Our experience shows that choosing a streaming service comes down to three things for most people: convenience, audio quality, convenience, and price (or value for money).
Today, we’re focusing on Apple Music. We’ll cover the available Apple Music subscription plans, the value they offer, what you can get for free, and the overall bang for the buck.
So, how much is an Apple Music subscription right now? Let’s cover it all!
- How Much Is an Apple Music Subscription: TL; DR
- What is Apple Music?
- Is Apple Music Free?
- How Much Is Apple Music: Plan Options
- What is Apple One Subscription?
- Apple Music Alternatives
- Playlist Transfer Solution
- FAQ: How Much Is an Apple Music Subscription
- Conclusion How Much is an Apple Music Subscription
How Much Is an Apple Music Subscription: TL; DR
The Individual Apple Music subscription cost is $10.99 per month, including one account. The Family subscription costs $16.99 monthly and grants users up to 6 accounts. There is also the Apple Music Student plan, which is $5.99/month and is available to students only (as the name clearly suggests).
What Is Apple Music?
Apple Music is a subscription-based music streaming platform launched in 2015. With an Apple Music subscription, you’ll gain access to over 100 million songs. Your personal music library with Apple Music can store up to 100,000 songs, which does not include any music you purchase through the iTunes store, which you can combine all into one seamless listening experience.
Is Apple Music Free?
Apple Music is not free and does not offer a free plan. Apple Music does offer a free trial option, though. You’ll automatically get 3 months free when you purchase a subscription through Apple Music, and it can go up to 6 months, depending on the Apple devices you purchased.
Apple Music Free In Depth: Surprise Freebie Option
If you’re interested in trying out Apple Music but don’t want to add another monthly bill to your budget, don’t worry! You can enjoy a free Apple Music subscription – with a few exceptions.
How to Get a Free Apple Music Subscription
You can try a free Apple Music plan for four months via the Best Buy website. Here’s how:
- 1. Go to www.bestbuy.com
- 2. Create an account with BestBuy.com.
- 3. In the website’s search bar, type in “Apple Music”.
- 4. You should see an option near the top of the screen to “Get up to 4 free months of Apple Music”.
With this option, new Apple Music subscribers will actually get 5 FREE months, while returning subscribers will get 4 FREE months. Once the free trial ends, the service will auto-renew for $10.99/month unless you cancel. You can cancel at any time.
How Much Is Apple Music: Subscription Plan Options
Now, let’s break down the options for Apple Music plans. There are enough for you to find the Apple Music plan that best works for you.
The available Apple Music subscription plans are:
- Individual
- Family
- Student
As noted, a free trial is available for each Apple Music subscription plan. Let’s talk more!
Apple Music Free Trial
Like most music streaming services, Apple Music offers a free trial option. When you subscribe to Apple Music, you will enjoy all its features for free for one month. Once that month ends, you will be charged a recurring monthly fee until you cancel your subscription.
As mentioned here in the article, you also have the option to enjoy the free trial for 5 months by getting a plan through the BestBuy website.
Price – FREE*
Accounts – one
Features – access to 100 million songs, more than 30,000 expert-curated playlists, compatibility with Siri, FREE trial with no commitment, ad-free streaming, original content, on-demand radio stations hosted by artists, and availability on Apple devices.
* As a BONUS, new subscribers with eligible Apple devices can enjoy Apple Music for FREE for three months!
Apple Music Individual Plan
This plan is full of perks but affordable. It’s perfect for any music lover who isn’t looking to bundle with their family or isn’t eligible for the student discount.
Price – $10.99/month
Accounts – one
Features – access to 100 million songs, more than 30,000 expert-curated playlists, compatibility with Siri, free trial with no commitment, ad-free streaming, original content, on-demand radio stations hosted by artists, availability on Apple devices, Apple Music Classical app accessibility, available on other supported devices, Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, lossless audio, Apply Music Sing with lyrics, offline listening, and access to what your friends are listening to.
Apple Music Family Plan
The same great features as the individual plan, plus a few extras like saving money for up to five additional family members. Who doesn’t love that option, right? You’ll even each get to enjoy your own customized recommendations and music libraries.
Price – $16.99/month
Accounts – Up to six
Features – access to 100 million songs, more than 30,000 expert-curated playlists, compatibility with Siri, free trial with no commitment, ad-free streaming, original content, on-demand radio stations hosted by artists, availability on Apple devices, Apple Music Classical app accessibility, available on other supported devices, Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, lossless audio, Apply Music Sing with lyrics, offline listening, access to what your friends are listening to, personal music library for each family member included in the plan, and personalized recommendations for each family member.
