Apple Music, the new song-streaming platform that started rolling out yesterday, is currently free for everyone while the company shows off how cool its new product is. After the three-month trial period that we’re all enjoying, however, using the full set of features will cost you.
But for people in developing countries, the burn won’t be nearly as bad.
While Apple Music customers will be paying $10 a month for an individual plan and $15 for a family of up to six people, customers in India will only be paying the equivalent of $1.89 (120 rupees) and $2.99 (190 rupees) for individual and family plans, respectively. Brazilian users will only have to pay $4.99/$7.99, Hong Kong is getting it for $6.19/$10.06, and Slovakia’s plans will cost $6.62/$9.94. This is just a sampling, and prices are different everywhere.
Not everyone’s enjoying a discount against the U.S. costs, however. Italian music fans will have to cough up €9.99/€14.99, which looks to be in line with the U.S. price until you remember that a Euro is worth more than an American dollar. So they’re “really” paying $11.05/$16.57 for the service.
And U.K. customers may have it worst of all with their strong British pounds. Their £9.99/£14.99 plans translate to $15.60 and $23.41.
It seems that Apple is using these extra funds to subsidize the costs for developing countries. Or they’re just pricing Apple Music on a sliding scale across different regions. Either way, being a music-loving Brit is about to get slightly expensive in a few months.
Via: Quartz
Evan Killham is a freelance writer who lives in Nebraska and isn’t interested in football, so he has plenty of time to play and think about video games. He has written for Bitmob and GamesBeat and sometimes, he even goes outside. But not too often because he’s heard there are bees out there. Occasionally, companies send free units for review. Evan subscribes to Cult of Mac’s Reviews Policy and also does not keep the items he receives for possible coverage.
9 responses to “Apple Music will be super cheap in some countries”
Different countries have different agreements with Apple and at presumable different prices.
The pre-tax rate in Italy is €8.19 (VAT is 22% and included in the €9.99 price. Today €8.19 is $10.47. so the comparison is really US $9.99, Italy $10.47 which is reasonably close.
In Poland Music is 5€ individual and 8€ family so it’s two times less than in neighboring Gemany. It has to be like that because other services (Spotify, Deezer and Tidal/Wimp) cost 20 PLN for individuals and which is roughly 5€ (all prices with VAT tax). With prices like in Western Europe Muisc would have been totally uncompetitive (for 10€ in Poland you can get uncompressed music quality). As a Polish Apple user I’m really happy about these prices. I’m also happy because it’s probably the first time Poland gets iTunes stuff at the same time as U.S. and Western Europe. Unfortunately lots of stuff is still missing (eg TV Shows, Audiobooks, Siri).
Standard Apple pricing, UK getting bent over again. Still, a great service at that price.
$3 a month is Russia should be pretty significant with how much piracy is in Russia
It’s also cheaper here in South Africa. Keep in mind though that a cheap MacBook here costs the same as most IT people earn a month, and then Apple Music saving doesn’t seem worth writing about.
Well it really depends on the wealth of a given country. What I completely do not understand is why they do not provide local price in local currency. For example in Poland they provided pricing in EUR which is not an official currency there. For that reason the final price is unknown to the buyer. I will completely ignore this service for that reason;)
It’s $2.99 for individual subscriptions in the Philippines, $4.99 for the Family plan.
not sure about other countries, but in Slovakia the price is based on competitors. Spotify, Deezer and Tidal cost 5,99 EUR, Google Play Music is 5,49 EUR