Wherever you live in the world, it seems that the days of students getting 50% off Apple Music are coming to an end. In May, MacRumors discovered that costs were rising in countries like Australia, South Africa, and India. As of right now, the shift seems to have reached the services in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
As far as we can determine, Apple has not contacted users who benefited from the old rate or made a public announcement about the change. However, at some point between June 22 and June 24, when it was first noticed on Twitter, the cost of Apple Music for students in the United States and Canada and the United Kingdom increased to $5.99 and £5.99, respectively.
The Wayback Machine entry for June 21 shows the old price still intact, before the 20% hike arrived. When Apple made similar changes in other countries back in May, the company sent out emails confirming the change, but we’ve not heard of anybody receiving them in the U.S., UK or Canada yet.
Note that this only applies to student accounts, with neither the $9.99 Individual account or $14.99 Family package impacted. Still, for students trying to make every dollar and cent count, it may be time to look elsewhere.
In the great battle of Apple Music vs. Spotify, this is a valuable point to the latter. Not only is its student package still $4.99 per month, but it comes with a free subscription to Hulu (the ad-supported plan) and Showtime too. There’s a month’s free trial if you’re on the fence, as well.
An extra dollar a month may only add up to $12 per year, but there is an opportunity to save money here if you’re open to switching streaming services.
That seems like a no brainer, but if sound quality is all important to you, then you may just have to suck up the $1 price increase. While Apple Music has Spatial Audio and lossless tracks, Spotify has yet to roll out its long promised HiFi upgrade.
If you’re an iPhone user, as most Apple Music subscribers are, it could also be worth looking at an Apple One account where the likes of Music, Arcade, TV Plus are bundled into one discounted monthly subscription cost with some extra cloud storage. While there’s no student discount, $14.99 per month isn’t bad if you get use out of all the services on offer.
News Summary:
- Students recently got slapped in the face with an unexpected Apple Music price hike
- Check all covering from the latest tech news updates.
