How can I download Apple Music to a USB from my Mac?

Are you talking about purchased music? Or offline listening copies of Apple Music subscription music?

Offline listening copies of Apple Music subscription songs have DRM on them, so you can't play them on non-Apple devices. You could load those copies onto your iPhone, take your iPhone with you in the car, and play the music on the iPhone through your car's speakers. But you couldn't load them onto a USB flash drive or burn them to CD in any form that a car stereo would be able to recognize and play.

With purchased music, you can drag songs out of the iTunes or Music window and drop them onto the Desktop (or into a folder) to make copies for e.g., playing directly on a car stereo.

Sweet Willi Said:

"How can I download Apple Music to a USB from my Mac?"

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Using Finder To Backup Music to a Mac:

First Get the Music Library:

1. Click: the Desktop

2. Click: Go menu

3. Click: Go to Folder...

4. Enter this code

/Users/[UserName]/Music/Music

(replace "[UserName]" with your user name on your Mac)

5. Press: return button

Then,

Drag & Drop: the Library over to the USB flash drive.

Sweet Willi Said:

"Download Music to USB: How do I download Apple music / playlists from my MAC to a USB? Need to make music portable so I can play it on laptop and elsewhere."

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Backing Up Music Library:

You'd have to download it all, and then export it to the the External Drive. Being in relevance, see my User Tip: Moving the Music Library to a New Apple ID on Pre- Ventura - Apple Community

Sweet Willi Said:

“Thank you, I will try this. :)”

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You are welcome. Any success? I am eager to know.

You may need to have quite a few GBs on a USB Flash Drive, and TBs of storage on a USB Flash Drive are still in scope. 20 years ago a 1.5 GB flash drive went for $150USD. Nowadays, it’s the same for a 1.5TB flash drive.

For that matter, it appears that there is an Apple Music app for Android smartphones and tablets.

Google Play Store – Apple Music

The Apple Music page mentions CarPlay. There, I think you would be keeping the music on your iPhone – but controlling it through a user interface provided by your car's entertainment system.

Apple Music - Apple

Sweet Willi wrote:

Sounds like I will not be able to move the majority of music to a PC or or a non-Apple portable device.

thank you for taking time to respond and explain.

There's an Apple Music application that will let you access an Apple Music subscription on a PC running Windows.

Microsoft App Store – Apple Music