How to sign up for (and cancel) an Apple Music streaming subscription
Signing up for the brand new Apple Music service is a relatively simple process. Here's how to get up and running quickly, as well as how to turn off automatic renewals or cancel later down the road.
Choosing to join brings up a splash screen with the option to either skip to the regular Music app or start a free trial.
Although the service is free for the first three months, new subscribers must still pick either an Individual or a Family plan for the sake of automatic billing after the trial ends. The former costs $9.99 per month, and is limited to a single user. The Family plan is $14.99 and covers up to six people -- to make use of it, Family Sharing has to be turned on, for which Apple provides a convenient link.
Something many people will want to do is enable iCloud Music Library from the Music section in the iOS Settings app. This lets users add songs and playlists to My Music, and then access them from all devices.
From here it's possible to simply search for artists, albums, songs, playlists, and stations, but it's extremely wise to tap on the Music app's "For You" tab and begin setting up recommendations. Users are first asked to pick favorite genres by tapping once on general likes, twice on top picks, and tapping and holding to block a style.
This is followed by a similar screen for artists, but with a "More Artists" button that allows refining preferences ad infinitum. At any time, artist preferences can be tweaked by going to the Account window.
There people can see the kind of subscription they have active and available renewal options. Cancelling is then as easy as flipping off the "Automatic Renewal" option, which will stop Apple Music access as soon as the current month or trial period is over.
Signing up
The first step in creating an account involves launching the Music app in iOS 8.4. At the top left corner of the screen is the Account button -- tapping this brings up a screen with a "Join Apple Music" option. In the same window, users should pick the name, nickname, and profile photo that will appear alongside playlists and Connect comments.Choosing to join brings up a splash screen with the option to either skip to the regular Music app or start a free trial.
Although the service is free for the first three months, new subscribers must still pick either an Individual or a Family plan for the sake of automatic billing after the trial ends. The former costs $9.99 per month, and is limited to a single user. The Family plan is $14.99 and covers up to six people -- to make use of it, Family Sharing has to be turned on, for which Apple provides a convenient link.
Something many people will want to do is enable iCloud Music Library from the Music section in the iOS Settings app. This lets users add songs and playlists to My Music, and then access them from all devices.
From here it's possible to simply search for artists, albums, songs, playlists, and stations, but it's extremely wise to tap on the Music app's "For You" tab and begin setting up recommendations. Users are first asked to pick favorite genres by tapping once on general likes, twice on top picks, and tapping and holding to block a style.
This is followed by a similar screen for artists, but with a "More Artists" button that allows refining preferences ad infinitum. At any time, artist preferences can be tweaked by going to the Account window.
Cancelling
Apple makes the cancellation option more difficult to find, but otherwise far simpler. From the Account window, users have to hit "View Apple ID," sign in if necessary, and then scroll down to a "Manage" button under Subscriptions.There people can see the kind of subscription they have active and available renewal options. Cancelling is then as easy as flipping off the "Automatic Renewal" option, which will stop Apple Music access as soon as the current month or trial period is over.
Comments
Although sadly, this is testament to how more and more complicated it continues to become to inhabit the Apple cloud and sync ecosystem. (Makes me so sad to say that)
What about the switch for auto renewal? It's from iOS 5!!
Is for mobile only? that would be nonsensical.
This should have been much simpler to start off. I also don't understand how this interacts with iTunes Match, which I already have. They still sell both, for some reason, so it must not be simply absorbed into the new service. And I don't currently use family sharing, because it has funny limitations that simply sharing an Apple ID for purchases doesn't. Like some stuff isn't shareable. So it's not clear which free trial to pick, since my significant other uses my ID to buy stuff. Is it worth switching to family sharing to get this?
In the past, Apple has won by making new things simple and good, and iterating. This isn't simple, and it's not designed by the same guys that made previous products simple. Real simplicity comes from the concept and not the implementation. Apple's big advantage is that everyone can immediately try this who has an iOS device, but they've put barriers in place by requiring a plan decision up front, and by making it auto renew.
Strange, updating to 10.4 on a desktop yields none of this.
Is for mobile only? that would be nonsensical.
It appears to be so currently. When you try to connect to Beats 1 via a web link (I Airdrop shared a link from my iPhone to my iMac), it says you need to update to an iTunes version which doesn't exist yet (but presumably is coming soon).
This should have been much simpler to start off. I also don't understand how this interacts with iTunes Match, which I already have. They still sell both, for some reason, so it must not be simply absorbed into the new service. And I don't currently use family sharing, because it has funny limitations that simply sharing an Apple ID for purchases doesn't. Like some stuff isn't shareable. So it's not clear which free trial to pick, since my significant other uses my ID to buy stuff. Is it worth switching to family sharing to get this?
In the past, Apple has won by making new things simple and good, and iterating. This isn't simple, and it's not designed by the same guys that made previous products simple. Real simplicity comes from the concept and not the implementation. Apple's big advantage is that everyone can immediately try this who has an iOS device, but they've put barriers in place by requiring a plan decision up front, and by making it auto renew.
They have only very recently clarified the "Apple Music / iTunes Match" thing.
Apple Music is $120 per year; and it includes iTunes Match among all the many other features you get with the Apple Music package.
Or
You can just have iTunes Match alone for $25 per year.
Thanks for this. I honestly do appreciate it.
Although sadly, this is testament to how more and more complicated it continues to become to inhabit the Apple cloud and sync ecosystem. (Makes me so sad to say that)
My thoughts exactly. The entire iCloud settings got massively convoluted and hard to understand. Just think of someone new to the platform. There is your apple id setup and management, your itunes setup and management same for app stores, ibooks, etc. Not to speak of the oddities of family sharing. From Apple I would expect one single pane that let me manage everything. Simply add subscriptions, remove subscriptions, etc. At least, with Music I expected I would be prompted what happens with my iTunes Match. But nothing. If Apple is so convinced from their Apple Music, why not make iTunes Match a free service that people can opt in or out. They don't need the money form those few only wanting iTunes Match. And it would have been much simpler. And so on. Apple really needs to clean up all their iCloud service. It is way to complicated. For a non-Nerd. And progressively even for (some) nerds.
It appears to be so currently. When you try to connect to Beats 1 via a web link (I Airdrop shared a link from my iPhone to my iMac), it says you need to update to an iTunes version which doesn't exist yet (but presumably is coming soon).
It's supposed to be out after 2pm PDT. Don't have my Mac with me so not sure if it's available yet or not.
They have only very recently clarified the "Apple Music / iTunes Match" thing.
Apple Music is $120 per year; and it includes iTunes Match among all the many other features you get with the Apple Music package.
Or
You can just have iTunes Match alone for $25 per year.
Yes, it really is that simple. People (and mainly tech writers and talking heads in the tech media who should know better) are making this more difficult than it is.
It's supposed to be out after 2pm PDT. Don't have my Mac with me so not sure if it's available yet or not.
The Mac (Cr)App store finally released iTunes 12.2, but not yet available on the web. Thank you Apple...went to Preferences in iTunes, under the General tab, and immediately unchecked Show Apple Music. Not into renting music.