Can't play a song I own without Apple Music subscription

I had this issue as well. I just went to settings> music> and the turned off iCloud music library. I was then able to listen to all the songs I owned again. Hope this helps.

I found a work around took me 5 hours of getting stressy almost through laptop at the wall. But seemed to work for all my ones that wouldn’t play on my iPhone. I loaded iTunes with iPhone connected went into my iPhone music and the song played fine there. Looked for song in iTunes played fine there! So eventually I reconverted the songs that wouldn’t play in my phone in iTunes deleted the old ones readded the new converted ones and then synced them back to my iPhone. Ejected iPhone and guess what all songs play fine now that didn’t before. Hope this helps everyone!

Hey I know this thread is a few years old, but I thought I'd chime in.

I've had the same issue as you did. What I did however to fix it was I created an AAC Version (File>Convert>Create AAC Version) of the track and then synced it. The songs now play with no issue, and Apple Music does not prompt up.

Hope this helps!

The solution is simple. Log out and back in from iTunes app. Then your own music will be there ready to be played.

No. In my case I had already ripped my own CDs and then tried AM for the radio stations. All listening and subscriptions and playback took place on my iPhone 6. When I want to play tracks. However, if I hit the play button for the overall album it works. If I hit a track I get the prompt to "Choose Your Plan." Again, this prompt appears when I want to play an album that I never downloaded from AM. It is nonsense to say that it 1. has something to do with trying to play content on other devices or that it is 2. content that was downloaded from AM. In my case subscription to AM was a bad choice because one 1. the selection of music is exceedingly narrow and 2. It will hose your own owned content.

IIt's ridiculous that you have to pay to listen to your own music on your devices. This is apple getting greedy or wanting to push their crappy radio service. It's unfair that you have to pay to listen to what you already own. I promise this will not go well for Apple!

I was easily able to upload mu music to google play music for free!

MY solution... Cancel Apple Music and switch it off on all devices. Eradicate any trace. If you signed up for itunes match as I did in a fruitless attempt to get the online functionality without the downloading and playlist get issues of Apple Music, then switch that off completely on every device also. This will involve going through and online chat solution with Apple through their website. Eventually when you get them to see what it's done to your library, they'll refund you, switch match off at their end and this has so far fixed my problem. I feel like I've gone 'off the grid' but it's the only way to recover my music how it was.

ps I had 11000+ tracks, all cds burnt to the mac, old mp3s, iTunes track purchases or 12"s ripped to MP3. Everything looks hunky dory at the moment and I will not be going back online with any music services for the time being. I can still discover new music without Apple Music and can buy any tracks I like from iTunes Store. If I like an album I go to the shop and buy it on cd then burn it to the computer, just as I have for the last 20 years.

crescentish wrote:

I had this issue as well, where my free trial had run out and all my bought music disappeared. To fix this, Click on your name at the top right of iTunes, then click "Purchased". Re-download any content you want from there. Hope this helps 🙂

Exactly. Music not physically downloaded to your iPhone and/or Mac via iTunes purchase download and/or synced between your phone and your Mac will not be playable when your Apple Music subscription ends.

During your Apple Music subscription, any CD ripped to ONLY your Mac's iTunes Library or iTunes purchased song downloaded ONLY to your Mac, showed up on your phone via Apple Music (iCloud Music Library). So, when you stopped Apple Music, anything that was "going through" iCloud Music Library (a.k.a. "matched") to your phone will not be available. You will have to download your iTunes purchased music to your phone, as stated above, and sync to your Mac's iTunes Library to get ripped CD's to your phone, if not there already.

If for some reason, during your Apple Music subscription, you deleted your ripped CD from your Mac's iTunes Library, but, then re-downloaded it to your Mac from Apple Music, or for some reason you replaced your ripped songs with Apple Music "matched" versions, they will no longer work either. You will have to re-rip the CDs and sync to your phone. Just like the old days.

That all sounds logical - apart from in my experience, once you've used AM once many of your tracks are replaced with AM encoded versions that are crippled and greyed out so as not to work unless you have an active AM subscription. Not just downloaded new music from while your sub was active, but your own purchased or ripped music.

I never even tried Apple Music. I didn't sign up for the free trial or anything. Usually I just listen to Amazon Prime music, but today decided to listen to some of my CDs I had downloaded via my computer with iTunes and I'm getting the message I can't listen to them all unless I sign up for Apple Music. This makes no sense being I never ever used Apple Music before. How dare they tell me I can't listen to my own stuff.

I refuse to pay for Apple Music to listen to songs I already paid for. But I did notice when I downloaded Amazon Prime music and movies it snatched up my songs on my offline library so I guess I'll just use that to listen then. It's $99 per year and I get their music and movies and Free 2 day shipping as well. So when I want to listen to my old CDs since I no longer have a CD player, I guess I'll use Amazon's app. Sure cheaper than paying monthly for something else. Still mad though that I already paid for this music and can't listen to it like I used to.

It gets worse: Now when I go to Music, I can't play any of my music transferred from my CDs unless I signup for a Apple Music subscription. They're holding my own music hostage. I see a Samsung edge in my future. This is the last straw. There's no workaround.

I have exactly the same problem. When I open the Music app I can't choose to play my own music. The app only gives me the option to start an Apple Music Subscription which I DON"T WANT! I am very happy with my Spotify account, but now I can't even play the songs I purchased from iTunes at all without first accepting a subscription for Apple Music.

I am pretty sure that this is called "Third Line Forcing" under the Australian anti trust laws (Competition Laws) and is a per se breach which makes what Apple is doing illegal and also makes the Directors of Apple (at least in Australia) liable to personal prosecution.

I feel a letter to the ACCC coming on. Or maybe Apple could fix it up and we could all avoid this hassle! 😉

I have the same issue. I cannot choose music, that I bought and paid for via iTunes, without the Apple Music subscription popping up. I don’t want Apple Music. So I choose cancel, and it won’t allow me to play my bought and paid for music.

@Apple needs to fix this. We paid. We own our copy, to be played on our device, at our whim. Fix it Apple!