Apple Music is going the free route, just like Spotify and YouTube Music | Image by Apple
If you want to listen to music for free, you need to put up with annoying ads and scrambled tracks with no skipping. That's the free subscription streaming model that Spotify started years ago, and YouTube Music adopted later. Now it seems that Apple is going that route as well.
Apple Music's free tier might be coming
Even though iPhone users have different ways to get Apple Music for free, including clubbed subscriptions such as Apple One, a truly free tier has never existed on Apple's streaming platform.
It's even worse for Android users, who want to dip their toes into Apple Music's catalog. There's only the $10.99/mo option, and that's it.
NEW: It appears that Apple may be working on a free or lower-cost tier of Apple Music, Android Police reports.
Strings in the latest Apple Music for Android beta mention "Can't skip any more tracks" and "Premium access required" pic.twitter.com/xGHeaDb7X3
According to MacRumors analyst Aaron Perris, this is about to change. He posted on X strings of code, taken from the beta version of the Apple Music app, showing a very interesting error message.
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"Can't skip any more tracks," reads the prompt, adding "Premium access required."
These two strings point toward a similar functionality to the Spotify free tier, where you can't skip a song after your free skips run out.
What do you think about a free, ad-supported tier in Apple Music?
New free tier in Apple Music is probably limited to songs
The strings specifically mention "tracks," so there's a good chance this new free tier is limited to just listening to music on Apple Play and not other types of content, such as radio shows, for example.
The exact limitations of this free tier are still a mystery, well, besides the track skipping. We don't know if there are going to be high-end features missing, such as Lossless Audio, Spatial Audio and DJ transitions.
When is this new Apple Music free tier coming?
That's the million-dollar question. Most of these suspicious strings of code start appearing in apps relatively close to the official rollout.
But it can be weeks to months before the feature sees light of day. However, with the iOS 27 coming out on June 8th, it makes sense that Apple made some tweaks and refreshes to certain apps and services to show during WWDC.
Will Apple Music be the next Spotify killer?
Spotify shouldn't be worried... for now... | Image by PhoneArena
That's very unlikely. Spotify has roughly 483 million ad-supported (free tier) monthly active users, which accounts for about 61% of their entire global user base.
Apple Music has some catching-up to do, but the addition of a free tier is a step in the right direction.
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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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