Amid rampant U.S. inflation running at 40-year highs, Apple is increasing prices for Apple Music, Apple TV+, and its Apple One services bundles, citing rising costs.
The company increased the price of Apple Music to $10.99 a month from $9.99 for individuals, effective immediately… The price of Apple TV+ will climb to $6.99 from $4.99, and the standard Apple One bundle increases $2 to $16.95.
The company said in a statement that the music price hike was due to “an increase in licensing costs” and that artists and songwriters will now earn more money… Apple is also hiking its annual music plan to $109 from $99 and its TV+ yearly subscription to $69 from $49. Apple One bundles for families are going to $22.95 from $19.95, while the Premier package, which adds News+, Fitness+ and additional storage on top of Arcade, Music and TV+, is climbing $3 to $32.95.
In explaining the TV+ increase, Apple said that service was introduced “at a very low price” because it started with just a few shows and movies. It’s now “home to an extensive selection of award-winning and broadly acclaimed series, feature films, documentaries, and kids and family entertainment from the world’s most creative storytellers.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple is simply doing what Disney, Netflix, etc. have done already, multiple times.
No one seriously thought Apple TV+ would be $4.99/month forever, especially as it wins major Emmys, Oscars, BAFTAs, etc. We’re surprised it’s been held so low for so long (but that was a smart move by Apple to keep the price nice and low while building out a library of stellar content). — MacDailyNews, October 18, 2022
Expect Apple TV+ to introduce an ad-supported tier for around $4.99 per month in the near future.
Hearing from a little birdie that Apple is planning to launch an ad-supported version of its Apple TV+ streaming-video platform. pic.twitter.com/tfbt7JyMLs
— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) August 4, 2022
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