name your new playlist, make it Public, and turn on the “Collaborate” toggle. Then, tap the “Create” button.

• 4. Choose how you wish to share the invite link. You can use pretty much all messenger services, email, or just copy the link.

If you want to make an existing YouTube playlist collaborative on mobile, just find it on the Playlists page, open it, tap the pencil icon, check that the “Visibility” is “Public” and then tap the Collaborate button to get your invite link.

How to Make a Collaborative Playlist on YouTube Music

The YouTube Music app is similar to YouTube but there are differences, of course, one being how to create playlists. This is how it’s done on the YouTube Music desktop app or website from your laptop or desktop device.

1. 1. Visit music.youtube.com or open your YouTube Music desktop app.
2. 2. Click the three horizontal lines in the top-left corner if needed and select “New playlist“.

1. 3. Name the playlist, add a description, set the Privacy to “Public” and click the “Create” button.

1. 4. The new playlist will automatically open, or you can access it from the menu on the left.
2. 5. Click the Edit button, the one with an image of a pencil.

1. 6. Select “Collaborate” from the top menu and switch on the toggle to allow collaborators to add songs.

1. 7. Set whether you want collaborators to be able to add new songs and click the “Copy” button.

1. 8. Share the link with anyone you want.

If you want to turn an existing YouTube Music playlist into a collaborative one, find it in the menu on the left, open it, and follow the steps we just described to create a collaboration.

Now, the steps for making a YouTube Music collaborative playlist on mobile are a bit different but still easy to handle. This is how it’s done.

1. 1. Open your YouTube Music app or go to music.youtube.com on your mobile browser.
2. 2. Tap the “Library” button in the bottom-right corner.

1. 3. Select “Playlists“.

1. 4. Tap the floating button that says “New” in the bottom-right corner.

1. 5. Select “Playlist“.

1. 6. Name the playlist, add a description, set the Privacy to “Public”, and tap the “Create” button. The playlist will open once created.

1. 7. Tap the Edit button (the pencil symbol).

1. 8. Tap the “Collaborate” button.

1. 9. Switch on the “Collaborate” toggle, set if you want to allow new collaborators, and then tap the “Invite collaborators” button.

1. 10. Choose how you wish to share the invite link and rock on!

If a playlist you want to make collaborative already exists, find it in the Playlist section of your Library and then follow the same steps as outlined above by tapping the Edit button, selecting “Collaborate”, and sharing the invite link.

YouTube Collaborative Playlist Not Working: Causes and Fixes

The YouTube collaborative playlist feature is straightforward, and we didn’t catch many users struggling with it. But there were still some hiccups. In our experience, there are two main causes behind the issue of a YouTube collaborative playlist not showing.

• You are trying to make a Private YouTube playlist collaborative: The “Collaborate” option will not show up on YouTube playlists that are Private. You need to make them public if you want to turn them collaborative. You can still limit the people you invite from inviting people of their own if you want.
• The playlist owner has decided to no longer allow collaboration: The YouTube playlist owner has the right to switch the collaborative feature off, meaning you can lose access to the playlist that way. For that reason, you might want to consider making a backup while you have access.

How to Share a Collaborative YouTube Playlist

Sharing a collaborative YouTube playlist is different from sharing an invite link. The invite link allows you to contribute to the playlist, while the sharing link only allows others to see it. This applies both to YouTube and YouTube Music.

To share the collaborative playlist with other YouTUbe users, you just have to open the playlist, tap the Share button (the little curved arrow), and select how you wish to share your link. This can be through social media, messenger apps, email, or just by copying the sharing link.

Now, if you want to share your collaborative YouTube playlist with people on other streaming services, you will have to use a service like Tune My Music. This is how it’s done using our service, and note that sharing or transferring up to 500 tracks is free. These are the exact steps.

1. 1. Visit the Tune My Music Share page and hit the “Share Your Music” button.
2. 2. Select YouTube or YouTube Music as your source.

1. 3. Load the playlist from your account or use the playlist URL. If prompted, log in to your YouTube account and grant Tune My Music access to share the tracks as requested.

1. 4. Select the playlist you wish to share and click the “Share” button.

1. 5. Verify your selection and click the “Save & Share” button.
2. 6. You will receive a unique sharing link that works across all streaming services.

FAQs About YouTube Collaborative Playlists

How to delete a collaborative playlist on YouTube?

To delete a collaborative playlist on YouTube or YouTube music, simply open it, hit the three-dot symbol, and select “Delete playlist” from the menu.

Can I make a private collaborative YouTube playlist?

No, all collaborative YouTube playlists must be public, and the same goes for collaborative playlists on YouTube Music. You can limit the number of new contributors if you are the playlist owner, but that’s about it.

How to add songs to a collaborative playlist on YouTube?

To add a new song to your YouTube collaborative playlist, find the song on YouTube, open it, hit the three dots, go to Save, and then select your playlist.

Who can make a collaborative YouTube playlist?

Collaborative playlists on YouTube are available to all registered users, Free or Premium. Just note that availability of some tracks within the playlist might vary depending on your YouTube subscription status.

How to turn off collaborative playlist on YouTube?

If you are the owner of a collaborative YouTube playlist, you can switch off the Collaborative feature. Just open the playlist, hit the edit button with the pencil icon, and switch off the “Collaborate” toggle.

YouTube Collaborative Playlists: Summary

In summary, the fastest way to make a collaborative YouTube playlist is to open an existing playlist, hit the edit button, and allow collaboration. For a step-by-step guide, scroll back and see the exact steps for mobile and desktop devices, both for YouTube and YouTube Music.

Overall, collaborative playlists on YouTube are just as easy to navigate as Apple Music collaborative playlists. Check out our How To articles for more helpful content, and enjoy the music!