Apple Music is Apple’s music streaming service that offers access to more than 100 million tracks and 30,000 playlists curated by experts. You can use it on Apple products as well as PCs, Android, Sonos, Amazon Alexa, PlayStation and other devices.
There are various subscription tiers, including a cheaper price for students.
- Apple Music Student: $5.99/£5.99 a month
- Apple Music Individual: $10.99/£10.99 a month (was $9.99/£9.99 until October 2022)
- Apple Music Family: $16.99/£16.99 a month (was $14.99/£14.99 until October 2022)
- Apple One: From $19.95/£18.95 a month (includes Apple Music, Apple Arcade, 50GB iCloud+, and Apple TV+ and might represent a saving if you were already paying for any of those other services.)
The cheaper Apple Music Voice Plan (which cost half the price of the standard Apple Music plan at $4.99/£4.99 a month) has been discontinued.
However, you don’t have to pay that much. Apple offers various trials – including a one-month free trial, but there are ways to get up to six months free with certain purchases. Apple also makes trials or discounts available to lapsed subscribers from time to time.
Find out what Apple Music trials are available and how to get Apple Music for free in this article, including how to get three months free Apple Music with Shazam, even if you have had a trial in the past.
Plus if you are a student you can get Apple Music for half price, a deal that includes Apple TV+ for free!
Is Apple Music free?
Unlike Spotify and Amazon Music, there isn’t a free, ad-supported Apple Music tier – the closest option was Apple Music Voice, which was a cut-price, cut-down version of the music streaming service that didn’t allow you to download tracks or create your own playlists, but Apple ditched that option, two years after it was introduced, in November 2023.
However, you can get Apple Music for free for a limited time if you take advantage of the many trials on offer from Apple and its partners.
Apple Music free trial
Apple offers a one-month free Apple Music trial, but you can find trials that extend that period, including six months Apple Music for free if you buy AirPods, a HomePod or Beats headphones.
Apple’s partners, such as Shazam, also offer Apple Music trials of various lengths.
Read on for details of the best Apple Music trials we’ve seen, including how to get Apple Music for free for longer than the standard one-month trial and how to get a free trial if you have previously subscribed to Apple Music.
If you don’t want to pay for Apple Music once your trial is over you must make sure to cancel your subscription before it automatically renews. It’s easy to cancel a subscription on iPhone, iPad or Mac, just follow these steps:
- On an iPhone just go to Settings and click on the section at the top with your Apple ID.
- Tap on Subscriptions find the one you want to cancel and tap on it.
- Then tap on Cancel Subscription.
How to get Apple Music for free
If you’ve never tried Apple Music before you’ll be able to get one month free of charge, with no catch and no questions asked. Prior to February 2022, the length of this trial was three months though, so this trial period is not quite as good as it once was.
To get the one-month free Apple Music trial visit Apple’s website via the links below and choose ‘Try 1 one month free’ in the top right corner, or click ‘Try it free’ on the relevant plan (just about halfway down the page).
U.S. customers:
U.K. customers:
How to get Apple Music free for 6 months
Want more than a month? You can get Apple Music free for six months if you buy a qualifying Apple product. Apple offers six months free to new Apple Music users who buy AirPods, a HomePod mini or Beats headphones. You do need to be a new subscriber to Apple Music though.
The following devices are eligible as per Apple’s ts&cs:
- AirPods Pro
- AirPods (2nd and 3rd generation)
- AirPods Max
- HomePod
- HomePod mini
- Beats Fit Pro
- Beats Studio Buds
- Powerbeats
- Powerbeats Pro
- Beats Solo Pro
- Beats Studio Pro
If you have bought one of these eligible devices you can qualify–as long as you haven’t previously subscribed to Apple Music and as long as the device has been paired with your iPhone or iPad for less than 90 days.
To qualify for the free six-month trial you need to sign up within 90 days of first pairing your qualifying audio device with an iPhone or iPad that is running the latest iOS or iPadOS. So if you’ve been using your HomePod with your Apple ID for more than 90 days you won’t be able to take advantage–unless you switched your HomePod to a different Apple ID…
U.S. customers:
U.K. customers:
To get Apple’s six-month trial of Apple Music follow these steps:
- Update your iPhone or iPad to the latest version of iOS/iPadOS.
- Pair your AirPods, HomePods or Beats headphones with you iPhone or iPad.
- Open Apple Music on the iPhone or iPad.
- Sign in with your Apple ID.
- You should see details of the offer, if you don’t click on Listen Now.
How to get Apple Music free with Shazam
It’s not only Apple that is offering a trial of Apple Music. Various Apple partners are also offering free Apple Music trials of varying lengths.