They even offer parental controls with their Family Plan, including an explicit content feature and the ask-to-buy feature (when a child tries to purchase something, a request is sent to the parent to approve or deny it).
Apple Music Student Plan
This Apple Music plan is available only for students enrolled in Universities and Colleges. Apple understands how expensive college can be, which leaves little cash for other things. Thankfully, they’ve made their Student Plan affordable for even the most cash-strapped college students.
Price – $5.99/month
Accounts – one
Features – access to 100 million songs, more than 30,000 expert-curated playlists, compatibility with Siri, free trial with no commitment, ad-free streaming, original content, on-demand radio stations hosted by artists, availability on Apple devices, Apple Music Classical app accessibility, available on other supported devices, Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, lossless audio, Apply Music Sing with lyrics, offline listening, and access to what your friends are listening to.
Apple Music Voice Plan (Discontinued)
Apple Music used to have a voice plan that was compatible through voice interactions with all Siri-enabled devices like iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, HomePod, AirPods, and Apple CarPlay. However, it was discontinued by Apple Music in November 2023, as announced on Apple’s support official website.
Price – Used to be $4.99 when it was available.
What Is Apple One Subscription?
In addition to the regular Apple Music subscription plans, Apple also offers three Apple One plans. These plans are bundles of Apple Music and other Apple services. So, if you’re an avid Apple fan, you’ll certainly want to start with one of these plans. All of these plans can be canceled at any time. They’re convenient, and save you money, so what do you have to lose?
- – Apple One Individual Plan
Price – $19.95/month
Accounts – one
Features – 50GB iCloud+, Apple tv+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade
*With this bundle, you will save $9/month! - – Apple One Family Plan
Price – $25.95/month
Accounts – Up to six
Features – 200GB iCloud+, Apple tv+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade
*With this bundle, you will save $11/month! - – Apple One Premier Plan
Price – $37.95/month
Accounts – Up to six
Features – 2 TB iCloud+, Apple tv+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+, Apple News+
*With this bundle, you will save $29/month!
Apple Music Alternatives
Are you still on the fence about whether or not Apple Music is the right music streaming service for you? If so, we’ll recommend some other wildly popular music platforms that you’re bound to fall in love with. Check these out!
Read more: 7 Best Spotify Alternatives
Tidal
The perfect music streaming service for lovers of high-quality sound when jamming out to tunes. Tidal has more than 100 million songs in its music library. Tidal also aims to give artists more support through their program “Tidal Rising”, which showcases emerging artists so they gain exposure and build a following.
Quick overview of pricing:
- – Tidal Individual – $10.99/month
- – Tidal Family HiFi – $16.99/month
- – Tidal Student – $4.99/month
Check this out: Read our other article Tidal vs Spotify – Comparison and also our article talking about How Much is Spotify.
Spotify
As one of the most popular music streaming services, Spotify is sure to make your ears (and your wallet) happy.
Quick overview of pricing:
- – Spotify Premium Individual – $11.99/month
- – Spotify Premium Duo – $16.99/month
- – Spotify Premium Family – $19.99/month
- – Spotify Premium Student – $5.99/month
Check this out: Read our other article Apple Music vs Spotify – Comparison.
Deezer
This French music streaming service is parfait (not the yogurt-filled treat, it’s French for “excellent”) for its versatility with access to audiobooks, podcasts, different radio stations, and HiFi audio music.
Quick overview of pricing:
- – Deezer Premium – $11.99/month
- – Deezer Duo – $15.99/month
- – Deezer Family – $19.99/month
- – Deezer Premium Annual – $107.99/year
- – Deezer Family Annual – $218.99
Check this out: Read our other article Deezer vs Spotify – Comparison.
Amazon Music
This is a trailblazing music streaming service, which is no surprise since its owned by Amazon. Amazon Music specializes in the highest resolution audio format known as FLAC.
Quick overview of pricing:
- – Amazon Music Unlimited Individual – $9.99/month for Amazon Prime members
- – Amazon Music Unlimited Family – $16.99/month
- – Amazon Music Unlimited Single Device – $4.99/month for Amazon Prime members
- – Amazon Music Unlimited Student – $5.99/month
Check this out: Read our other article Amazon Music vs Spotify – Comparison.
