How to Play Spotify Music on Your Apple Watch

"Does anyone know how to listen to Spotify on Apple Watch? I'd love to make my Spotify experience completely portable. So, is there any method to play Spotify on Apple Watch? Or ever offline without brining my iPhone?" - Jessica from the Spotify community

Early in 2018, Spotify officially released its dedicated app for Apple Watch, offering the ability to use Spotify on Apple Watch. But users still have to play Spotify on Apple Watch through iPhone. Back in November 2020, Spotify announced a new update that you can control Spotify on Apple Watch without your phone. Thus, all users can now listen to Spotify on Apple Watch without carrying their phones. Today, here we'll show you how to play Spotify on Apple Watch step by step.

Part 1. Get Spotify on Your Apple Watch - How to Set Up

Spotify app is not available on the Apple Watch from the App Store or Apple Watch app, so you can access your Spotify library easily and play from your wrist to enjoy Spotify's music, podcasts and even audiobooks (yes, Spotify now has audiobooks). However, whether the Spotify app will work as expected is based on your subscription plan.

On Spotify Premium: Lisen to Spotify Online and Offline Directly

With Spotify on Apple Watch, you can listen directly from your Watch both online and offline with your Premium subscription. For online streaming, you need to ensure the Spotify app is on your Watch or phone to play from. For offline listening, you can download at least 10 hours of music and podcasts depending on your Apple Watch model to the Watch, so that you can listen without the internet.

On Spotify Free: Listen to Spotify with Spotify Connect

If you use Spotify for free, you can only control your phone's Spotify app from your Watch and won't be able to listen to Spotify directly. You must control of your phone's Spotify from your Watch, which means when you must keep the Spotify app running on the iPhone.

On Spotify Premium & Free: Listen to Spotify as Local Files

Once the Spotify app is on your Watch, you can also control what plays on another device with Spotify Connect, since your Watch is compatible with Spotify Connect. Spotify Connect allows you to use one device (ex: the Apple Watch) to remotely control listening on another (ex: a tablet, phone or computer).

There're also alternative ways for both Premium and Free users to play Spotify on Apple Watch as local files, even you don't have the Spotify app. You just need to sync the downloaded tracks to the Music app on your Watch with Bluetooth connection.

Now let's start to set up the Spotify app on your Watch.

Get Spotify on Apple Watch

To play Spotify on the Apple Watch, for starters you should ensure that Spotify shows on your Watch. For that, you can either install the Spotify app from the Watch app to connect with your phone, or from the App Store on your Apple Watch to connect directly with your Watch.

To install the Spotify app from the Watch app on your phone:

Step 1. On your iPhone, open the Watch app. If you haven't pair your phone with your Watch, you'll be prompted to start your pairing.

Step 2. Once paired, head to the Watch app > My Watch > Available Apps and scroll to the Spotify app.

Step 3. Tap the Spotify app to install it to your watch.

To install the Spotify app from the App Store on your Watch:

Step 1. Press the Digital Crown to see the Home screen, then tap the App Store.

Step 2. Tap Search to find the Spotify app.

Step 3. Tap the Spotify app > Get.

Step 4. When prompted, double-click the side button under the Digital Crown to download and install the Spotify app.

Control Spotify Playback with Spotify Connect

With Spotify Connect, you can control the Spotify playback on another device from your Watch. You just need to enable the Spotify Connect on both the devices.

To use Spotify Connect on your Watch:

Step 1. Open the Spotify app on your Watch and play something. At this time you should have signed in to Spotify with your account.

Step 2. Press the Connect Device button at the bottom of the screen.

Step 3. Pick the device you want to play on, such as your phone, speaker, tablet or computer.

Now go head to see how you can control the playback with the phone on your Watch if you are on Spotify Free. If you have Premium subscription, head to Part 3 to see how to play Spotify on your Watch directly.

Part 2. Play Spotify with Your Phone on Apple Watch - Free Users

In Part 1, we've introduced how you can use your watch to control the Spotify playback on another device. If you listen to Spotify for free, you have to use your phone instead to listen to Spotify on your Watch.

Listen to Spotify on Apple Watch with Spotify Connect

To use Spotify Connect, ensure the Spotify app is available and up-to-date on both your phone and Watch.

To use Spotify Connect on your phone:

Step 1. Power your iPhone on and open the Spotify app from the home screen.

Step 2. Head to your library to stream the music or podcasts you wish to listen to on your Watch.

Step 3. Tap the Now playing bar at the bottom.

