So Apple music has gone from a free service to $2.99 a month to suddenly $9.99 a month, to access music we bought FROM Apple? Am I missing something? We all need to subscribe to a 3-month trial before we have the privilege of paying $9.99 a month now instead of $2.99?
iPhone X, iOS 12.0.1
I think your previous subscription may have been “iTunes Match”, not Apple Music. There a some similarities, and Apple Music includes most of the functionality of iTunes Match. Both feature the iCloud Music Library, to have the same library across all devices. What an Apple Music subscription adds, is unlimited access to all songs in Apple’s catalog. But you own nothing of that: after the subscription ends, so does the access to this subscription content.
In 2011, iCloud was launched, which then included “iTunes in the Cloud” for free. A few months later, “iTunes Match” for $24.99 annually, became available, which would add tracks from non-iTunes Store sources to that cloud functionality. [I don’t see how $24.99/y translates to $2.99/mo ?!?]
I don’t think there is a ‘need’ to upgrade to a different subscription service. You were not forced to do so. If you are happy with iTunes Match, then by all means keep at it.
View, change, or cancel your subscriptions - Apple Support
Shazam on iOS has options to link with Spotify or Apple Music. If you subscribe to neither of these, then you shouldn’t use that feature. Shazam has settings to disconnect to one or both of these services. Shazam also features a ‘More … Buy on iTunes’ link to go to the iTunes Store instead, if that suits you better.
It is always unfortunate if tracks from your Library can’t be found, that you were sure that should be there. I have no answer for that. If songs in your iCloud Music Library became unavailable online for some reason, they would be in gray text, not disappear completely. A delete action could remove content from your library though, but that is also a two-step action with a confirmation pop-up. You may have to add the missing songs again.
• I’m in the Pacific NW (Portland).
• $2.99 is what I was being charged once the Apple Music service I was using ceased being free...which it was. I don’t recall the specific name of the cloud function which allowed me to upload my entire iTunes Library & access it from the cloud as needed/desired.
•This feature included storing ALL of my music, including music I didn’t purchase from iTunes, like random mixed and live or rare import CDs I’d spent hours importing over the years. We’re talking about 10 years ago. Not many people seemed to know about that feature back then, but I loved it and as I said, it was FREE. If I had to guess, I’d venture to say it took over 10 hours to upload my entire iTunes library.
•Again, I had no fees, nor a trial period. This was simply a part of iTunes not many people seemed to use of be aware of.
•I received notification regarding a monthly charge of $2.99 awhile back for this service with a new name. I paid. It’s obviously worth it since my entire library is housed on their cloud.
•Two or sodays ago I went to access a song from Shazam and was forced into accepting the free trial or not accessing my library, followed by the new, much larger monthly charge.
•Obviously I am forced to pay the new inflated fee since they’re holding my music hostage. Again, not just the music purchased from iTunes.
•Worse still, it appears the non-iTunes music I uploaded via iTunes via the original “old school” cloud service may have actually been wiped out completely. I tried accessing a few random non-iTunes albums and they’re gone. Not even showing up in my library. Needless to say, this is both upsetting and confusing.
•Feel free to share a solution.
Apple Music now triple the price?
