Turning spotify downloaded songs into playable files

"I have a full premium account on Spotify, so I can download songs for offline use. But when I'm adding the Spotify music to iMovie, it just remains no response. Why? Do you know how to add music to iMovie from Spotify. Thanks." - Fabrizio from Spotify community

In fact, many people have the same problem just like Fabrizio when trying to add Spotify songs to iMovie as background music (BGM). As for now, there's no official solution to this issue yet, as Spotify music is licensed for use only within the app. That's to say, although premium users can download Spotify songs, the music won't play properly on iMovie. Because it is incompatible with the Spotify app. Fortunately, with a simple trick here, you can still add music to iMovie from Spotify. The following post will show you how.

Part 1. iMovie and Spotify: Compatibility

As we know, iMovie is a free media editor developed by Apple and is in bundle with its Mac OSX and iOS. It provides advanced options for users to edit photos, videos and audios with enhanced effects. However, iMovie only supports a limited number of media formats, such as MP3, WAV, AAC, MP4, MOV, MPEG-2, DV, HDV, H, etc. You can read the following table to learn the detailed audio and video formats supported by iMovie.

Therefore, if the files are in different formats, you won't be able to add them into iMovie as expected. Unfortunately, that's the case with Spotify. To be specific, Spotify songs are encoded in OGG Vorbis format with DRM protection. Thus, Spotify music cannot play outside of the Spotify app even if the songs are downloaded.

If you want to import Spotify to iMovie, you can remove the DRM protection and convert Spotify OGG songs to iMovie compatible formats like MP3. All you need is a professional 3rd-party Spotify music converter.

Part 2. Tool You'll Need: TunesKit Spotify Music Converter

TunesKit Spotify Music Converter is such a useful tool. As an easy-to-use Spotify music downloader and converter, TunesKit can quickly download any Spotify song/playlist/album offline. Also, it will convert Spotify songs to MP3, AAC, WAV or M4A that are supported by iMovie. Moreover, it's able to keep the original metadata info and ID3 tags as well, such as artwork, artist, album, etc.

Key Features of TunesKit Spotify Music Converter

• Get rid of DRM protection from Spotify songs/albums/playlists
• Convert Spotify music to MP3, AAC, WAV, and more
• Download Spotify songs with lossless quality
• Work at 5× faster speed and preserve ID3 tags

Part 3. Tutorial: How to Add Spotify Music to iMovie as BGM

In this part, first you'll learn how to use TunesKit Spotify Converter to get rid of DRM restriction and convert Spotify tracks to MP3. Then, you can easily import the DRM-free Spotify songs to iMovie on Mac and iOS devices.

Remove DRM and Convert Spotify to MP3 with TunesKit

To add songs from Spotify to iMovie as background music, you need to convert the Spotify songs to MP3 with TunesKit Spotify Converter first. Here are the complete steps you should follow:

Step 1Add Spotify songs to TunesKit

Launch TunesKit Spotify Music Converter on your Mac or Windows, then wait till the Spotify app is completely loaded. Browse the Spotify store to find the songs you want to add into iMovie and then directly drag the URLs into TunesKit.

Step 2Choose output format

Move to the menu bar and select 'Preferences'. Then click 'Convert' panel and select the output format, channel, sample rate, bit rate and more. To make the Spotify songs editable with iMovie, you are highly suggested to set the output format as MP3.

Step 3Start the conversion

Click 'Convert' button to start removing DRM from Spotify tracks and converting the audios to MP3 or other iMovie supported formats. After conversion, click on 'history' icon to locate the DRM-free songs.

How to Add Music to iMovie on Mac

Now you get all these DRM-free Spotify songs in MP3 format and you're able to put them to iMovie as background music on your Mac easily. The following are quick steps:

Step 1: Add the converted Spotify songs to your iTunes library firstly. Then open iMovie on your Mac and click 'Audio' button above the browser.

Step 2: In the sidebar, select 'iTunes' to load the specific Spotify tracks you want and add them to iMovie.

Step 3: Browse to find the converted Spotify clip and add it to the project in iMovie. Now feel free to edit it with the BGM in iMovie as you like.

How to Add Music to iMovie on iPhone/iPad/iPod

Alternatively, if you want to use Spotify tracks on iMovie app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch device, you can follow the quick steps below to do it.

Step 1. Open iTunes on your computer and click the "File" > "Add File to Library" (or "Add Folder to Library") to import DRM-free Spotify songs to your iTunes.

Step 2. Open iMovie app on your iDevice. Tap the "Add Media" button to import the Spotify songs you want to add, and tap "Audio" option.

Step 3. Tap "My Music" to find the songs that have been synced to your device from the computer in advance. Tap the item and then tap the "Add Audio" button to add the songs to your iMovie.

WATCH: How to Add Spotify Music to iMovie

Next, you're freely to watch the short video guide below to get more details about how to import music to iMovie from Spotify.

The Bottom Line

In the content above, we've shown you how to add Spotify music to iMovie with the help of TunesKit Spotify Music Converter. You can get free download of this app from the following link and install it on your computer to have a try. Any problem, please feel free to contact us or leave your voice below. Hope your enjoy your editing in iMovie with songs from Spotify.

Adam Gorden is an experienced writer of TunesKit who is obsessed about tech, movie and software.