Creating a playlist for a road trip or a party is a massive undertaking for one person. If your friend group uses YouTube Music, you do not need to manually manage the song selection yourself. You can easily create a collaborative playlist, allowing anyone with the specific link to add, remove, and reorder tracks in real-time from their own devices.
How to Create and Configure the Playlist
First, you must create a standard playlist and enable the collaboration settings. These steps apply to both the YouTube Music mobile app and the desktop web browser.
- Open YouTube Music and navigate to your Library tab.
- Tap the Playlists filter, then tap the + New playlist button.
- Give your playlist a descriptive name (e.g., “Summer Road Trip”).
- Under the “Privacy” dropdown, you must set the playlist to either Public or Unlisted. (If you set it to Private, the collaboration features will not work).
- Tap Create.
How to Invite Collaborators
Now that the playlist exists, you need to generate the special invitation link.
- Open your newly created playlist.
- Tap the pencil icon (Edit) near the top of the screen.
- Tap the Collaborate button located below the privacy settings.
- Toggle the switch labeled Collaborators can add songs and videos to the On position.
- A unique URL will instantly generate below the toggle. Tap the Share link button or manually copy the URL.
Paste this specific link into a group chat, email, or text message. When your friends tap this link, the YouTube Music app will open on their device, and they will see a prompt asking them to join the playlist.
Managing the Collaboration
Once a friend accepts the invite, they can search for any song on YouTube Music and tap “Add to playlist” just as they normally would. Their added songs will instantly sync to everyone’s devices.
To keep the playlist organized, YouTube Music will display the name and profile picture of the specific user who added each individual track next to the song title.
If someone shares the link with an untrusted party, or the playlist is finally complete, you can revoke access at any time. Simply return to the “Collaborate” menu and tap Deactivate link. This will instantly block all current collaborators from making any further changes, effectively locking the playlist.