How to Make a QR Code for a Song
Three steps, no account, no cost. Works with Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal and Deezer, and the same method turns a playlist into one scannable code.
Jump to the stepsHow do you make a QR code for a song?
Copy the song's share link from your music service, paste it into any free QR code generator, and download the image. That is the whole process and it takes about a minute. The code is static, so it never expires, and anyone can scan it with a normal phone camera to open the song. You do not need an account, a subscription or a paid generator.
People make these for wedding favours and party invitations, for a playlist on the back of a business card, for a mixtape given as a present, and most often for a music guessing game where each card holds one song. The steps below are the same whichever of those you are doing. The section after them covers what a plain QR code cannot do, because for a guessing game that part matters more than the making.
Making the code, step by step
Everything here is free and works on a phone or a laptop.
1. Copy the song's share link
Open the track in your music app, find the share option, and copy the link. It is behind the three dots menu on every major service. You want the link to the song itself, not a screenshot and not the search result URL from a browser.
2. Paste it into a QR code generator
Any free generator will do. Choose a static or plain URL code rather than a dynamic one: static codes are free forever and hold the link inside the pattern, while dynamic codes route through someone else's server and usually stop working when the free trial ends.
3. Download it at print quality
Download as SVG or PNG at 300 dpi or higher. SVG is better if you are putting it into a design tool, because it stays sharp at any size. Keep the code dark on a light background and leave a clear margin around all four edges, or scanners struggle.
4. Test it before you print a hundred
Scan the finished code with a real phone, ideally one that is not yours, and check that the right song opens. Printing the whole sheet first and discovering that half the codes are too small or too low contrast is the mistake almost everybody makes once.
Where the share link lives on each service
Same idea everywhere, only the wording of the menu changes.
Spotify
Tap the three dots next to the track, choose Share, then Copy Song Link. Spotify also shows its own Spotify Code, the small scannable bar under the cover art, but that only works inside the Spotify app, so a normal QR code is the more portable choice.
Apple Music
Tap the three dots, choose Share Song, then Copy Link. The link opens in Apple Music for anyone who has it, and falls back to a web preview for anyone who does not.
YouTube Music
Tap Share under the track and copy the link. These links open in the YouTube Music app when it is installed, and in a browser otherwise, which makes them the most widely playable option if your guests are on mixed services.
Tidal
Tap the three dots on the track, choose Share, then copy the link. Tidal share links behave like the others once they are in a QR code.
Deezer
Tap the three dots, choose Share, then Copy link. Deezer links also resolve in a browser for people without the app.
What a plain QR code will not do
None of this is a reason to skip the DIY route. It is what to expect before you build a deck out of it.
It shows the answer before you hear it
The link carries the song title, so the phone previews it on scan and the music app displays it on open. For sharing a track that is helpful. For a guessing game it ends the round before it starts, and there is no setting that hides it.
It goes through the browser first
A camera scan opens a web page, which then tries to hand off to a music app. On some phones that hand-off fails, on others it opens the wrong service, and it always adds a few seconds. That is tolerable once and irritating eighty times in an evening.
There is nothing on the back
A timeline game needs the release year, and the year the streaming service reports is often the year of the remaster rather than the original. Looking each one up by hand is the slowest part of building a deck, and getting it wrong is what quietly breaks the game.
It does not scale to a full deck
One code takes a minute. A hundred takes an evening, before you lay out the cards, print double sided and cut them. That is fine as a project and a lot to take on the week of a party.
If you want a whole deck rather than one code
The same starting point, a playlist link, but the tedious parts are done for you.
Every song, in one go
Paste a playlist link from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal or Deezer and QRSong! makes a card for each track instead of you making them one at a time.
Release years already checked
Each year is verified by AI and a human team, so remasters do not put a 1975 song in 2011 and quietly ruin the timeline.
The title stays hidden
Scanned in the free QRSong! app, the song plays without showing what it is until somebody turns the card over. That is the part a plain QR code cannot do.
Print at home or have them delivered
Download a print ready PDF and cut it yourself, or order premium 350 gsm cards that arrive cut and ready to play.
The free QRSong! app also scans Hitster cards and other music QR cards, so a deck you already own keeps working alongside one you make.
Building a music card game by hand?
Read the full step by step guideWant the song title hidden while it plays?
See which services support hidden playbackReviews
What customers say
Very easy and ideal to create your own...
"Very easy and ideal to create your own list of up to 500 tickets. I had some questions afterwards and was even helped immediately during the holidays and on a Sunday! Hopefully, there will soon be the option to order tickets instead of PDF, which would save some cutting work."
Christiaan Pothoven
Super cool unique game
"Super cool unique game! I like that I can play it with my friends and make the game as big as I want, qrsong is the best adaptation for this idea because you can create your idea. With qrsong, you pretty much make your own product."
Stef Bakker
Outstanding service!!!
"Besides that this is just THE BEST GIFT EVER, the service of this company was outstanding. This gift made somebody feel very special. I'll definitely order again!!!"
Esther Spee
Questions people ask about song QR codes
Turn a whole playlist into cards
Paste a playlist link, pick your design, print at home or have them delivered.
