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Apple Music increases subscription prices, cites “rising licensing costs”
All price increases will come into effect immediately
Apple Music is increasing its subscription prices with immediate effect due to “rising licensing costs”.
The move marks the first price hike from the music streaming giant since October 2022, and the company have said that it has been done to an increase in licensing costs.
With the planned changes, the individual plan in the UK is now going up from £10.99 to £11.99 per month, and the family plan is rising from £16.99 to £19.99.
In Europe, the individual plan has also gone up from €10.99 to €11.99, the family plan has gone too from €16.99 to €19.99, and the student plan has also been affected, rising to €6.99 every month.
Across the US, the individual plan is changing from the previous cost of $10.99 up to $11.99, the family plan is also rising from $16.99 to $19.99, and the student plan is rising by one dollar each month – going from $5.99 to $6.99 monthly.
All price increases will come into effect immediately.
Apple Music increases their plan prices:
• Student: $5.99/month → $6.99/month
• Individual: $10.99/month → $11.99/month
• Family: $16.99/month → $19.99/month pic.twitter.com/HS8fS996tk— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 17, 2026
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Apple Music isn’t the only streaming platform to increase prices in recent times. At the end of 2025, Spotify raised individual premium subscriptions from £11.99 to £12.99 per month. That was the third £1 increase in Spotify subscription prices for UK users in three years.
Earlier this year, Apple Music confirmed that it would be implementing new features to let users know if they are listening to music that was made using AI.
Before the changes, the label or distributor needed to manually choose if it wanted to flag when artificial intelligence had been used, however, the new changes mean that it is “required” when uploading new content to the streaming service.
The update came after a study, conducted last year, revealed that 97 per cent of people “can’t tell the difference” between real and AI music. Before then, figures in 2024 warned that people working in music were likely to lose a quarter of their income to AI over the following four years.
As well as Apple, Deezer has also tackled the rise of AI-generated content – which it said in September made up 28 per cent of content on the platform – sharing that it had demonetised 85 per cent of all AI-generated tracks on its site using an AI-detection tool.
Bandcamp has banned all AI-created tracks too, saying: “We reserve the right to remove any music on suspicion of being AI-generated.”
Before the AI-recognition feature, Apple Music also implemented a new aspect that allowed its users to import playlists from other streaming platforms.
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Apple Music is increasing its subscription prices with immediate effect due to “rising licensing costs”.
The move marks the first price hike from the music streaming giant since October 2022, and the company have said that it has been done to an increase in licensing costs.
With the planned changes, the individual plan in the UK is now going up from £10.99 to £11.99 per month, and the family plan is rising from £16.99 to £19.99.
In Europe, the individual plan has also gone up from €10.99 to €11.99, the family plan has gone too from €16.99 to €19.99, and the student plan has also been affected, rising to €6.99 every month.
Across the US, the individual plan is changing from the previous cost of $10.99 up to $11.99, the family plan is also rising from $16.99 to $19.99, and the student plan is rising by one dollar each month – going from $5.99 to $6.99 monthly.
All price increases will come into effect immediately.
Apple Music increases their plan prices:
• Student: $5.99/month → $6.99/month
• Individual: $10.99/month → $11.99/month
• Family: $16.99/month → $19.99/month pic.twitter.com/HS8fS996tk— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 17, 2026
Recommended
Apple Music isn’t the only streaming platform to increase prices in recent times. At the end of 2025, Spotify raised individual premium subscriptions from £11.99 to £12.99 per month. That was the third £1 increase in Spotify subscription prices for UK users in three years.
Earlier this year, Apple Music confirmed that it would be implementing new features to let users know if they are listening to music that was made using AI.
Before the changes, the label or distributor needed to manually choose if it wanted to flag when artificial intelligence had been used, however, the new changes mean that it is “required” when uploading new content to the streaming service.
The update came after a study, conducted last year, revealed that 97 per cent of people “can’t tell the difference” between real and AI music. Before then, figures in 2024 warned that people working in music were likely to lose a quarter of their income to AI over the following four years.
As well as Apple, Deezer has also tackled the rise of AI-generated content – which it said in September made up 28 per cent of content on the platform – sharing that it had demonetised 85 per cent of all AI-generated tracks on its site using an AI-detection tool.
Bandcamp has banned all AI-created tracks too, saying: “We reserve the right to remove any music on suspicion of being AI-generated.”
Before the AI-recognition feature, Apple Music also implemented a new aspect that allowed its users to import playlists from other streaming platforms.
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