Apple Music: More subscription options soon?
Apple apparently plans changes to its music streaming service. In addition to the standard subscription, other variants could be added, according to a code leak.
Apple Music on an iPhone: So far, there is only one subscription.
(Image: Shutterstock)
Apple pursues a simple strategy with its streaming services, Apple Music and Apple TV: there is one price for the entire offering, which can be paid either monthly or annually at a discount. Apple Music costs 10.99 euros per month, Apple TV 9.99 euros per month – both prices that are still quite moderate compared to the competition, especially Spotify and Netflix. However, Apple now seems to be internally working on additional subscription models. This is evident from code leaks published by the well-known iOS expert Aaron Perris on X.
Music plays, skips restricted
However, this does not seem to be about an additional “tier” with higher prices, for example, for better sound quality or special content. Instead, Apple seems to be planning to introduce an entry-level service in the old Spotify style, which will presumably be ad-financed. Two error messages that fit this description can be found in the latest beta of the Apple Music application for Android. They are not yet released but can be read from the code.
Videos by heise
The first error message is called “error_message_skip_limit_reached” and translates to “You can't skip any more tracks.” This could indicate that Apple plans to allow a limited number of “skips” for its free service. Tracks adapted to the user's taste are played by the streaming service – possibly through pre-selection of genres or the existing Apple Music playback database. If the tracks are still not liked, you can press “Skip.” But Apple apparently wants to limit this for free users. All of this is very reminiscent of Spotify's free service.
“Premium access required”
A second error message, discovered by Perris, makes this even clearer. It is named “error_message_premium_account_required” and simply reads: “Premium access required.” Apple could therefore use the free service to encourage users to sign up for a standard subscription. Whether Apple will possibly increase prices at the same time as the free service remains to be seen.
Spotify currently costs 12.99 euros per month for the standard subscription and also offers student subscriptions for 6.99 euros per month. The latter is available from Apple for 5.99 euros. There is also a duo subscription with two accounts for 17.99 euros. The family account costs 21.99 euros for up to 6 people. Apple's family subscription costs 16.99 euros, also for up to 6 people. Spotify offers three free months each, Apple only one by default. If you have purchased an Apple device, you get three free months.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(bsc)
