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Intro to playlists in Music on Mac
A playlist is a custom compilation of songs and music videos. You might want to create a playlist to do the following:
Suit a specific mood or occasion. For example, you could create a playlist for a dinner party, a wedding or your morning workout.
Select certain songs to share with others on your local network or to sync with your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Burn a CD of songs.
Organize your music library.
There are four kinds of playlists; you create the first kind yourself by dragging items to them and Music creates the others for you.
Smart Playlists: You specify criteria for Music to apply and Music creates a Smart Playlist that updates automatically as your library changes.
Genius Shuffle: Music chooses a song, then plays songs that go great with it.
Genius Playlists: You select a song in your library and Music creates a Genius Playlist of similar music in your library.
![The Music sidebar showing the various types of playlists: Favourite Songs, Genius, Smart and playlists. Click All Playlists to view all of them.](https://help.apple.com/assets/65A1EC54C6387041B504B41B/65A1EC558C4441D03A098A52/en_GB/38fd0d7e819ff6edd402212212b6abc2.png)
Changes you make to your music library (creating playlists, for example) are updated across all your devices when Sync Library is turned on in General settings. If you’re not an Apple Music subscriber, the changes appear in your library the next time you sync your device with Music on your computer.
Note: Apple Music isn’t available in all countries or regions. See the Apple Support article Availability of Apple Media Services.
When you join Apple Music, there are a few other types of playlists available:
A Favourite Songs playlist: See Mark items as favourites.
Playlists created by any Apple Music contributor: See Add music to your library.
Playlists created by other subscribers that you follow: See See what friends are listening to.
Special playlists (like Replay): See the Apple Support article How to get your Apple Music Replay.
Collaborative playlists: See Collaborate on a playlist and Join a collaborative playlist.