Step 4. Tap on the Connect Device icon at the bottom.

Step 5. Under the Current device, find and select your Watch. You'll see that the Spotify app is launched on your Watch, then you can now listen to Spotify with the paired Bluetooth headphones to your Watch. You also have the ability to control the playback on your wrist.

Connect not working?

If you find that Spotify Connect won't work to play Spotify on your Watch, you can try to fix it by doing the following on both your devices:

Restart the Spotify app.

Restart your iPhone, Apple Watch.

Make sure your Spotify app is up-to-date. To update the Spotify app, open the App Store on your iPhone > Search for "Spotify" > Update (if available).

Make sure both the devices' software is up-to-date. For Apple Watch, open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone > My Watch > General > Software Update > Download and Install (if available). For iPhone, open the Settings app on your iPhone > General > Software Update > Download and Install (if available).

Try connecting devices to the same WiFi.

Restart your WiFi or try a different WiFi network.

Part 3. Play/Download Spotify from Your Apple Watch/Phone - Premium Users

Streaming for Spotify Apple Music app is arriving, and now you don't have to listen to Spotify music on Apple Watch with your iPhone. If you are a Spotify Premium user and have an Apple Watch Series 3 or later with watchOS 7.0, you can stream Spotify music and podcasts directly from your wrist over Wi-Fi or cellular connection. Now let's see how to do stream Spotify directly from your Apple Watch and even use Siri to control the playback.

Listen to Spotify on Apple Watch Directly

With a Premium subscription, you can listen directly from your watch. So, if you don't know how to stream your liked songs from Spotify on your wrist, then follow the below steps to get it done.

Step 1. Power your Apple Watch on and then launch Spotify on your watch if you've it installed.

Step 2. Tap Your Library and browse a playlist or an album you want to listen to on your watch.

Step 3. Press the Device menu at the bottom right corner of the music player screen.

Step 4. If your watch is streaming feature supported, you'll see your Apple Watch at the top of the list (there is a 'Beta' tag in front of the watch name), then select it.

Download Spotify Tracks on Apple Watch

Furthermore, all Premium subscribers are allowed to listen to Spotify on Apple Watch offline even without iPhone. You can download music and podcases to your Watch so you can listen without the internet. But as stated there's a limit of 100 downloads per playlist, and the download hours are depending on the Apple Watch model.

Songs, Playlists & Podcasts:

You can't download individual songs. If you wish to download a selection of songs, you must put them in a playlist and download the playlist. Then you can choose to download your favorite playlists on your Watch directly or from the Watch app. For podcasts, you have to download them to your Watch from the iPhone.

To download playlists to your Apple Watch from the Watch app:

Step 1. Swipe right to access the home screen.

Step 2. Find a playlist you'd like to download, and tap the Download button (arrow down icon).

To download playlists/podcasts on your Apple Watch:

Step 1. Go to a playlist or podcast you'd like to download.

Step 2. Tap the More button (horizontal 3 dots icon).

Step 3. Tap Download to Apple Watch.

Step 4. To speed things up, you'll want to keep the Spotify app open on the Watch, and download via Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth. To turn off Bluetooth, open the Settings app on your iPhone > Bluetooth and turn it off. To turn on WiFi, open the Settings app on your iPhone > WiFi and select the same Wi-Fi you use on your Watch.

To find downloaded tracks on your Apple Watch:

Step 1. Swipe right to access the home screen.

Step 2. Tap the Downloads folder, which contains all the downloaded tracks.

Download not working?

You may try the steps in Part to install or redownload the Spotify app to your Apple Watch. If the download still won't work, you can try to pick a Spotify to Apple Watch downloader to play Spotify as local music files on your Watch. Go ahead.

Part 4. Play Spotify Offline from Your Apple Watch without Phone - Free & Premium Users

With this Spotify Apple Watch app, you can now easily control Spotify tunes with your wrist. You can play or stop any music and podcast with better experience, as well as, skip tracks or rewind a podcast by 15 seconds to catch something you missed. However, confirmed by Spotify, playing Spotify on Apple Watch without phone offline is only available for Premium subscribers.

If you are a Free user, you can't listen to Spotify songs on Apple Watch offline. You still get means to sync Spotify playlists to Apple Watch even without an iPhone nearby. How to do it? All you'll need is a smart third-party tool like Spotify music downloader.

As you should know, Apple Watch allows you to add local music directly to the device with maximum music storage of 2GB. That's the key point which you can take advantage of. In other words, if you can find a way to download Spotify songs offline, and save them to Apple Watch compatible format like MP3, you'll be able to listen to Spotify playlists offline while leaving the iPhone at home.

