You have spent hours curating the perfect vibe for your store on Spotify. But as you likely know, playing that personal account in a commercial space is a violation of copyright law. The good news is that you don’t have to start your music curation from scratch.
Many modern business music services now offer a “Spotify Import” feature. This tool allows you to legally transfer your existing playlists into a commercially licensed environment. However, not all import tools work the same way.
If you are looking for the full breakdown on why you can’t use your personal account, check out our guide on Spotify for Business. If you are ready to move those playlists to a legal music for business platform, here is how the technology works and which services offer the best results.
How the Spotify Import Feature Actually Works
When you hit the “Import” button on a B2B music service, the system does not actually play your Spotify files. It cannot do that because it does not have the legal rights to stream from Spotify’s consumer servers.
Instead, the service acts like a translator. It scans your Spotify playlist and reads the data for every song, specifically looking for the ISRC Code (International Standard Recording Code). Think of this as the song’s “social security number.”
The business music service then takes that list of codes and searches its own commercially licensed library. If it finds a match, it adds its own legal version of the song to your new business playlist. This process creates a “digital twin” of your original playlist that is fully licensed for public performance.
Make an informed choice! Compare music providers for your business on our Compare Page—free and simple.
The Match Rate Reality: Why Some Songs Disappear
This is the most critical detail that most business owners miss. The success of your import depends entirely on the size of the music library of the music for business provider.
If you import a playlist into a service with a small catalog, you might lose 50% of your songs. They simply won’t “match” because the service doesn’t have the commercial rights to them.
Here is how a few of the top providers compare when importing Spotify playlists. Please note that licensing agreements change frequently, so the match rates below are estimates based on current catalog sizes.
- Soundtrack Your Brand: This is widely considered the best option for “music heads.” They boast a catalog of 100 million songs, which is effectively identical to Spotify’s size. This results in a near-perfect match rate, meaning your indie hits and deep cuts will likely transfer over without issue.
- Rockbot: Rockbot is a fantastic service, but its catalog is smaller, sitting around 16 million songs. If your playlist is mostly “Top 40” hits, it will transfer fine. But if you have obscure tracks, you will likely see many songs fail to import or get “grayed out” due to licensing restrictions.
- SoundMachine: This service offers a direct integration to “import your Spotify playlists” and lists a catalog of “millions of songs.” While robust, it may not match the sheer volume of Soundtrack Your Brand, but it offers a solid middle ground for transferring curated content.
- Pandora CloudCover: CloudCover allows you to “bring your own playlist” from Spotify. However, their catalog is historically focused on “radio-style” stations. While they have millions of tracks, the sync is often less precise than a track-by-track mirror, sometimes relying on creating a station based on your playlist rather than an exact copy.
Reminder: Not all business music providers have a Spotify import feature. Be sure to check our free comparison tool to find providers who support this feature.
After Your Spotify Import: The "Expansion" Feature
Even with a good match rate, you might run into another problem: Listener Fatigue.
A standard 50-song Spotify playlist is only about 3 hours long. In a 10-hour retail shift, your staff would hear the same loop three times a day. To solve this, many providers use a “Playlist Expansion” feature.
Instead of playing your list exactly as is, they treat your Spotify songs as “Seeds.” They analyze the “DNA” of your tracks (Genre, BPM, Mood) and use that data to build an infinite radio station that sounds like your playlist but never repeats.
Here is how the different services handle this:
- Soundtrack Your Brand (The Hybrid): They give you the choice. You can import as an exact playlist (only plays what matched) OR you can choose “Create Station” to use your songs as seeds for an endless stream.
- Pandora CloudCover (The Station Builder): These platforms are “Radio-First.” When you import content, they often default to building a Station around your seeds rather than just playing a static list. This is great for “set it and forget it” business owners who want to avoid silence.
- Rockbot (The Manual Builder): Rockbot is stricter. It typically does not auto-expand your playlist without permission. Instead, if your imported playlist is too short (under 50 songs), it provides “Suggestions” in the dashboard—songs that match your vibe—and asks you to manually add them to reach the required minimum.
Compare music providers for your business on our Compare Page—free and simple.
Static vs. Dynamic: Will Your Imported Playlist Update Automatically?
Once you transfer your playlist, how do you keep it updated? This depends on whether the business music service offers a “Static” or “Dynamic” sync option to Spotify.
The Static Import (One-Way Street)
Most services, including Rockbot and SoundMachine, use a one-time import. You grab your Spotify playlist, and it copies the songs over. If you add ten new songs to your Spotify account next week, they will not appear in your business playlist automatically. You would need to manually re-sync or add them again.
The Continuous Sync (Dynamic)
Soundtrack Your Brand is unique here. They offer a more active sync that checks your Spotify playlist for changes. If you update the original playlist on your phone, the changes can reflect in your business mix, keeping your custom curation alive without double the work.
Step-by-Step: How to Import Your Playlists from Spotify
Ready to transfer? The process is generally similar across platforms.
- Set to Public: Ensure your Spotify playlist is set to “Public.” Private playlists often cannot be read by third-party import tools.
- Check Minimums: Some services require a playlist to have a minimum number of songs (often 50+) to ensure it doesn’t repeat too often, which can be annoying for staff.
- Authenticate: You will need to log in to your Spotify account through the B2B service’s dashboard to grant them read-only access to your library.
If you have a large footprint, you can easily manage these imported playlists across multiple business locations from a single dashboard.
Why Your Personal Phone Is Not a Business Music Solution
It is tempting to just hook up a phone and use Spotify, but the risks are real. Beyond the legal fines, consumer music apps don’t offer the features a business needs, like scheduling dayparts or removing explicit lyrics automatically.
To see which audio hardware fits your setup, read our guide on streaming music for business playback.
Frequently Asked Questions About Spotify Import
Q: Can I play my Spotify playlist in my business if I have a Premium account?
A: No. A Spotify Premium account is for personal, non-commercial use only. Playing it in a public business space violates copyright law and can lead to fines. You must use a licensed B2B music provider. For more on the specific legal terms regarding personal vs. commercial use, you can review Spotify’s Terms and Conditions of Use.
Q: Will my imported playlist update automatically if I change it on Spotify?
A: It depends on the service. Soundtrack Your Brand offers a dynamic sync that updates with your Spotify playlist. Most other services, like Rockbot and SoundMachine, perform a one-time copy that must be manually updated.