Apple is quietly raising the price of its Apple Music Student plan again, but this time in the US, Canada and UK.
The changes were first identified by Twitter users (opens in new tab) who have noticed the increase in the price of the American plan, which is now $5.99 per month. Scrolling through the stores in Canada and the UK, you’ll see the same increases, which are now $5.99 and £5.99 respectively.
following trends
The price increase appears to have been made in the last few days. If you use the Wayback Machine to see archived pages (opens in new tab) from the Apple Music Store starting June 21, you’ll see the old price of $4.99. The same thing goes for the Canadian and British pages.
This recent move is not out of the blue. Other countries have seen similar price increases. According to a report by MacRumors (opens in new tab), other locations include Australia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, India and Israel, just to name a few. But in those countries, Apple took the time to warn everyone, sending emails that some shared in twitter (opens in new tab).
As for the other plans, everything seems to be the same. The Apple Music Individual plan still costs $9.99 a month in the US, for example. The same can be said for the Family and Voice plans, so it’s unclear why only the Student plan had the price increase.
Apple has yet to make an official statement or send an email explaining its decision. We asked the company if it could explain the change and perhaps reveal whether more countries will receive the same price increase. Unfortunately, Apple representatives never got back to us.
Analysis: in search of better deals
With this price increase, students can start looking for better deals with streaming services. For example, Spotify Premium Student Plan (opens in new tab) it’s looking really good now. For $4.99, students get access to Spotify Premium, plus a dual Hulu and Showtime subscription.
It’s true that Apple Music has better sounding music thanks to the Spatial Audio feature, while Spotify hasn’t released lossless audio yet. But there’s more to Spotify than music. In recent months, the platform has further increased support for podcasts and revealed that it is working to bring audiobooks. Apple is trying to win over podcast creators, but it’s unclear if it will be enough to keep people on the more expensive Student plan. If you’re interested in whether Spotify or Apple Music is better, recently put the two face to face services.