Rearranging songs on Spotify, whether in your queue or in a playlist you created, is a fine way to optimize and elevate your music-listening experience. Whether bumping a friend’s musical taste down the line or curating a pride-of-place playlist to perfection, we’ve got you covered.
To learn how to rearrange songs on Spotify, just follow our step-by-step tutorials below. For any additional information on the subject, or if you have any other questions, please direct your attention to our FAQs, located at the end of this article.
Table of Contents
How to rearrange songs in the ‘play queue’ on Spotify (desktop)
- Open up the Spotify desktop app and sign in to your account if prompted
- Create a play queue by finding some songs and clicking the three horizontal dots to the right, then selecting ‘Add to queue’
- Next, open the play queue by clicking the queue icon in the bottom-right (next to the volume slider)
- To rearrange the order of the queue, simply click and drag one track at a time, dropping them into their new place on the queue
How to rearrange songs on a playlist on Spotify (desktop)
- Open up the Spotify desktop app and sign in to your account if prompted
- Open the playlist you wish to rearrange songs on (remember, it has to be one you created)
- Then, just as you do when rearranging a song queue, simply click and drag each individual track, dropping them into place in your preferred order for your playlist
- That’s it! No need to save the changes or anything, changes will be saved automatically as you go.
- Note: Ensure that the playlist is displayed in ‘Custom order’ by first clicking the sort function drop-down menu located to the right at the top of the song list, and selecting ‘Custom order’
- Note: Ensure that the playlist is displayed in ‘Custom order’ by first clicking the sort function drop-down menu located to the right at the top of the song list, and selecting ‘Custom order’
How to rearrange songs in the ‘play queue’ on Spotify (mobile/tablet)
- Open the Spotify mobile/tablet app and sign in to your account if prompted
- Create a play queue by tapping and holding songs until the pop-up menu appears, and then selecting ‘Add to queue’
- Alternatively, you can tap the three vertical dots to the right of any song and then select ‘Add to queue’
- Alternatively, you can tap the three vertical dots to the right of any song and then select ‘Add to queue’
- Open the play queue by first tapping the mini-player version of the currently playing song at the bottom of the app, then tap the queue icon in the very bottom-right.
- To rearrange the queue order, tap and hold the three horizontal bars next to a song and drag it into its new position on the queue (the rest of the songs will shift accordingly)
How to rearrange songs on a playlist on Spotify (mobile/tablet)
- Open the Spotify mobile/tablet app and sign in to your account if prompted
- Tap ‘Your Library’ in the bottom-right and then tap ‘Playlists’ from the filter functions at the top of the Library page
- Locate the playlist you wish to rearrange and tap on it to open it
- Next, tap the three vertical dots beneath the playlist title, and from the pop-up menu select ‘Edit playlist’
- Now, just like you do with a play queue, tap and hold the three horizontal bars next to a song and drag it into its new position in the playlist (the rest of the songs will shift accordingly)
And that’s about it! It’s really quite straightforward once you’re used to it, and it will totally revolutionize your listening experience. (No more queue-hogging from friends, hurray!)
For any additional information, or if you still have questions, then please check out our FAQ section below.
Frequently asked questions
Why would I want to rearrange songs on Spotify?
If you’ve ever been streaming music through Spotify at a party, then you’ll know that some people can be music hogs! You’ve carefully chosen a great dance anthem and added it to the queue, only to find that queue’s three hours long because someone has decided that everyone needs to hear what they have to say.
In situations like this, or any other in which the play queue may be out of whack, knowing how to rearrange songs is crucial.
Similarly, when it comes to your playlists, knowing how to rearrange their song order is a great way of not only curating the experience of listening to that playlist, but also of keeping it tidy, and potentially attracting more followers to it.
To learn how to rearrange songs on Spotify, simply follow our step-by-step tutorials above
Can I rearrange any songs on Spotify?
You can rearrange the songs in the queue at any time, and you can rearrange the song order of your playlists (i.e. those which you personally created). However, you cannot alter anything (including song arrangement) on anything you did not create. This applies to albums on Spotify, as well as any playlists created by other users or the Spotify team.
However, say you wanted to listen to the Beatles’ record Revolver, but in a different order. What you could do would be to ‘queue’ the entire album, and then go into your queue and manually rearrange it (as we’ve shown you how to do above) so as to listen to it in the order you want to.
I want to rearrange one of my Spotify playlists song order, what’s the best way to do it?
Without doubt on a PC or laptop. Whilst you can rearrange your playlists of yours on Spotify for mobiles and tablets, the experience is just all that more laborious thanks to screen size and the lack of a mouse. The mechanics are far easier to use and much more straightforward on the desktop Spotify app, so if you can, we highly recommend you edit your playlists there, instead.
