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

I recently upgraded to an iPhone 6 from an iPhone 4. Today I was playing music on my iPhone that I have purchased through iTunes and everything was fine until I got to one particular song. Whenever I try to play the song, I get a message saying that my Apple Music subscription is expired and I need to turn it on in order to stream this song. I get the same exact message when I try to download the song to play offline on my iPhone. The song plays just fine on my MacBook. I have not run into this issue with any other songs, so I'm perplexed as to why I can't play this one particular song.


Has anyone else run into a similar issue? I bought this song over two years ago on iTunes and I'm a bit frustrated that I can no longer play it on my phone. I also have no interest in purchasing the Apple Music subscription - I just want to play the music I already own!


Is this something on Apple's end or is this something I'm misunderstanding about how Apple Music works?

iPhone 6, iOS 9.0.2

Posted on Oct 3, 2015 6:04 PM

Reply
53 replies

Dec 8, 2015 11:41 AM in response to emjovial

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.

Dec 8, 2015 11:48 AM in response to SuzanC

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.

Dec 13, 2015 1:50 AM in response to SuzanC

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! 😉

May 30, 2018 11:12 PM in response to iKierenJCV

iKierenJCV wrote:


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!

You mean you added the song from your iphone music library to your Itunes, then you synced that song back to your Iphone and it worked? How exactly you transfer a song from your Iphone to Itunes?
OR you mean you converted that song into another file, same quality, then synced it to your iphone, and it worked?
I'm frustrated with this too. Read my problem to see if you can help Can't play directly a certain song? (Music app problem!)

Dec 31, 2015 8:04 AM in response to emjovial

I had a similar issue today. I was unable to play my iTunes library on my MacBook after my "Apple Music" sub ended. I also use the iTunes match to store music in iCloud but all the songs were greyed out and wouldn't play. I came across this thread and thought I would post what fixed my issue incase it will help someone with the same problem.


My resolution was:


Open Itunes, go to Store, View Account

Under "iTunes in the Cloud", click add this device


This resolved my issue....you may try removing the device and re-adding if you don't have the option to add.

Jul 12, 2017 3:52 PM in response to CrispOne

I haven't read the whole thread but it worked for me by simply going into Settings/Music and turning iCloud off. Go back into Music, select a song or album etc that you have owned previously and click the cloud download button. All good! I figure that Apple want your money to be storing your music on their server? I have also found that if I now go back to Settings/Music there is now no option to turn on iCloud? Go Apple!?!? So, so frustrating.

Dec 23, 2017 6:54 AM in response to emjovial

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!

Jan 10, 2018 4:00 AM in response to swandy

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.

May 1, 2018 9:09 AM in response to emjovial

I have a large library of music y=that I have collected over the years. 30G. I do not want a subscrition as I own all of my music. All of my music is greyed out and I cannot play it after I synced it all to my iphone. The only music that I can use is what I bought from itunes.


If this is not a mistake and this is working as intended I am leaving itunes after over a decade of use! 😟


Severely unhappy!

May 14, 2018 4:58 AM in response to emjovial

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!

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

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