Apple jacks up pricing for Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple One

For the first time, Apple is raising its prices for subscriptions to Apple Music and Apple TV+. Let's start with Apple Music which trails only Spotify worldwide in the number of overall users, but is ahead of it in some countries. In the states, Apple is raising the price for an individual Apple Music subscription by 10% taking the monthly cost from $9.99 to $10.99.

The Apple Music family subscription, which includes as many as six separate accounts, is now $16.99 following a $2 or 13.3% hike. Spotify, Apple's chief rival, is keeping its price unchanged at $9.99 per month for an individual plan (following a two-month free trial) or $15.99 per month for a family plan for up to 6 members. The annual subscription price for an individual goes from $99 to $109.

Apple blames the price hike on an increase in the fees it pays to license music for its streaming service. An Apple representative said, "The change to Apple Music is due to an increase in licensing costs, and in turn, artists and songwriters will earn more for the streaming of their music. We also continue to add innovative features that make Apple Music the world’s best listening experience." This is the first time Apple has raised the subscription fee for Apple Music since the streamer was introduced in June 2015.

Apple TV+ subscribers in the U.S. will also soon see a higher monthly price of $6.99 per month, $2 or 40% higher than the old price. The annual price for Apple TV+ is hiked to $69 from $49.99. As noted, this is the first price hike for Apple TV+ since the service was first launched in November 2019. Why did the gang in Cupertino hike Apple TV+ prices? A spokesman makes it seem as though the increase in content has something to do with it.

"We introduced Apple TV+ at a very low price because we started with just a few shows and movies," Apple said. "Three years later, Apple TV+ is home to an extensive selection of award-winning and broadly acclaimed series, feature films, documentaries, and kids and family entertainment from the world’s most creative storytellers." Apple TV+ offers several award-winning shows including Emmy winner Ted Lasso. The service started streaming Friday Night Baseball and next year it will stream Major League Soccer contests.

The price hikes also impact the pricing of the Apple One bundle plans. The individual plan, which includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud+ storage, is now $16.95/month which is $2 higher or 15% more than the $14.95 per month that Apple previously charged. The Family plan which includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 200GB of iCloud+ storage is now $22.95/month for an increase of $3 or 15%.

The Premier Apple One package which includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, a whopping 2TB of iCloud+ storage, Apple News+, and Apple Fitness+ is now $32.95/month, a $3 or 10% increase.

Apple still offers promotions to those buying its devices. For example, those purchasing a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, or Mac receive three free months of Apple TV+; six months of Apple Music is free with the purchase of certain AirPods earbuds, Beats headphones, or HomePod speakers.

The price hikes will take effect for existing Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple One subscribers at the beginning of their next billing cycle. Existing customers will also receive notification of the price increases 30 days before they begin.

 The price increases, assuming that only a small number of existing subscribers cancel their subscriptions, should help boost Apple's services revenue which hit $68 billion in fiscal 2021. This figure has tripled over the last six years.