Apple Music free trial period reduced to one month

Apple Music's three-month free trial for new users has been a long-standing offer for years now. However, recently the Cupertino based company has reduced that down to one month in some countries, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and the U.K. among others.

Spotify also offers a one-month free trial for its premium tier. However, in the U.S. and some other countries, Spotify runs limited two-month trial campaigns, and paying for Premium through PayPal can get you three months free.

The main reason behind this change in policy is largely because Apple Music is now the second most used music streaming service. They already have a lot of customers who can convince more people to join. So no need for three months on-boarding.

Moreover, with the current problems plaguing Spotify, Apple Music is expected to become the number one player in the music streaming industry. This means they are going to have a huge influx of new users. And if many of them use the service for free for many months, they will be paying artists while not making money.

The change does not affect the free six-month trial period that Apple offers on the purchase of limited-time products, for example, Beats, AirPods, and the HomePod mini.

However, Apple Music prices remain unaffected. For those who don't know, it is priced at Rs 99 per month for individual users, Rs 149 per month for a family subscription, Rs 49 per month for students, and Rs 49 per month for the Apple Music Voice plan, which was recently introduced with iOS 15.2 and allows people to look for music with Siri's help.

Apple has not stated what would happen to current holders of the three-month trial, though under normal circumstances, those who applied for the plan before the change should remain unaffected.

Earlier, In May 2014, Apple Music had acquired Beats Audio for $3 billion.

Spotify's market share has declined from 34% in 2019 to 33% in 2020 and 31% last year. Apple Music has a 15% slice of the streaming market pie worldwide followed by Amazon's 13%. Despite the current trends, for Apple to catch up and overtake Spotify it will have to take a long term, patient approach to the business of streaming music.