Currently, Spotify tracks are encoded in DRM-ed OGG Vorbis format incompatible with watchOS. To solve the problem, you'll need ViWizard Spotify Music Converter, an excellent Spotify music downloader. It can not only download songs from Spotify, but also convert Spotify to MP3 or other common formats. With this solution, even if you are using a Free Spotify account, you can easily download Spotify songs to Apple Watch for offline listening without iPhone.

Download Spotify as Local Files with ViWizard

Follow the three simple steps to download your favorite tunes from Spotify for listening to on Apple Watch offline by using ViWizard Spotify Music Converter.

Step 1Drag Spotify songs or playlists to ViWizard

Open ViWizard Music Converter for Spotify and the Spotify app is loaded automatically. Then log in Spotify account and browse the store to find the songs or playlists you want to download to Apple Watch. Simply drag the tracks from Spotify to ViWizard. You can also copy and paste the URL of the songs to the search box in ViWizard.

Step 2Customize output songs

Click the top menu → Preferences. There you will be allowed to set the output audio format, bit rate, sample rate, etc. according to your own needs. In order to make the songs playable by Apple Watch, you are suggested to choose the MP3 as output format. For a stable conversion, you'd better check the 1× conversion speed option.

Step 3Start downloading Spotify music

When finish customizing, simply click Convert button to start extracting and downloading the Spotify songs as MP3. Once converted, you can click Converted icon to browse the downloaded DRM-free Spotify tracks. Otherwise, you could locate the folder for saving Spotify music files by clicking Search icon.

Sync Spotify to Apple Watch as Local Files

Now all Spotify songs are converted and unprotected. You can then sync the converted songs to Apple Watch via iPhone, and listen to Spotify on Apple Watch offline without carrying your iPhone together.

To sync DRM-free Spotify songs to your Watch:

Step 1. Make sure the Bluetooth on your iPhone is on. If not, go to the Settings > Bluetooth to turn it on.

Step 2. Then launch the Apple Watch app on your iPhone. And tap My Watch section.

Step 3. Tap on Music > Add Music..., and choose the Spotify songs to sync.

To play Spotify music files on your Watch without iPhone:

Step 1. Open your Apple Watch device and then launch the Music app.

Step 2. Tap the watch ion and set it as the music source. Then tap the Playlists.

Step 3. Select the playlist on My Apple Watch and start playing the Spotify music.

Part 5. FAQs about Spotify Features on Apple Watch

In regard of using Spotify on Apple Watch, you'd have a lot of questions. And here we've collected several frequently asked questions, and also try to give answers to the following questions. Let's check out now.

#1. How to download Spotify music to Apple Watch?

A: If you are using a Premium account on Spotify, then you can download Spotify music to Apple Watch for listening when you don’t have a cellular or WiFi connection.

#2. Can you play Spotify music on Apple Watch offline?

A: Sure, you can listen to Spotify offline with a Premium Spotify account. Besides, with the help of ViWizard Spotify Music Converter, you can store Spotify songs on Apple Watch, then you can start the offline playback of Spotify on Apple Watch.

#3. How to add songs to your Spotify library on the watch?

A: With Spotify for Apple Watch, you can not only control the Spotify experience from your wrist but also add your favorite songs to your library straight from the Apple Watch screen. Simply tap the heart icon on the screen, and the track will be added to your music library.

Extra Tip: Fix Spotify Won't Work on Your Apple Watch

If you cannot get Spotify to work well on your Apple Watch, just check your Internet connection and make sure that your watch can access a good network. If it still fails to make Spotify work on your Apple Watch, then try these methods to fix the issue.

1. Force to quit and restart Spotify on your Apple Watch.

2. Reboot your Apple Watch and then restart Spotify.

3. Update Spotify and watchOS to the latest version available.

4. Uninstall and reinstall Spotify on your Apple Watch.

5. Reset networking settings on your iPhone and Apple Watch.

Conclusion

One major supported feature of Apple Watch is its ability to download Spotify music for listening offline. And with the help of ViWizard Spotify Music Converter, you can also save Spotify songs to Apple Watch easily even without a Premium account. Then you can play Spotify on Apple Watch with AirPods offline when you're out for a jog without iPhone. It's easy to operate and the output quality is quite good. No matter you're a Free or Premium user, you can use it to download Spotify songs for keeping forever. Why not download it and have a shot?