Apple (AAPL) -) has been steadily pushing into the subscription business for years now, building robust products that more than one billion people are using, according to the tech titan.
Now that it has pulled in a variety of different consumers with products like Apple Arcade and Apple News+, its announcing a new price hike for several of its subscription products that, while not exactly a surprise, will probably not go over well for many of its users.
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As of Oct. 25, Apple TV+ and Apple News+ have both gone up $3 in price, with the new price for TV at $9.99 a month and the new price for News+ at $12.99. Apple Arcade is also getting a $2 price hike, bringing the monthly cost up to $6.99.
Apple Music is also affected, going from $9.99 to $10.00 a month, or $10 a month if users choose the annual plan ($109 a year). Apple Music for Families is also going up $2 a month, from $14.99 to $16.99.
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These changes are also affecting Apple One, the service that bundles all of Apple's available media subscriptions. It was previously $16.95 a month, but that price is now up to $19.95.
“The subscription prices for Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple One will increase beginning today,” an Apple spokesperson said in a press statement. “The change to Apple Music is due to an increase in licensing costs, and in turn, artists and songwriters will earn more for the streaming of their music. We also continue to add innovative features that make Apple Music the world’s best listening experience.”
Current subscribers won't see prices go up for 30 days, but new subscribers will pay the new prices from the moment they sign up.
Apple's strategy is clear
Apple's subscription price changes are clearly designed to nudge loyal users of its products towards Apple One, which is barely two years old. While Apple has clearly seen success with its subscription model, some of its services see less traction than others, such as Apple TV+, which lost global market share in 2022 and only has a fraction of the subscribers of competitors like Netflix.
By throwing Apple TV+ into the package alongside Music, Arcade, and iCloud storage, Apple effectively creates a method of putting its lesser-used TV service into the laps of folks who are already hooked on the quality of one of its other products. And while that hardly puts Apple TV+ in the realm of a Netflix or Amazon Prime, at least some more eyeballs might find their way to it — and after dropping $6 billion to participate in the streaming wars, Apple needs something to show for it.
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