How much data does Apple Music use?

Do any of you know what happens if you play offline content while online? I have a practice and want to play music, but

do not want to have the 4G data charges (there is no wifi). So I want to save the playlist for offline use, but still want to

stay online for other activities. If I play a track in my offline library, will there still be data traffic because I am connected

to 4G? Hope I am making some sense. I guess the only way is to monitor (real time) data usage but if any of you know

what the answer should be, let me know!

I once proved that it still uses data when you are playing downloaded content: I don't have the family plan, but started playing a downloaded song that was on my phone. At the same time, someone at home was listening to content not downloaded. It turned into a "war" where if I would start my music, the song at home would stop and vice versa. I turn on airplane mode to start playing my music, switched it off later and that seemed to work.

QUESTION:

Related to the thread topic, I'm curious to know the data difference between streaming normal quality, steaming high quality and downloading (all over my data plan). I'm assuming a download will be the equivalent to streaming once at high quality.

AdriVan,

I have heard that Apple Music streams at 256 kb/s. Assuming that is correct, it would use about 120 MB per hour, which is about 1 gigabyte every 8 hours.

For either streaming or downloading, most people will use either WiFi or a LAN connection, and avoid using up their cellular data allotment.

Hercules,

Offline content is supposed to be played from the local copy, and therefore should not use cellular data. If you want to make sure, you can switch your phone to Airplane Mode. Also, monitoring the data usage for a while as you suggest will be a good way to make sure everything is working as expected.

I'm assuming a download will be the equivalent to streaming once at high quality.

Streaming once at 256 kbps should use about the same amount of data as downloading the AAC/256 file one time.

I've used about 3 GB of data in the last 15 days on Apple Music according to the cellular section in settings, and I'm a heavy user (about 5-7 hours daily).