YouTube Music
For all lovers of YouTube videos, this is a music streaming platform you’re likely to enjoy. You can get the satisfaction of watching your favorite YouTube videos and listening to your favorite tunes simultaneously.
Quick overview of pricing:
- – YouTube Music Premium – $10.99/month
- – YouTube Music Family – $16.99/month
- – YouTube Music Student – $5.49/month
- – YouTube Music Annual – $109.99/year (breaks down to just $9.16/month)
Check this out: Read our other article YouTube Music vs Apple Music – Comparison.
Read through each of our comparison articles for the ultimate information on these current music platform favorites. The only thing holding you back from finding your preferred music streaming service is, well, you!
TuneMyMusic – Playlist Transfer Solution
Looking to amplify your music experience even more? The best way to do this is to check out all of the awesome features from TuneMyMusic.
- Transfer – With TuneMyMusic, it’s now easier than ever to transfer your songs from one music streaming service to another. You will no longer have to re-upload every song one at a time when you switch to a different music platform. We’ve simplified the process so you can even transfer your playlists with ease.
Try it out: Transfer with TuneMyMusic.
- Sync – With our Sync feature, you can walk through a few simple steps and keep two playlists from two music streaming services always synchronized. What does that mean, exactly? Well, it means that once you’ve simply set up the two playlists of your choice to sync, you can add or delete a song from one of the synced playlists and it will automatically do the same thing on the synced playlist from the other music streaming service. This will surely save you time and hassle. Talk about a win/win!
Try it out: Sync with TuneMyMusic.
- Share – Do you and your best friend both love music but use different music streaming services? Has this caused the two of you to not get to partake in sharing your favorite new songs, artists, albums? Guess what? This is no longer an issue with our Share feature. All you have to do is follow a few quick steps and you can easily share your music with your friend who uses a different music streaming service! Now you can each keep enjoying your preferred music platforms while still sharing in the overall music-listening experience.
Try it out: Share with TuneMyMusic.
- Upload – Our TuneMyMusic upload feature makes it super simple to upload songs from a file to your song library in your music streaming service of choice.
Try it out: Upload with TuneMyMusic.
- Backup – If you’re even the least bit experienced with technology, then you understand the importance of frequently backing up your data to avoid losing it. We’ve all been there and man does that cause quite the headache. Never lose your songs or playlists again thanks to our TuneMyMusic Backup feature. All you need to do is follow a few simple steps and you’ll have your music library backed up onto a file.
Try it out: Backup with TuneMyMusic.
FAQ: Apple Music Subscription Cost
How is Apple Music different from the iTunes store?
Apple Music and the iTunes store really are not different at all. Today, the iTunes app is actually just a section of the Apple Music app. It still functions the same way, in that it allows you to purchase your favorite songs quickly and easily. Think of them as your virtual record store and personal storage unit of digital songs that you’ve purchased.
What devices is Apple Music compatible with?
Apple Music is compatible with iPhones, iPads, Apple watches, Apple TVs, Macbook Computers, HomePods, Apple CarPlay, Smart TVs, Gaming Consoles, Rokus, Androids, PC Computers, Amazon Echos, Sonos Smart Speakers, and Google Nest.
What is Apple Music Classical?
Apple Music Classical was released in 2022. It is its own genre-based part of Apple Music, focusing specifically on “Classical” music. Here, you’ll find everything from orchestras, symphonies, operas, and even choral pieces. You should definitely give this section a listen!
You’ll find over 5 million songs from the classical music genre at a quality of up to 192 kHz/24-bit Hi-Res lossless audio.
Regardless of which music streaming service you choose, you should consider at least giving each one a try first so you can be sure you’re making the best choice for you and your family. Don’t forget to share your favorite songs with your friends too by using the TuneMyMusic Share feature, once you’ve decided on your favorite music platform.
Conclusion: Apple Music Subscription Cost
Apple Music is a great option for Apple customers who like to have everything integrated between devices to listen to their favorite artists and podcasts and also get exclusive music and releases in HiFi quality. It’s also possible to enjoy their services for up to 3 months using the BestBuy voucher. The prices for an Apple Music subscription are:
- – Apple Music Individual Plan – $10.99/month
- – Apple Music Family Plan – $16.99/month
- – Apple Music Student Plan – $5.99/month
- – Apple Music One – $19.95/month to $37.95/month
For more comparisons and in-depth analysis of music streaming services, check our Comparisons page – learn more about Spotify, Apple Music, and many other music platforms.
