How to sign up for (and cancel) an Apple Music streaming subscription

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited July 2015
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.


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

  • Reply 1 of 17
    macvictamacvicta Posts: 346member
    Why the hell are my songs edited? Am I using the kiddie version or something? I can't find anything to turn it off.
  • Reply 2 of 17
    mrspacemrspace Posts: 1member
    Thank you, that is very valuable information, I signed up as soon as I can, and come Sept 30th - I'm out too!
  • Reply 3 of 17
    bobschlobbobschlob Posts: 1,074member
    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)
  • Reply 4 of 17
    fllnflln Posts: 1member

    What about the switch for auto renewal? It's from iOS 5!!

  • Reply 5 of 17
    Strange, updating to 10.4 on a desktop yields none of this.

    Is for mobile only? that would be nonsensical.
  • Reply 6 of 17
    normmnormm Posts: 653member

    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.

  • Reply 7 of 17
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,717member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by battiato1981 View Post



    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).

  • Reply 8 of 17
    bobschlobbobschlob Posts: 1,074member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by NormM View Post

     

    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.

  • Reply 9 of 17
    macapfelmacapfel Posts: 575member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by BobSchlob View Post



    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.

  • Reply 10 of 17
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by auxio View Post

     



    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. 

  • Reply 11 of 17
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by BobSchlob View Post

     



    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.

  • Reply 12 of 17
    hillstoneshillstones Posts: 1,490member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Boltsfan17 View Post

     

    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.

  • Reply 13 of 17
    I don't like the new app.
  • Reply 14 of 17
    mj webmj web Posts: 918member
    I wish Apple well. But can hardly do my 50 GB music library justice as it is. Of course I'll give Music a 3 month spin. But the only way I'd consider subscribing is if the individual rate was the same as the family rate, $2.50 a month per subscriber. Since Apple covets a mass audience they'll probably figure out this math pretty fast. I expect Music will be $2.50 for everyone in the next year or so.
  • Reply 15 of 17
    bigdobigdo Posts: 19member
    I'm having a problem with Family Sharing subscription in Apple Music. I have Family Sharing setup for 3 family members but Apple Music subscription will not show on the other devices. Contact Apple support and they seem clueless as to how to solve the problem. They tell me there may be a 24 hour delay, but they really were just guessing. After multiple login and logout on all 3 devices and 3 hours later it did show up on a second device. After 6 hours it is still not available on the 3rd device. I still don't know if it's because Apple services are slow at talking to each other or it's some other problem.
  • Reply 16 of 17
    slprescottslprescott Posts: 765member
    After I've selected Family Plan, what plan do the other members of my family choose so that Apple doesn't bill them IN ADDITION TO what I'll pay for the family? If they also choose Family Plan, will Apple interpret that as TWO Family Plan subscriptions?
  • Reply 17 of 17
    bigdobigdo Posts: 19member
    I think the other Family members should not see the purchase option. At least that is what happened in my case for one of the family members a few hours after the family plan purchase. For one other family member it was still not showing up on the iPhone at the end of day yesterday. Will check later today. I contacted Apple support about this and they didn't know if it was a problem or a delay. They also didn't seem to know the steps to get Family Plan working.
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