Music’s golden apple
Apple continues to improve Apple Music, the company’s streaming music service. Apple Music has a massive catalog of more than 100 million songs, the curated Apple Music 1 radio station, Siri compatibility, video content, lyrics, a 24/7 music video channel, and support for numerous devices, including the Apple Watch. Apple has made the service even better by offering lossless audio and Dolby Atmos support at no additional cost. For its entertaining, ever-evolving features, Apple Music joins LiveOne, Sirius XM Internet Radio, Spotify, and Tidal as PCMag’s top-rated, overall Editors’ Choice pick for streaming music services.How to Sign Up for Apple Music
Apple Music is a streaming music service that brings more than 100 million songs and a strong music video catalog to macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, CarPlay, HomePod, Windows, Android, Chrome OS, Amazon Echo, Sonos, and web browsers. So, if you own a consumer tech device, there’s a good chance that you can use it to stream Apple Music.
Signing up is easy. Apple Music offers a one-month trial, which is a decent amount of time to try before you subscribe (you’ll still need to supply credit or debit card info, though). After that, you must sign up for a subscription plan to continue using the service. The $10.99 per month Single Membership and the $16.99 Family Membership (for up to six people using iCloud Family Sharing) grant ad-free music listening, ad-free video watching, offline listening, and access to Apple Music radio (Apple’s three human-curated, 24/7 channels). We like seeing Apple Music and other streaming music services adopt family plans, which is something that LiveOne still lacks. However, LiveOne makes up for it by offering a free-listening tier, which Apple Music lacks. Amazon Music Unlimited also has a Family Plan, one that gives six people ad-free, on-demand music listening for $14.99 per month.
Siri-loving Apple fans have the Apple Music Voice subscription tier to consider. For $4.99 per month, you can enjoy Apple Music’s expansive 100 million-song catalog on any Siri-supported device. You lose out on Apple’s premium offerings, including lossless audio, spatial audio, lyrics, music videos, and downloads. But if you want easy listening on Siri-supported devices, $4.99 is an excellent price point. This pricing is on-par with Amazon Music Unlimited, which offers a similar Single Device plan for $4.99, letting you use the service on one Amazon Echo or Fire TV device.
If you’re a college student who’s enrolled in an eligible college or university, you can subscribe to Apple Music for a wallet-friendly $5.99 per month. Students can take advantage of the discount for up to four years. Spotify and Tidal offer a similar student deal, but at $4.99 per month.Putting the Needle to the Groove
Apple Music’s layout features large, eye-catching icons that invite you to explore the service, be it via a browser or an app. Honestly, that’s something that you’re likely to do anyway, as the interface features a menu structure that helps you quickly find content. Library, Playlists, Artists, Albums, and Songs are all prominent and easy to navigate.
When you sign into the service for the first time, you’ll be asked to pick your favorite music genres and a few sample acts. This populates the Listen Now page, giving you top songs from those artists and genres, plus tailormade radio stations. Alternatively, you can go to the Browse section to peruse Apple’s featured playlists and albums. It’s here that the service highlights some of its Spatial Audio tracks (with support for Dolby Atmos), which is useful if you have the company’s AirPods Pro or another surround-sound headset.
