The new Apple Music service starts today. And because there is a three month free trial, that means that all iPhone users are getting free music. It all starts at 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern today, when Apple will make the iOS 8.4 update available. Update your iPhone (or iPad), and then you will see a new version of the Music app, including tens of millions of songs that you can listen to, for free. There is really no reason for you to not check it out, and I plan to do so. Here are the details.
Features
With the new Music app and the Apple Music service, you get basically three things.
Streaming music. First, you can stream any song in the Apple Music catalog. If someone mentions a song or an album to you, or if you suddenly find yourself thinking about that song that you remember from your youth, or if you hear about some new artist and want to find out what all of the buzz is about, you can just play the song. You don't have to first buy the track(s) from iTunes. And even if you cannot think of something to listen to, the new Music app will make recommendations tailored for you, based on the songs that you already have.
Siri is also smarter with the new Music app. You can now ask Siri to play the top songs from 1987. Or if you like a song that you are listening to, tell Siri to play more music like this. Or say things like, after this song, play Cheeseburger in Paradise.
It's not the entire iTunes catalog; some artists don't make some of their songs available for streaming. But Apple says that it has tens of millions of songs, so you'll have quite a few choices.
What if you want to listen to music that you already own, which is already in iTunes on your computer or already on your iPhone? Well that works too. Apple scans your library and makes a copy of anything it doesn't already have so that it can stream it to you. For example, The Beatles are not currently on any streaming services, Apple Music included, but if you already own Beatles songs, you'll be able to play them along with the music that you stream on Apple Music. So feel free to make a playlist that includes both Lady Gaga and The Beatles; Apple won't judge you. (And yes, this part of Apple Music is identical to the current iTunes Match service for which Apple has been charging $25; it looks like you can cancel your iTunes Match subscription if you will be using Apple Music.)
And even though this is a streaming music service, you can listen to music offline, such as when you are on a plane. I'm not yet sure how this works; you might have to press a button or add a song to a playlist to tell the Music app to download it for you.
Radio. Second, Apple Music includes live, 24/7 streaming radio. The flagship station is called Beats 1. It features the DJs Zane Lowe (formerly of BBC1) who will work out of Los Angeles, Ebro Darden (formerly of WQHT) who will work out of New York, and Julie Adenuga who will work out of London. And apparently many celebrities and others (such as Elton John) will have shows too.
In addition to Beats 1, there are also other "stations" that feature music without a DJ. This part sounds similar to the current iTunes Radio. And Apple Music also retains the feature where you can choose a song and Apple Music creates a radio station based on that one song that you like. In the past, though, you had a limited number of times that you could skip songs every hour with those stations; with Apple Music, you can skip as many times as you want, assuming that you are a paid customer or you are in the free trial period. (For folks who decide not to pay for Apple Music after the three month trial, you go back to the old system of a limited number of skips.)
Connect. Finally, Apple Music introduces a service called Connect. It provides a way to interact with artists. You can hear exclusive music, read posts by the artists, comment on those posts, etc.
Cost
The first three months are free. If you like the service, you can subscribe for $9.99 a month. Better yet, for $14.99 a month, you can get the family plan that works with up to six people. Just turn on iCloud Family Sharing, a service that Apple had already been offering which lets you share media that you own with others in your family.
If you already buy a lot of music, paying $10 a month for an all-you-can-eat plan sounds pretty good, especially considering that you can let your entire family use the plan for only $15 a month. But keep in mind that if you decide to stop paying for Apple Music in a year, you'll no longer have access to those songs — as opposed to music that you buy on iTunes that you can continue to listen to essentially forever.
Conclusion
If you want more details, Serenity Caldwell of iMore put together a very comprehensive FAQ on Apple Music. But in light of the generous three month trial subscription that we all get starting today, my advice is just to try it out and see what you think. That's what I plan to do.
The radio and Connect features don't hold a lot of interest for me right now, but I'll check them out, and who knows, maybe they will appeal to me. It is the streaming music part of Apple Music that appeals to me the most right now. I'll try it, and if it seems worthwhile, I'll start paying for the service in October. If not, I'll just go back to buying music one song, or one album, at a time.
Whatever you decide to do come October, enjoy your Summer of Free Music, courtesy of Apple Music.
