Apple plans to raise the prices of some of its subscription services by $1 to $3 each, reports indicated Monday. The services include Apple TV+, Apple Music and the Apple One subscription bundle.
Users should see the price increases, listed below, with their next subscription renewal.
Apple is partnering with Mercedes-Benz to bring Apple Music’s Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos support to select Mercedes vehicles. The feature will be immediately available to Apple Music subscribers with compatible cars.
Apple Music has been available on Mercedes’ MBUX infotainment system since 2021.
There are now a whopping 100 million songs available to stream on Apple Music.
That’s “more music than you can listen to in a lifetime, or several lifetimes,” says Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s global head of editorial. “More music than any other platform. Simply the biggest collection of music, in any format, ever.”
Apple Music Sessions are newly recorded live tracks and videos available only on Apple’s streaming music service. The recordings will be from current stars and emerging artists.
Sessions are starting off in Nashville with Carrie Underwood, Tenille Townes and others, but Apple promises to expand to other music genres soon.
Apple is giving new Apple Music student subscribers free Beats Flex earphones worth $69.99. The offer is only for eligible students in the United States and the U.K.
The limited-time offer has been running since June 22, 2022.
The cost of an Apple Music subscription for students just jumped 20%. The music streaming service is still available at a substantial discount, but it’s no longer half price.
This follows a similar price increase in other parts of the world.
Google’s Waze navigation app makes driving a little more fun by building in support for Apple Music. This allows drivers to make changes to the music streaming through their iPhone or Android without leaving Waze.
The app already supports other music streaming services.
Smart speaker maker Sonos will soon deploy its own voice assistant, similar to Apple’s Siri. It will let you play and control music on the company’s products, according to a new report.
The new voice assistant, “Sonos Voice,” will work with Apple Music and a handful of other services.
Anyone experiencing trouble with the App Store or Apple Music on Monday can relax. Apple reports that it resolved the issues that plagued these services earlier in the day.
This is after they were down for about eight hours.
Apple revealed who will call the games, and what production enhancements to expect, for its upcoming sports show, Friday Night Baseball. The new broadcast hits the field with a doubleheader Friday on Apple TV+.
iTunes has become a slow and bloated mess over the years — which is why it no longer exists on Mac. But for those who are stuck with Windows, suffering iTunes is necessary if you want to enjoy Apple Music. Or is it?
There are other ways to take advantage of your Apple Music subscription on third-party machines. You could use the web app in a browser of your choice, or you could download Cider, a new and far greater iTunes alternative.
Cider, which is also available on Mac if you aren’t happy with the default Music app, offers a clean and simple user interface and almost all of the features we’ve come to expect from Apple’s streaming service — plus extras.
Kanye West’s upcoming Donda 2 album will not be available on Apple Music — or any other streaming service. The rapper claims he turned down a $100 million deal with Apple because it doesn’t pay artists enough.
“No one can pay me to be disrespected,” read one of a number of Instagram posts that have since been removed. Donda 2 will now be exclusive to West’s own platform, the $200 Stem Player that allows listeners to “customize” songs.
In the tradition of media personalities helming book clubs — Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon — Apple Books welcomes a new book club with a new host. The Canadian is not exactly a household name in the U.S., but he has a track record with Apple. It’s Apple Music Hits live radio host George “Strombo” Stroumboulopoulos, who said in a tweet on Tuesday he’s going literary.
The new club is called Strombo’s Lit. Bookworms in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia can check it out now on the Apple Books app.
A reference to the unreleased “Apple Classical” service this week appeared in a new Apple Music beta for Android. The discovery suggests that the service is nearing its official debut ahead of an Apple event in March.
Apple last year acquired (then closed down) Primephonic, the streaming platform for classical music. Fans have been waiting for it to be integrated into Apple’s services lineup ever since — and that wait could soon be over.
Since Apple Music launched in 2015, it has offered first-time subscribers a three-month free trial — a very tempting proposition in a competitive streaming market. But now the service has cut the free trail for first-timers to one month, starting this week.
Apple Music continues to offer a six-month free trial to those who buy eligible audio devices.
Apple Music has launched a huge Neil Young promotion just days after Spotify began pulling all of the singer’s content from its platform.
Listeners will today find a “We Love Neil” section under the “Browse” tab that features albums, interviews, and playlists. Cupertino has also send out tweets and push notifications that call Apple Music “The home of Neil Young.”
With a 15% share of the market, Apple Music is now the second-biggest music streaming service in the world, according to the latest data. It remains significantly bigger than rivals like YouTube Music and Deezer.
However, Apple Music will have to fight to stay ahead of Amazon Music, while catching up with Spotify will be an incredibly difficult task.
If you’re yet to try out Apple Music, now’s your chance. Shazam is offering five months of free and unlimited access to new subscribers who sign up before January 31, 2022. Some existing subscribers can get two months free.
You’ll need to use your iPhone (or an Android smartphone if that’s what you’re into) to redeem the offer.