Spotify playlist QR code: give someone a playlist on an island

Which playlist link to use

A playlist QR code is an ordinary web link to the playlist, the same link you would send in a message. Each music app has a Share button that copies it:

A link copied on a phone can be a short one (Spotify’s start with spotify.link). It works the same way. Copy the link from the playlist itself rather than a song in it, unless one song is the gift: a single track’s link works too.

Use a playlist you made, or one you follow. If you build it for the occasion, give it a name they will recognise (“Maya’s 30th”, “Songs from the road”) and a cover picture, because that is the first thing they see when the code opens it.

The app’s icon, in the middle

When the link is on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube, the studio puts that app’s icon in the middle of the code, on a small square, the way a logo sits in a code. Nothing to upload: it appears as soon as you paste the link, on the island, in the free files and in the Island pack. A YouTube Music link gets YouTube’s icon. SoundCloud and Deezer links get theirs too.

• Your own logo wins. Add a picture of your own and it replaces the app’s icon.
• Remove takes it off for that code, and it stays off until you paste a link on another app.
• A code that wouldn’t scan with it leaves the icon off, and the line beside the code says so. A longer link makes a denser code with less room in the middle.

What the person who scans it hears

Anyone who scans the code can open your playlist link, and the music service decides who can play it. On a phone with the app installed the playlist usually opens in the app; on others it opens in the browser, where the service may ask them to sign in or offer its app. Each service decides what someone without an account or a subscription can play, so if you know they use a different app, make the playlist there.

The code opens the playlist as it is when they scan it, not a copy. That has two sides:

• You can keep adding songs after the card is printed, and every scan opens the latest version.
• Don’t delete the playlist or take it off your profile without checking it still opens from the link. A code to a playlist that has gone opens an error page.

Make it a gift card

Start the gift instead of a plain code and the studio asks for the few things a card needs: who it is for, the playlist link, a few words from you (up to 280 characters, emoji welcome) and an optional date. The card on screen changes as you type, with “For Maya” above the island and “Scan for our playlist” under it.

Making the card is free, and so is the card itself: your personalised gift card as a PNG at screen size, Compact or Portrait, with a small qrisland.com credit, next to the island picture (with a small QR Island credit) and the flat code. The Island pack (US$6.99 once) gives the same card clean and print-ready, with a poster, and no credit. More on what you get and how to print it: QR code gift cards.

Size and testing

A playlist link is short, so its code can print small: about 3 cm across is plenty on a card read in the hand. On the gift card the whole island is the code’s setting, and the code itself prints well over that. For a poster on a wall, aim for about a tenth of the distance people will stand from it.

Before you give it, scan the printed card with two phones: one with the music app and one without, or signed out. Check it opens the playlist, not a song or your profile, and that the name and cover are the ones you chose.

How to make it

1. Copy the playlist’s link from the app’s Share button.
2. Open the gift starter, choose “A playlist” and paste the link. The app’s icon appears in the code.
3. Add their name and a few words, and a date if you like.
4. Pick their island from the 25 worlds, and press “See what they see” to open the playlist exactly as a scan will.
5. Get your files: your personalised card, free, or the Island pack for it clean and print-ready, with a poster.
6. Print it at 100% and scan the printed card before you give it.