How to burn a CD on a Mac

The drive you need

Apple stopped putting disc drives in its computers years ago, so unless your Mac is an older model with a slot on the side, you need an external optical drive to burn a CD on a Mac. Apple’s own help page for burning discs assumes one. Apple has sold its own USB SuperDrive, and most third-party USB CD/DVD burners work the same way: plug it in and the Music app sees it.

Newer Macs have only USB-C or Thunderbolt ports. If the drive has an older USB-A plug, you’ll need a USB-C to USB-A adapter. Plug the drive straight into the Mac rather than a hub if it struggles to spin up; most external burners draw their power from the port.

You also need blank CD-Rs. CD-RWs burn fine on a Mac but many car and older home players won’t read them. Our CD-R vs CD-RW guide covers which blanks to buy.

How to burn a CD on a Mac, step by step

These steps are for the Music app, which replaced iTunes on Macs running macOS Catalina and later. On an older Mac still using iTunes, the same File > Burn Playlist to Disc command is in iTunes.

1. 01
   Connect a CD burner

   Plug an external USB CD/DVD burner into your Mac. Most Macs made in the last decade have no built-in disc drive. Use a USB-C adapter if the drive's plug doesn't match your Mac's ports.
2. 02
   Make a playlist in Music

   Open the Music app and choose File > New > Playlist. Add the songs in the order you want them on the disc, and keep the total under 80 minutes.
3. 03
   Check the songs you want to burn

   Choose View > as Songs and make sure every song you want is ticked. If there are no checkboxes, turn on Songs list checkboxes in Music > Settings > General.
4. 04
   Insert a blank CD-R

   Put a blank CD-R in the drive. If macOS asks what to do with the blank disc, close the dialog.
5. 05
   Choose File > Burn Playlist to Disc

   Select the playlist in the sidebar, then choose File > Burn Playlist to Disc.
6. 06
   Pick Audio CD and set the options

   Select Audio CD as the disc format. Choose a Preferred Speed, a Gap Between Songs, and whether to Use Sound Check and Include CD Text.
7. 07
   Click Burn

   Click Burn and wait for Music to finish and eject the disc. Then test it in a real CD player before you write on it with a felt-tip marker.

If the playlist is longer than one disc holds, Music burns what fits and asks you to insert another disc for the rest. To avoid a surprise second disc, check the total time at the top of the playlist first, or paste the list into our playlist length calculator. Eighty minutes is the ceiling; we keep our own discs under 79.

The burn settings, explained

When you choose Audio CD, Music shows four options. Here’s what each does and what we’d pick for a disc that has to play in a car.

Which songs a Mac will burn

Whether a song can go on a CD depends on where it came from.

Apple is direct about the subscription part: music you download from Apple Music to your computer can’t be burned to a disc. That holds even if the song sits in the same playlist as songs you bought. If a playlist mixes the two, the Burn Playlist to Disc command may not appear at all. Apple lists a song your computer isn’t authorized to play as another example of an item with usage restrictions. Our page on burning Apple Music, YouTube and Amazon Music to CD goes through each service.

Apple’s Media Services terms also cap burning the same playlist of purchased music at seven times, and say that limit doesn’t apply to DRM-free content.

Playlist built from Apple Music? Send us the link and we’ll burn it to a custom CD mixtape, so you don’t have to buy every track.

MP3 CDs and data discs on a Mac

MP3 CD. In the same Burn Playlist to Disc window you can choose MP3 CD. It holds far more songs but plays only in computers and players that support MP3 discs. Every song has to be an MP3 file; songs in other formats, including iTunes Store purchases, need converting to MP3 first. For a gift, stick with an audio CD.

Data disc from Finder. To back up files or move them to another computer, you don’t need Music. Insert a blank disc, double-click it on the desktop to open its window, drag files and folders in, arrange and rename them, then choose File > Burn to Disc. Once it’s burned, the contents can’t be changed. A data disc of music files won’t play in most car stereos.

When the burn doesn't work

• Burn Playlist to Disc is missing or greyed out. Look for Apple Music downloads or cloud-only songs in the playlist and remove them. Make sure the playlist itself is selected in the sidebar, and that the drive is connected.
• The disc burns but skips in the car. Reburn on a branded CD-R at a slower speed, and check it’s an Audio CD, not MP3 or data. If store-bought discs skip too, the car player needs a clean.
• Some songs are missing from the disc. Unticked songs aren’t burned. Choose View > as Songs and check the boxes.
• The burn fails partway. Try another blank from a different pack, plug the drive directly into the Mac, and lower the speed.

The general steps, burn times and labelling advice are in our main guide to how to burn a CD. Burning from a PC instead? See how to burn a CD on Windows. For a cover that fits the jewel case, use our CD case template.