How much does Apple Music cost?
Apple Music is a music streaming service that offers over 100 million songs and a robust collection of music videos across iOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, Android, CarPlay, HomePod, Windows, Chrome OS, Amazon Echo, Sonos, and web browsers. So, if you own a consumer technology device, there’s a good chance you’ll use it to stream Apple Music.
Subscribing is easy. Apple Music offers a one-month free trial, which is enough time to test it before subscribing (although you will need to provide credit or debit card information). After that, you will need to subscribe to a subscription plan to continue using the service. The individual membership costs $10.99 per month, and the family membership costs $16.99 per month (for up to six people using iCloud Family Sharing), allowing for ad-free music listening, ad-free video watching, offline listening, and access to Apple Music Radio (three curated channels available 24/7).
We love seeing Apple Music and other music streaming services adopt family plans, which is something that LiveOne lacks. However, LiveOne makes up for this by offering a free tier, which Apple Music does not have. Amazon Music Unlimited also offers a family plan that allows six people to listen to ad-free and on-demand music for $15.99 per month.
The Apple Music Voice subscription, which brought the service’s vast catalog to supported Siri devices, was discontinued in November 2023 at a cost of $4.99. This subscription lacked lossless audio, spatial audio, and other key features, but it compensated for that with a great price. Amazon Music Unlimited still offers a single-device plan for $4.99, so this is the optimal way if you want a powerful music service on an Amazon Echo or Fire TV.
If you are a college student enrolled at an eligible college or university, you can subscribe to Apple Music for $5.99 per month. Students can take advantage of the discount for up to four years. Spotify and Tidal offer similar student deals, but at a cost of $4.99 per month. However, if you don’t want to spend any money on music, check out the best free online music streaming services for platforms that offer cost-free tiers.
Apple Music Interface
The Apple Music interface features large, attractive icons that invite you to explore the service, whether through a browser or the app. Honestly, this is something you are likely to do anyway, as the interface has a list structure that helps you quickly find content. The library, playlists, artists, albums, and songs are all prominent and easy to navigate.
When you log into the service for the first time, you’ll be prompted to select your favorite music genres and a few sample artists. This is done by filling out the “Listen Now” page, where the best songs from those artists and music genres are presented, along with specially designed radio stations. Alternatively, you can head to the “Browse” section to see Apple’s featured playlists and albums. From here, the service highlights some spatial audio tracks (with Dolby Atmos support), which is useful if you have AirPods Pro or other surround sound headphones. The “Radio” tab includes three Apple-radio stations – Music 1, Music Hits, and Music Country – along with additional content available on the service. This includes third-party radio stations and podcast-style radio shows (like Elton John’s Rocket Hour and Strombo) and video artist interviews.
Library
Apple Music
Apple Music features a wide array of albums and songs, including Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, as well as tracks from Taylor Swift and other pop artists. We also found many albums from Prince, including 1999, Purple Rain, and Sign ‘O’ the Times. You can also listen to music channels dedicated to specific themes, such as Hip-Hop Workout Anthems and Disney Princess Radio. When it comes to K-pop, we found that some albums also include music videos for related songs. Like YouTube Music, Apple Music allows you to switch from streaming audio of EXO’s Don’t Fight the Feeling to watching the music video with a single click.
There are plenty of funny clips too, for those times when you’re in the mood for a laugh. Maria Bamford, Kevin Hart, Eddie Murphy, Amy Schumer, Daniel Tosh, and Cat Williams are some notable comedians with comedy specials on Apple Music.
At the same time, the main Apple Music radio features audio clips curated by DJ Zane Lowe, alongside artist interviews. In celebration of Apple Music’s massive achievement of reaching 100 million songs, the Apple Music Today program was added to the service’s lineup. This program highlights one song from the Apple catalog daily and explores its history. It’s an interesting listen, especially if you’re a fan of Tidal’s editorial coverage.
The service still separates music from podcasts, unlike Spotify. If you want to listen to the best podcasts, Apple Podcasts is your destination. We understand why they keep the apps separate, but the ability to switch from listening to music to podcasts within the same app is fantastic on Spotify.
If you love music videos, you’ll be happy to know that Apple Music has a dedicated section for this medium. The videos are also tailored to your preferences.
