Apple Music is currently running not one, but two enticing offers for new subscribers.
If you've been tempted to sign up for a proper music platform, you often don't have to jump into paying full price right away. Most of the big music streaming platforms offer free trials of their premium services – so you don't have to put up with ads interrupting your listening sessions.
These offers from Apple represent solid savings on the usual month-long test drive of the service – and you can choose between two options. Read on to find out more…
Apple Music Family Plan offer – how to get three months free
Apple Music is currently offering new subscribers with Family Sharing three months of free access to its Family Plan.
Given how long the promotional period lasts, it'll have you listening well into the rest of the year, with new releases on the way from the likes of Taylor Swift, Jade Thirlwall and Florence + the Machine, to name just a few.
What to Read Next
This offer is time-limited and ends on Wednesday 24 September, and you'll need to redeem it on an eligible device – that means an iPhone, iPad or a Mac.
Apple Music Family Plan: Get 3 months for free
- Offer for new subscribers redeeming on eligible devices.
- Auto-renews at £16.99/mo until cancelled.
- Requires Family Sharing.
- Terms apply.
Family Sharing allows an account holder to share their subscriptions with up to five additional family members (so across six separate accounts in total). This means they can all share access to Apple Music's library of over 100 million songs.
Anyone with an Apple account in your home country can be invited to join your Family Sharing group. However, the primary account holder will need to set up access for any children under 13.
Further information on access control, plus other frequently asked questions, are available on the Family Sharing FAQs page.
This promotion is available in 37 select markets, including both the UK and Ireland.
One more very important piece of information – after the promotional period is over, your Apple Music Family Plan will auto-renew at the usual monthly price until it's cancelled. In the UK, that's £16.99 per month at the time of writing.
Apple Music Individual Plan offer – how to get three months for free
If you're new to Apple Music but you don't need a full Family Plan, there's also an opportunity to get three months' free access to the Individual Plan.
There are a few important conditions to bear in mind when taking up this time-limited offer. It's open to only eligible new subscribers, and you will need to redeem the offer on an iPhone.
Apple Music Individual Plan: Get 3 months for free
- New subscribers redeeming on iPhone only.
- Plan auto-renews at £10.99/mo until cancelled.
- Terms apply.
The promotion is running in just five select markets – the UK, China, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – and ends on Wednesday, 19 November.
Subscriptions will automatically renew at £10.99/month after the end of the three-month promotional period, until Individual Plan membership is cancelled.
Why Apple Music?
There are many reasons why we'd pick Apple Music over its rivals, especially for those of us in the Apple ecosystem.
It's one of the most popular music streaming services for good reason, and it offers high-resolution files without asking you to move up to a different payment tier.
We'll keep this straightforward and to the point – but go into a bit more detail down below.
Apple Music usually costs £10.99 per month, but a free trial or introductory offer is a great way to test out the platform and find out if it's right for you.
If you've got a pair of AirPods, an Apple TV, an iPhone or an iPad, several other benefits make it the best music streaming service for Apple fans.
Does Apple Music offer a free trial?
Apple Music usually offers a month's free trial for those who want to try out its services.
Customers who aren't eligible for the promotional offers above might be eligible for the standard free trial – visit the Apple Music website to check.
How to get a three-month free trial of Apple Music with Apple hardware
For new subscribers, it's possible to get three months of Apple Music for free outside of promotional periods, but only if you buy an eligible Apple device direct from Apple or from an officially authorised Apple reseller.
The good news? There are a whole load of devices relevant to this promo. Pick up a pair of AirPods, a HomePod or most kinds of Beats headphones, for example, and you'll be eligible for this whopper of a trial. We wholeheartedly recommend it.
Here are some of the audio devices where this extended trial is available:
• AirPods: AirPods Pro 2, AirPods (4th generation), AirPods Max
• HomePods: HomePod, HomePod mini
• Beats headphones and speakers: Beats Studio Buds, Powerbeats Pro, Beats Fit Pro, Beats Studio Buds +, Beats Studio Pro
You will have 90 days to take advantage of the free three-month Apple Music trial after activating your device.
Note that if you're trying to activate this trial via an eligible audio device, you'll need to connect or pair it with an Apple device "running the latest iOS or iPadOS".
And for those of you looking to redeem via an Apple Watch, you'll have to connect or pair with "an iPhone running the latest iOS", per Apple. Further terms are available to read here.
What sets Apple Music apart?
There are some key reasons why Apple Music gets our vote over much of the competition:
Seamless compatibility
Apple Music is the ideal service for anyone using several Apple devices because it's already built-in to your Mac, iPad, Apple TV, iPhone, HomePod and more. It'll work effortlessly with Siri, too.
You'll find you don't need to specify what service you want the voice assistant to play from, you just say, "Hey, Siri, play some dance music" and it just works.
High-resolution listening
Apple Music gets you access to a massive library of high-resolution files that you can listen to at a lower cost than premium tiers on some other services.
The full library of over 100 million songs and 30,000 playlists rivals what's available from the competition, but you're also getting all of that catalogue available in lossless audio at different resolutions.
In practice, over 20 million tracks are offered at "Hi-Res Lossless" (aka 48kHz to 192kHz) – these files take up more bandwidth and storage but sound better than CD quality.
Classical fans also get an entire app full of works, composers, artists and recordings at high-resolution quality without paying anything extra.
Spatial audio
There's a growing collection of music designed for 360-degree surround sound listening via the "Spatial Audio" feature available on certain AirPods, HomePods and Beats headphone models. It's an engrossing and immersive way to dive into your favourite albums, and we promise you’ll be able to hear the difference.
Also, you'll find a huge amount of music rerecorded for Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, which works differently in that there is no head tracking.
Because of this, you can enjoy this experience without requiring a set of Apple headphones. Now that's something you won't find on other services.
Can I download songs from Apple Music?
Yes, offline listening is a key feature of any music streaming service worth its salt, and Apple Music is no exception.
You can download any song, album, or playlist to your device so that you'll be able to listen when you don't have an internet connection, something we find perfect for our commute or if you're taking a flight or heading to a remote countryside location with no mobile service – daunting, we know.
What happens after the trial of free Apple Music?
At the end of the free trial, the subscription does automatically renew, so this is something worth keeping in mind if you don't decide to stick with it and you don't want to be charged. It's worth getting used to the service and seeing if you'd like to keep it, though – we do reckon ad-free listening beats a deluge of interruptions.
If you cancel before the end of the trial, you'll get the service until the end of the trial period, but after that, you'll lose access and any downloads will be removed from your devices.
How to listen to Apple Music
The good news is that the Apple Music app is already pre-loaded onto your Apple devices, so you won't have to search for long to find it. If you deleted it, you may have to redownload it from the App Store, but it won't be much effort.
You can also listen to Apple Music through your Mac or PC browser – plus streaming devices, Sonos smart speakers, smart TVs from Samsung and LG, and consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox as well as Amazon Echo speakers. Yes, you can even listen on Android phones.
