Where did my playlist go in my library, everything is gone? How do I recover my music?

If you stop your subscription, Apple will punish you and delete all your playlists. This is the only reason I will never buy Apple music again and just stick with Spotify, they do not pull this petty act on their loving customers which always return back to them.

jamm8 wrote:

Much of my rented apple music library turned out to be not available to buy on iTunes. It can only be rented with an Apple Music subscription. Renting, as I pointed out, is ridiculously expensive. If I pay 11 dollars a month for a year shouldn’t I own something? I want to own something.

$11 for unlimited music is expensive? Just buying ONE album will cost that much.

Not keep endlessly having to come up with more and more money. With the way digital music is going, I would rather go to a store, buy a CD, and have a way to put it on a phone to play it.

That’s exactly what I do. I just bought Jordi Savall’s masterfully recorded set of Beethoven’s 9 symphonies performed by Le Concert Des Nations. 6 CDs, about $70. iTunes had symphonies 1 to 5, but was missing the 2nd half of the set, so I bought the CDs from Amazon, imported them into the Apple Music App, and synced them to my iPhone, my iPad, and 3 iPod Classics I keep for old times’ sake.

I don’t subscribe to Apple music; I buy the music I want from either Apple, or CDs from ArchivMusic or Amazon.

I DO subscribe to Idagio.

jamm8 wrote:

Renting music is a ridiculous option.

The choice is yours. The Apple Music streaming service is no different than Pandora or Spotify. You only get access to the songs while you have a subscription. The obvious benefit is that you can listen to any of the 100 million songs at any time. It is far more economical for many users who would rather have access to this vast library, then purchase the songs individually.

Of course if you are only interested in listening to the same songs on a playlist, you should not be using a subscription service and purchasing the songs is the way to go. The songs you find in the iTunes Store are provided by the owners on the songs and they are the ones that choose where they want to sell their music. Apple is not purchasing the music for the iTunes Store and the songs you see there are provided by the owners of the songs, not Apple.

If you are having trouble transferring your CD's to the iTunes Library, then review this Support Article.

Import songs from CDs into Music on Mac - Apple Support

For assistance in redownloading the songs you have already purchased, review this Support Article.

Redownload music - Apple Support

The one thing you cannot expect from Apple Music or any other streaming service is to be able to download as many songs as you can while you have the subscription and continue to listen to them if you cancel.

You are correct, Apple deletes the playlists that were created and any downloaded music when the subscription has ended. I guess my music taste changes frequently as I am always creating new playlists and creating one does not seem like a big deal to me. It would seem worse to keep a playlist of songs that you will not be able to listen to since you no longer have a subscription. Maybe providing a 30 day grace period to reinstate the playlist would make everyone happy, but I would not expect that they would hold on to them forever.

Feedback - Apple Music - Apple

This. The only way to keep/preserve songs &/or albums that you always listen to, is to buy songs &/or albums directly from the iTunes app, then download them onto your phone through Apple Music. You can also create playlists for the songs you bought.

No one owns the songs &/or albums just because people have subscribed through Apple Music.

Renting music is a ridiculous option. Not only do they erase your library—I just tried to switch payment types and they erased it. So I said NO! NEVER AGAIN! The whole rent thing is crazy. Many people cannot afford it. They are charging us hundreds to thousands of dollars to buy music we have to keep paying over and over to listen to without end to the payments. Then if we don’t keep paying they take the music back. You basically could have spent a thousand dollars for a playlist that is now unplayable and no longer even exists. That U2 or Police album you just spent 500 dollars on is back on the sale shelf at the record store. This rent set up is basically like going to a record store in 1970s buying a ten dollar record album, but you have to pay every month for it over and over without end. After paying a 120 dollars or more a year you don’t own the music and they come to your house and take away your Rush and Police record albums. In 1970’s 80’s 90’s 2000 this repossession of music you paid hundreds of dollars for would have been seen as crazy. It would have been crazy then, and it is crazy now just the same. How many hundreds or thousands of dollars should we pay for an album and then not have access to it? Also Apple has begun to not sell stuff instead they force us to rent. I found a bunch of music I can only rent not buy. So I bought a CD and it is so far impossible to get it on my iTunes library playlist. An iTunes playlist filled with purchased music can also mysteriously disappear. They don’t know where it went. They are beginning to do a sloppy job with the purchased music so they can make us all rent. For sure renting is horrible for consumers. We have to say a collective NO! Sell it to us or forget it.

When the Apple Music subscription is ended, either by lack of payment or cancelling the service, any music downloaded from the service or playlists created are deleted. There is no grace period to keep the music after it is cancelled.

jamm8 wrote:

Also Apple has begun to not sell stuff instead they force us to rent.

Apple isn't forcing you to do anything. You can still buy music from the iTunes Store if you prefer not to subscribe to Apple Music.

The main difference here between these streaming subscription services is that Apple deletes your built playlists once you stop or pause payment, whereas Spotify allows you to keep and maintain your built playlists regardless of payment or subscription status.

Therein lies the frustration.

Much of my rented apple music library turned out to be not available to buy on iTunes. It can only be rented with an Apple Music subscription. Renting, as I pointed out, is ridiculously expensive. If I pay 11 dollars a month for a year shouldn’t I own something? I want to own something. Not keep endlessly having to come up with more and more money. With the way digital music is going, I would rather go to a store, buy a CD, and have a way to put it on a phone to play it. In the 70’s-80’s if the record store guy came to your house and took back your Blue Oyster Cult record because you had stopped paying every month you would have had a mob problem- Hey that is a nice record collection ya got there too bad if somethin would a happen to it.

jamm8 wrote:

Much of my rented apple music library turned out to be not available to buy on iTunes. It can only be rented with an Apple Music subscription. Renting, as I pointed out, is ridiculously expensive. If I pay 11 dollars a month for a year shouldn’t I own something? I want to own something. Not keep endlessly having to come up with more and more money.

You're certainly entitled to want what you want. But that doesn't mean anyone has to give it to you. You'll need to take this up with the rights holders who have chosen only to offer their content through subscription, not for purchase.

With the way digital music is going, I would rather go to a store, buy a CD, and have a way to put it on a phone to play it.

That is certainly an option. If it works better for you, you should do that.

Have you already tried to reinstall the app?