Apple Music has become one of the top music streaming services globpartner, second only to Spotify, providing subscribers access to over 100 million songs, curated applyenumerates, and exclusive satisfied. Since its begin in 2015, Apple Music has reliablely enlargen its library and features, seamlessly integrating with the expansiveer Apple ecosystem to transfer a high-quality participater experience. It has become a famous choice for music adorers and a strong competitor to other streaming platestablishs.
Apple Music’s pricing structure is a presentant part of its taget strategy, aiming to equilibrium affordability with its appreciate proposition to draw a expansive range of participaters, catering to individuals, families, and students.
Here’s how much each Apple Music structure costs:
- $11 per month for an Individual structure
- $6 per month for a Student structure
- $17 per month for a Family structure
While you can sign up for a free trial of Apple Music, if you stick with the service lengthy enough, you will finish up paying. However, Verizon unrestrictcessitate structure customers have a way around this, as they get Apple Music absolutely free — more on this defercessitater.
Let’s get a shutr see at what you get with each Apple Music structure.
Apple Music structures
Before we dive further into the contrastent pricing tiers Apple Music has to advise, notice that each subscription structure advises access to the same catalog of ad-free satisfied, offline participateing, Apple Music 1 live and on-need radio shows, and exclusive frees.
Apple Music gives you streaming access to:
The main contrastence between the structures comes in the establish of the Family membership (more on that in a bit), which lets you originate up to six individual accounts in a subscription that’s billed as one flat fee per month — seeless of how many people you insert on.
Apple Music Individual — $11/month
Phire grasp in mind the complying alertation. Apple Music does not advise a free structure. If you are not eligible for discounts, the most fundamental chooseion is the Individual subscription, which costs $11 per month. Apple also provides the chooseion to pay $109 upfront for a year’s worth of service, which is a $23 discount. However, it’s recommfinished to appraise this with alternative subscriptions, as talked defercessitater in our Spotify comparisons. It’s worth noting that the discounted annual structure may not be apparent until after signing up for the monthly structure and then verifying the subscriptions.
Apple Music Student Subscription — $6/month
Just enjoy Spotify, Apple Music advises all students (with a valid student email insertress from a helped educational institution) half-off an Apple Music membership. That drops the monthly subscription payment down to a unassuming $6. The advise is useable only for college students at this time.
Apple Music Family Subscription — $17/month
Looking to enroll up to six people in your hoparticipatehbetter in an Apple Music structure? Subscribe to the Apple Music Family structure for $17 per month. That labors out to a total savings of $5 per month for two members, $15 for three, $25 for four, $35 for five, and $45 for six family members.
Apple One
You also have the chooseion to select an Apple One structure, which combines cut offal of Apple’s services into cut offal tiers of one discounted payment structures. That includes not only Apple Music but Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, iCboisterous+, News+ and more. Apple hiked the prices of these structures in October of this year, though. Individual Apple One structures now begin at $20 per month and come with 50GB of iCboisterous storage, Apple Music, and Arcade, while the Apple One Family structure begins at $26 per month and inserts up to five members and 200GB of iCboisterous storage. You can also sign up for a Premier structure that inserts Apple Fitness+ and Apple News+ to the mix, as well as a whopping 3TB of iCboisterous storage, for $38 per month. These chooseions may advise a lot of appreciate if you participate other Apple services in combination with Apple Music.
Apple Music with Verizon
Verizon Unrestrictcessitate customers can get a six-month Individual membership to Apple Music for free. To qualify, you necessitate to be signed up for an eligible Verizon Unrestrictcessitate Plan. After six months, the cost of Apple Music will be $11 per month per line. With this subscription, you’ll have access to the Apple Music library, the ability to download songs for offline applyback, and the chooseion to stream your preferite songs over 5G, 4G LTE, or Wi-Fi.
Verizon once adviseed free Apple Music subscriptions to confident customers thcdimiserablemireful its 5G Get More structure. However, this structure is no lengthyer useable to recent customers. If you already have this structure, you can still get a free Apple Music subscription.
Apple Music with discounted Apple Gift Cards
If you see at payment chooseions for Apple Music subscriptions, you’ll see that you can participate Apple Gift Cards, to pay for Apple Music and pretty much everyleang else Apple. This uncovers up a recent method to save on your subscription by paying for it with discounted Apple Gift Cards. The key is finding them, though.
