Apple Music no longer offers any free tiers — in select geographical locations. The three-month free trial period, which enabled you to try the service before you were asked to pick up a complete subscription for the streaming music, had now been nixed in the following countries — Australia, Spain, and Switzerland. It was first spotted by AppleInsider.
The users who’re willing to kickstart their Apple Music experience in the said locations are now being prompted to shell out 99 cents (converted based on your geographical location) to try the streaming service. The three-month trial period was one of the major highlights of the platform when it launched back in 2015. Cupertino continued to offer this free trial service until date but now seems to be monetising the same as well.
The change in subscription prices for the trial are now being reflected on individual Apple Music websites of each location. It means the three–month subscription will cost you $0.99 in Australia, 0.99 euros in Spain and Switzerland comes in at Fr. 0.99.
There’s presently no official word on why Apple has changed its stance on the free subscription/trial tier, except for the fact that a spokesperson told The Verge that ‘pricing and promotions for Apple Music vary from country to country.’ This statement is also pretty vague and offers no explanation into why the testing has been started in the aforementioned three countries. If that is the case then the United States could soon also be engulfed in this payment plan.
As the competition from rivals like Spotify and Google Play Music increases, Apple finally seems to be monetizing its trial tier after offering it for free for a couple years. It has already been at the center of controversy once when Apple said that it will not pay artists royalty during the free period. But, the decision had to be reversed after intense backlash from popular artists, such as Taylor Swift. We’ll probably learn more about Cupertino’s move at the upcoming WWDC 2017 conference next week.
We’ll probably learn more about Cupertino’s move at the upcoming WWDC 2017 conference next week. Apple Music presently has over 20 million paying subscribers, while Spotify has 50 million.
