Buying Apple Music

Yes, you can still buy individual songs and albums.

You do this using the iTunes Store. On iPhones (and similar devices), there is an iTunes Store app. On Macs, the iTunes Store is something you access within the iTunes / Music application. Two ways to get to the same place. I think you can also get there from iTunes for Windows. But not through a Web browser.

Music is the name of an application that has both iPhone and Mac versions. It lets you play purchased music from your library and/or from an Apple Music streaming subscription. You don't need a streaming subscription to use it. The iPhone version of the Music app does not have a way to directly load music imported from your own CDs – so if you purchase music that way, you need the help of a Mac or a PC to get it onto the iPhone.

On Macs running Mojave and earlier, there isn't a Music application. The application started life as iTunes. (Well, actually, it started life as a third-party player called SoundJam MP, which Apple bought up to help them make the first version of iTunes, to support the first iPod.)

Apple Music is the name of a streaming subscription service that lets you listen to just about everything in Apple's music library – as long as you keep paying. The cost of an individual subscription went up to $10.99 USD / month, which is less than most single CD albums used to cost.

I think the main difference between the iTunes Store library (where you can purchase songs) and the Apple Music library is that Apple Music has CD-quality and hi-res versions of some songs. I believe that at the moment, if you buy songs from the iTunes Store, you will get 256 Kbps AACs, even if Apple Music has higher-resolution versions.