Sound Quality in Apple Music and Siri
Finally, Apple Music offers lossless and high-resolution sound to rival major competitors. Lossless audio quality goes up to 24-bit/48 kHz, while high-resolution lossless audio reaches 24-bit/192 kHz. With high-res and lossless audio, Apple Music now matches the high-resolution audio offerings from Amazon Music Unlimited, Qobuz, and Tidal. Spatial audio streams are supported with excellent immersive Dolby Atmos technology.
Apple Music supports a variety of devices, but lossless audio is currently available only on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K, and Android devices. The web player does not support lossless audio, and iTunes has not been updated for it. As a result, Windows PC users cannot access lossless audio at all. Moreover, only a small portion of the Apple Music catalog supports high-resolution lossless streams.
That said, we welcome this enhanced sound quality. We played Chika’s song Balencies – which is not only lossless but also a digital master for quality enhancement – and we loved the clear distinction between the choir samples and the dance bass line. We even found a video game track from Castlevania Dracula X in lossless quality; every instrument sounded amazing, from the organ pipes in Bloody Tears to the soft violin in Vampire Killer.
What
Apple’s service would be if it didn’t encourage you to use other Apple services and products? You can use Siri to tell Apple Music to play specific songs or request recommendations, like the best songs from the ’80s. Apple Watch owners can sync music to their devices and listen even when the watch is not paired with an iPhone. Apple Music supports lyrics (when available), so you can sing along with the song even if you don’t know the words.
Car karaoke on Apple Music
While many Apple Music songs feature real-time lyrics, Apple has taken it a step further with the launch of a new karaoke feature for subscribers. Called Apple Music Sing, it’s available on supported iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs. Just open the Apple Music app and play a song. Tap the quote icon in the lower-left corner of the screen, then use the microphone icon above the music controls to adjust the vocal volume up or down.
This feature does several interesting things to simplify the karaoke experience. First, the lyrics move in real time to make it easier to sing along. The backing vocals are retained, with these words moving independently and in a small font below the main vocal words. For songs with multiple singers, the lyrics are presented on both sides of the screen to make duets and multi-singer tracks easy to follow.
This feature is not available with all songs on Apple Music. However, Apple launched it with over 50 custom companion playlists, giving you plenty of music to sing along to from the start.
As mentioned, Apple Music Sing can only be used with compatible devices. For smartphones, these include iPhone SE (3rd generation) and iPhone 11 and later when using iOS 16.2 or newer. For tablets, these include iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation and later), iPad Air (4th generation or later), and iPad mini (6th generation) or iPad (9th generation and later), with iPadOS 16.2 or newer. Apple TV 4K (3rd generation) is also supported.
Discovering Apple Music
In the world of music streaming, it’s crucial to have access to all your favorite songs and tunes. But the ability to discover new music is equally important. Services like Pandora and Spotify offer algorithms or even custom stations that recommend music you might like, based either on predefined genres or your personal listening preferences.
Apple Music adds its own special algorithmic touch with the Discovery station, a playlist that highlights music similar to what you’re already listening to in your library. The twist here is that the Discovery station only plays music you haven’t heard yet, making it a great gateway station if you’re looking for something new yet familiar. You can find this feature in the “Stations for You” section in the “Listen Now” area of Apple Music.
During testing, we found several great music recommendations that fit us, although we did notice one or two songs from our own library pop up occasionally. Nevertheless, it’s a great addition to the platform and is quite similar to Spotify’s weekly discovery option.
What is Apple Music TV?
Apple Music has proven itself as a reliable music streaming service since its launch, but it lacked a truly standout feature to help it shine in a crowded market. That changed with Apple Music TV, a free 24/7 ad-free music video stream that evokes memories of MTV (without video hosts).
It can
Finding Apple Music TV in the Apple Music and Apple TV apps (not part of Apple TV+) focuses on popular songs aimed at youth.
In our tests, the service provided videos from Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa, and Alicia Keys. Well, these are the artists we recognized; unfortunately, Apple Music TV lacks metadata to tell you what is playing. So, if you find a music video in the middle of the stream, there’s no way to identify the song or artist. It’s a significant oversight in music discovery.
Apple Music is a Sonic Garden
Apple Music offers over 100 million songs, premium video content, curated radio stations, and other great features. The service now costs a bit more than many of its competitors, which is its biggest drawback. But we have no doubt that music lovers will find a lot to love, and thus, Apple Music deserves the Editor’s Choice award for music streaming services.
(Mike Williams contributed to this review.)
Source: https://me.pcmag.com/en/streaming-music-services/18726/apple-music
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