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Apple Music is one of the bigger music streaming services out there, behind Spotify. It is one of the more expensive services, actually. And that’s mostly because it just issued a price hike a few months ago. It is now $10.99 per month, Spotify and YouTube Music also recently increased prices to $10.99. While students can get Apple Music for just $5.99 per month, or a family plan that can be shared with 5 people for $16.99 per month.
With Apple Music, you can listen to over 100 million songs, and get over 30,000 playlists, all ad-free. It also includes Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos for audio, which sounds incredible, with the right pair of headphones. Apple Music is one of the only ones offering that, right now. YouTube Music and Spotify are supposed to add it, as well as Lossless in the future, but there’s no word as to when that will happen. It also offers Apple Music Sing, so you can use Apple Music for karoake, as well as Apple Music Classical. Classical is another app, but if you are big into classical music then it’s worth checking out.
But what if we told you that you could get Apple Music for free? Well, you can. And there are a few different ways that you can do this.
Verizon Unlimited
Update: Verizon has eliminated the One Unlimited for iPhone plan, and it’s other older unlimited plans. In favor of Unlimited Welcome, Unlimited Plus and Unlimited Ultimate. Which breaks out the perks like Apple Music into add-ons. So while you can’t get it for free, you can get the family plan for $10, which is normally $16.99.
If you want Apple Music free, forever, then Verizon is the best option. On two of its Unlimited plans, it offers Apple Music for free, as long as you keep the plan. Both of these plans are $90 per month for a single line, or as low as $45 per month for five lines.
One Unlimited for iPhone
This is a newer plan from Verizon, which it debuted with the iPhone 14 in late 2022. It’s basically a plan made specifically for iPhone users. You get all the good stuff that Verizon offers like unlimited 5G UW data, 25GB of premium mobile hotspot data, as well as Apple One.
So with Apple One included here, you’ll get Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and iCloud+ included. And you’ll also get up to 50% off a watch, tablet, hotspot or Hum plan.
If you use a lot of Apple’s services already, then this is a really good plan to check out. It can be quite pricey, if you’re not on a family plan however. But where that Apple One plus connectivity is valued at $42.95/month, that’s about half the cost of the actual plan right there.
5G Get More
Verizon’s 5G Get More plan is available with quite a few things included. Not only do you get Apple Music for free, but you also get the Disney+ bundle for free. That includes Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu. You’ll also get Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass included.
On top of all that, Verizon will take 50% off of a watch, tablet, hotspot or Hum plan. Gives you one TravelPass day per month and 600GB of Verizon Cloud for free. Which makes it a great plan for those that do some traveling, and uses multiple devices.
Apple One plan
While not technically “free” you can get Apple Music included in the Apple One subscription plan, which does also include the other Apple services like TV+, Arcade, iCloud+, News+ and Fitness+.
Apple has three Apple One plans available – Individual, Family and Premier. Individual starts at $16.95 per month, and gives you 50GB of iCloud+, Apple TV+, Apple Music and Apple Arcade. If you purchased these by themselves, you’d be paying $23.96 per month. So it’s not too shabby.
Of course, the better plan, in our opinion is the Premier plan. This one is $32.95 per month. It comes with 2TB of iCloud+ storage, Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+ and Apple News+. Separately these would cost you $58.94 per month. This one, unlike the individual plan, can be shared with up to five people. So you can split the cost as well, making that $32.95 a whole lot less.
Best Buy
Over at Best Buy, they will give you a free four-month trial to Apple Music (as well as three months for Apple TV+ and three months of iCloud+), with the purchase of almost any Apple product. This includes MacBooks, Apple Watches, iPads, iPhones and much more. And it is also available for new and returning subscribers. You just can’t be a current subscriber to these services.
It’s pretty easy to redeem as well. Once you purchase your product, Best Buy will send you an email about how to claim these freebies. And you’ll be able to claim your free four months of Apple Music.
As a warning, these freebies do tend to change up every so often. So while right now it is four months free, it may not always be four months. It could be three or six. So be sure to checkout Best Buy, as these will change based on what Apple is offering.
Apple Music free trial
While a lot of streaming services are ditching the free trial, Apple Music has kept it. At least for now. With the free trial, you’ll get a month of the service for free. Just head to the Apple Music web page in your browser, or open the Apple Music app on your phone to get started.
Now, if you had Apple Music, and then ditched it for something else and now want to come back, Apple will sweeten the deal. After an unspecified amount of time, Apple may send you a notification about coming back to Apple Music and getting between three and six months free. Or getting between three and six months for just $10.99 (the cost of a single month), to join Apple Music again.