Buying songs vs streaming from Apple Music

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Buying songs vs streaming from Apple Music

I am 56, I have 4075 songs in iTunes - some were added from CDs - some were bought from iTunes. I spend less than 50 DKK/month (< 10 US$) on buing new music.

Question: Why does Apple recurrently try to sell me a subscription?

I suspect that it is a bad deal for me unless I want to listen to random new music often (which I do not) and I prefer to support the musicians I like - which is probably a small fraction of the music industry's catalogue of musicians.

I recommend, that Apple focuses on happy customers instead of greed and let me decide which musicians to support by buying their songs.

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on Sep 16, 2025 11:07 AM

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Answer 1

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Phil0124

Community+ 2026

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219,824 points

Sep 16, 2025 11:21 AM in response to DJarm

Apple will only offer a subscription to Apple Music service if you are in an area of the Music App that requires it. Like Home or New and you try to play a song there.

Stick to your Library and the iTunes Store section and it won't ever offer the subscription.

click here ➜ Intro to the iTunes Store in Apple Music on Windows - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Sep 16, 2025 12:38 PM in response to DJarm

Applies to the iPhone as well. On an iPhone, in the Apple Music app, Home, New and Radio are Apple Music subscription service dependent and anything in there will require a subscription to play.

Do not access those sections if you do not want to be offered the subscription.

To buy songs on an iPhone, you need to use the iTunes Store app directly.

If you see the Apple Music banner at the top of the iTunes Store app when looking at a song or album, you can ignore it.

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Answer 3

DJarm Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 16, 2025 12:15 PM in response to Phil0124

I guess you are right when talking about the iTunes app in Windows (BTW - I have Windows 11 - not 10 as indicated in the question), but on my iPhone I keep getting the offer now and then. It is not a huge problem, but I am kind of against streaming subscriptions as - I think - only heavily promoted musicians can make a living from the money they get, whereas - I think - the musician gets ~70% of the money I pay for a particular song? So it would be nice, if I could indicate that I do not wish to see the ad ever again.

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Buying songs vs streaming from Apple Music

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