You can often find Apple Music trials via music recognition software Shazam (which is a subsidiary of Apple). The offer runs from time to time and in the past Shazam has offered five and even six months Apple Music for free, but right now it’s three months free on offer.
If you use your iPhone camera to scan the QR code on the Shazam website it will open the Shazam app on your iPhone (or ask you to install it). Download and install Shazam to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Alternatively, you can trigger the deal if you use the Shazam app to Shazam a song you like (to find out what it is).
To get the deal follow these steps in the Shazam app:
- Tap to Shazam a song, or Tap on My Music to see your Recent Shazams.
- You should see a block highlighting the free offer. Click on Try Now.
- You’ll be invited to Get three months free of Apple Music (or more or less depending on the current offer).
- Click on Try It Free and you will be taken to the Apple Music app.
- You will then be invited to Double Click to Redeem. You will see the date at which the free trial will end and you will be charged, so we suggest you make a note to cancel just before if you don’t want to start paying.
- Finally, you be able to start listening to Apple Music.
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Enjoy your three months free!
Can you get the Shazam trial if you have previously had a trial?
Yes! The good news is that we were able to take advantage of the Shazam trial despite having previously had trials, and been a lapsed subscriber. In our case when a five-month Shazam trial was available we were able to qualify for a two-month trial instead.
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How to send a friend three-months of Apple Music with Shazam
Shazam is also providing a way to send a friend up to three months Apple Music for free.
They will need to be a new subscriber, but you can send them to this page then they can get up to three months free (we’re only seeing one month on offer now, despite Shazam describing it as three months here.)
Other ways to get Apple Music free in the U.S.
It’s not only Apple and Apple-subsidiary Shazam that offer Apple Music trials.
Verizon
In the U.S. customers can get free Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Arcade and iCloud with some of Verizon’s plans. The Ultimate iPhone plan is $65 a month and includes Apple One.
Best Buy
You can get four months free from Best Buy, and, best of all, returning subscribers can qualify, although they won’t get the full four months free, just three months. You need to join My Best Buy Plus ($49.99 a year) or Best Buy Total ($179.99 a year).
Other ways to get Apple Music free in the U.K.
Like Verizon in the U.S., various phone contract providers in the U.K. bundle Apple Music to sweeten the deal. In the U.K. EE and O2 offer six months of Apple Music.
O2
O2 offers three, four or six months of Apple Services (Apple Music, Apple TV and Fitness +) depending on the tariff selected.
For example, you can get three months Apple Music with non-Plus Plan tariffs and six months Apple Music with Plus Plan tariffs.
months Apple Music free with the Plus Plan. Unfortunately, you won’t qualify if you have subscribed in the past. O2 also offers three months Apple Music with other tariffs.
EE
EE also offers Apple Music as an Inclusive Extra. You can get six months Apple Music whether you are new to EE or an existing customer. You just need to text MUSIC to 150 to get the offer.
There is also an option to pay an extra £5 a month to get Apple One, which bundles Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and 50GB iCloud.
ID Mobile
Phone reseller ID Mobile offers up to three months of Apple services with any purchase, that’s three months of Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and Apple Music. Returning customers get two months of Apple Music.
How to get another Apple Music trial if you’ve already had one
As with the Shazam example above, you may find that you qualify for another two months, even if have previously had a longer trial. What if you have used up all your trial time though?
From time to time Apple offers lapsed subscribers the opportunity to get three months Apple Music for the price of one – so £10.99/$10.99 for three months.
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Generally though, once you’ve used your three (or more) months trial, you won’t be able to get any more months free using the same method, even if you wait a year or so. But there is a trick to getting an extra three months: start using Family Sharing via another user and switch to the Apple Music Family Sharing plan.
If you’re happy to use Family Sharing, you could get another member of your family to sign up for the free trial of the Apple Music Family Sharing plan, and then share that with you. You’ll then be able to take advantage of an extra three months for free. In fact, it can be shared between up to six people so you could share the free trial with other family members too.
We have a separate article with more information about Family Sharing and how to set it up.
Top Tip: Just want Apple Music for a short period of time? Subscribe to Apple Music for a month, create your playlist for your party or event, and then cancel the subscription.
Wondering if it’s worth trying out Apple Music? Read our complete guide to Apple Music and our Apple Music vs Spotify comparison.
We explain how to use Apple Music, plus, find out more about Apple Music on Apple’s website.
Want Apple TV+ for free? We cover that here: All the ways you can get Apple TV+ for free.
Author: Karen Haslam, Editor
Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld two decades ago.
Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.