How to Get Custom Songs on Spotify: The Complete Guide

Ever wanted to listen to that rare SoundCloud remix, a video game soundtrack rip, an unreleased leak, or your own self-produced music alongside your everyday Spotify playlists? While Spotify has a massive catalog, it doesn’t have everything.

Fortunately, Spotify has a built-in feature called Local Files that allows you to seamlessly integrate custom songs, tracks, and audio files right into your desktop and mobile library.

Here is everything you need to know to unlock custom songs on Spotify, step-by-step.

Important Clarification First

Before diving in, it is important to understand what this feature does and doesn’t do:

• What it does: It lets you play your own audio files through the Spotify app, organize them into custom playlists, and sync them to your phone so you can listen on the go.
• What it doesn’t do: It does not upload your custom songs to Spotify’s public servers. Only you can see and hear the custom tracks on your accounts (unless you share physical device syncing). If you want to officially publish your own music for the world to stream, you’ll need to go through a music distributor like DistroKid or TuneCore.

Step 1: Prepare and Format Your Custom Audio Files

Spotify can’t read every audio format under the sun. Before adding songs, ensure they meet these requirements:

• Supported Formats: Spotify officially supports .mp3, .mp4, and .m4p files. (Note: .mp4 files cannot contain video, and lossless formats like FLAC or WAV can sometimes be finicky unless converted to MP3 first).
• Clean Metadata: Use a free tag editor like Mp3tag to clean up your audio files. Make sure the Title, Artist, Album, and Album Artwork tags are properly filled out. This ensures your custom songs don’t show up as “Unknown Artist” with generic gray icons inside Spotify.
• Organize a Folder: Create a dedicated folder on your computer (