Move from Apple Music to Serato DJ.
Nothing actually moves: Serato DJ Pro and Lite 3.3.0 or later play Apple Music as a live 256 kbps AAC stream, so the tracks stay Apple's and need a connection. Here is exactly what carries across, what gets lost, and how to bring your whole library over without starting from scratch.
$49$79USD one-time purchase. First 250 licenses at this price. 14-day free trial.
Bring your collection across without losing your work.
Signing in to Apple Music inside Serato is a login, not an import. The catalog and your Apple Music playlists appear in the app in minutes, and playlists you build there sync back to Apple, but no file lands on your drive: every track plays from Apple's servers, over your connection, for as long as the subscription is live. That one difference decides what you can and cannot do with those tracks in a set.
What transfers from Apple Music to Serato DJ.
| Capability | Carries | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Audio files | Nothing is downloaded. Playback needs an active internet connection and runs at 256 kbps AAC, so there is no file on your drive and no offline use. | |
| Playlists | Your Apple Music playlists appear in Serato, and playlists you create or edit in Serato show up back in your Apple Music account. Syncing runs both ways. | |
| Key & BPM | Key and BPM can show once Serato has analyzed a track, but the values stay inside Serato. There is no file of yours to write them into and nothing to hand to another app. | |
| Hot cues | Serato documents that cue points and loops saved on your local iTunes files do not carry over to the streaming copies of the same songs. Load the local track to get them back. | |
| Beatgrids | Same story: the grid you built belongs to your own file, and the streaming copy is a separate track in Serato. | |
| Star ratings | The streaming section is a browser onto Apple's catalog, so ratings you keep in Apple's apps do not arrive as DJ metadata you can sort on. | |
| Comments & tags | There is no file to write tags into, and streaming tracks cannot be added to crates or smart crates, so your own tagging system stops at the streaming section. |
Using Apple Music streaming inside Serato DJ Pro or Lite 3.3.0 or later. Streaming tracks stay streams: they are not files you own, so most of the DJ layer has nowhere to live. Music you bought or ripped in the Music app is a different move with a different table.
Moving from Apple Music to Serato DJ, step by step.
There is nothing to convert here. The whole job is a version check, a login, and knowing what you get afterwards.
Check your Serato version and your subscription
Apple Music streaming needs Serato DJ Pro or Serato DJ Lite 3.3.0 or later and an active Apple Music subscription. Update Serato first, then confirm the subscription is paid: Serato shows an expired-subscription notice when the Apple account has a payment problem. If you are not a subscriber yet, you should be offered a one-month trial during sign-in.
Turn on Apple Music in Library + Display
Open Setup, go to the Library + Display tab, and find Music Streaming. Enable Show Streaming Services if it is off, select Apple Music, then click Sign up / Login to Apple Music. Serato hands you to your default browser to sign in, and the browser asks to redirect you back to Serato: click Allow. The Music Streaming section then shows the account as logged in.
Build your playlists and set what shows
Click New Streaming Playlist and name it carefully, because later renames can only be done in an Apple Music app or the Apple Music web player. Drag tracks onto it the way you would fill a crate; edits sync both ways with your Apple Music account. Streaming tracks cannot be added to Serato crates or smart crates. In Library + Display, Show Featured Playlists toggles the Top Charts section and Only Show Clean Content keeps explicit tracks out.
Search the catalog, then test it before the gig
Click the Streaming Search button next to the search box to point the search at the streaming catalog instead of your own library, and click it again to go back. If your internet connection or the server connection fails, that button greys out. Load a few tracks in advance: a song the rights holder has removed stays in your playlist greyed out and returns an error when you load it to a deck.
Streaming tracks are not yours to keep. Serato documents that Apple Music streaming needs an active internet connection, that Stems are not available on Apple Music streaming tracks, and that you cannot record a set that uses them. Those tracks also cannot go into your crates or smart crates. For anything you rely on at a gig, own the file.
The cleaner path
One library, every app.
Vibes works on files you own, never on streams. For the part of your collection that lives on your drive, it imports the folders, or an Apple Music and iTunes Library.xml, analyzes BPM, key, energy, and track sections, and exports playlists, tags, ratings, and cue points straight into Serato DJ. That is exactly the layer a streaming library cannot give you. It does not import or play streaming tracks, and it is not a DJ app: you still play in Serato.
See the DJ LibraryOrganize once, export to Serato DJ.
Your playlists, tags, ratings, and cue points travel to the gear you play on, so nothing you do in Vibes is locked away.
Track 001
Artist A
Afterhours
Mysterious
Introspective
Track 002
Artist B
Cozy FloorPeaceful
Home
Track 003
Artist C
Rave
Aggressive
Festival
Build & Release
Frequently asked questions
The honest answers, including the trade-offs.
From a Vibes customer
The import worked perfectly. Have created several sets now and my life is so much easier
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Methodology
How we keep this honest.
Verified against the apps
What transfers is tested against the current versions of Apple Music and Serato DJ.
We own our bias
We make Vibes. We show the native process and its limits honestly, and we are upfront about what no tool can carry across.
Live pricing
The Vibes price shown comes straight from our checkout, never a hardcoded marketing number.
Kept current
Last reviewed June 2026.
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