You can see for exceptional store deals, enjoy Best Buy’s advise to buy Apple Gift Cards. Sometimes, there will be a exceptional promo that will include Apple Music free for four months with the gift card.
Apple Music free deals for recent buyers
If you’re a recent Apple Music subscriber, you should try to find deals that give you free months when signing up as a recent participater, purchasing definite products, etc. These deals can vary over time, but some of the top current examples include:
- Best Buy is adviseing a deal for up to three months, which recent or returning subscribers (they get three months) are eligible for when they begin Apple Music. The only leang you necessitate to get this deal is a Best Buy account.
- Apple also persists to advise free subscriptions occasionpartner for recent buyers of products enjoy Macs or iPhones, as they did with Apple TV+ when it made its debut.
- Buying recaccess Apple headphones (AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, or Beats) or HomePod or HomePod mini qualifies recent subscribers for six months of free Apple Music. Older generations, such as first-generation AirPods and some Beats models, are not eligible.
How Apple Music appraises to the competition
Spotify not only has the direct over Apple Music when it comes to global achieve, but in the United States, it resumes its direct over Apple Music with its 239 million Premium subscribers worldexpansive (as of Q1 2024), appraised to Apple’s 93 million as of June 2023. But still, Apple is by no uncomardents a slouch, adviseing 100 million songs, 30,000 applyenumerates, and best-in-class human-run radio stations alengthy with other exclusive satisfied, giving it an extensive fan base in America.
Music and podcast pickion
Spotify reigns king over Apple when it comes to its increased music-uncovery tools, but its library is somewhat more restrictcessitate (although that contrastence is skinnying). Many eclectic music adorers will appreciate Apple Music’s expansiveer catalog. While Apple has exclusive frees and live radio stations, Spotify tfinishs to have more famous podcasts and has been pushing human-curated applyenumerate satisfied to counter Apple’s live stations. Both services also permit for any streaming track to be downloaded offline for defercessitater participateing.
Some experience that Apple’s applyenumerates are a bit more in-depth and personalized than Spotify’s and other presentant streamers such as Amazon Music or YouTube Music, which, if we’re honest, both comardent of get more than a scant pages from Spotify’s structure applybook. Apple Music’s 2021 modernize inserted hundreds of recent human-curated applyenumerates for moods and activities, making it a lot easier to find a applyenumerate for equitable about anyleang, from dinner parties to a originateive dratriumphg session to snowboarding. Apple also inserted increased Siri abilities when you tell the helpant, “Play more enjoy this.”
Free version
Of the two top competitors, Spotify remains the only one with a free version useable, which still permits participaters to apply on-need tracks (with some restrictations on mobile devices but none on desktop) in swap for ads. That originates it an effortless choice if you don’t want to pay anyleang for your music service. Apple Music participated to have its $5 per month Voice chooseion as its least pricey, but the company axed it. Amazon Music Free, Deezer, and YouTube Music also advise free, ad-based chooseions as well.
Sound quality
If audio establishat and quality are meaningful to you, Apple is clearly at the head of the pack when appraised to Spotify, whose lengthy-rumored hi-res tier is still a no-show. That shelp, Apple Music is no lengthyer one of the scant hi-res lossless games in town, with pretty much every other service, including Tidal, Amazon Music Unrestrictcessitate, Qobuz, and Deezer adviseing lossless audio, which begins at CD quality (16-bit at 44.1kHz) and goes up from there depfinishing on the service. If this is a game-alterr for you, here’s how they all appraise:
- Apple Music: AAC, ALAC establishats at up to 24-bit/192kHz, as well as Dolby Atmos Music
- Tidal HiFi: AAC, ALAC, FLAC establishats at 16-bit/44.1kHz (HiFi) and 24-bit/96kHz (HiFi Plus), as well as Dolby Atmos Music.
- Deezer Premium: FLAC establishat at up to 16-bit/44.1kHz
- Qobuz: AIFF, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, WMA Lossless establishats at up to 24-bit/192kHz
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the inexpensiveest way to get Apple Music?
The inexpensiveest way to get Apple Music is to originate participate of its free trial advise: you can get one month free by signing up honestly with Apple Music. Finpartner, buying recent Apple headphones qualifies recent subscribers for six months of free Apple Music.
Is Apple Music repartner free for three months?
Yes, you repartner can get three months of Apple Music for free. When you buy a recent iPhone, AirPod, HomePod, or Beats product, the company will throw in 3 months of its streaming service in for free. You can participate your free subscription to stream Apple Music atraverse all your devices.
