Apple Raises Apple Music Subscription Prices Worldwide for First Time Since 2022, Citing Licensing Costs

Apple raised the price of its Apple Music subscription service worldwide on Friday, marking the company's first rate increase for the platform since 2022, as streaming services across the industry continue passing rising music licensing costs on to consumers.

The new pricing took effect Thursday, July 16, and is already live on Apple's pricing pages in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, with the change continuing to roll out to additional markets, including Brazil. In the United States, the Individual plan rose to $11.99 per month from $10.99, an increase of $1. The Family plan, which allows up to six accounts to share a single subscription, jumped $3, from $16.99 to $19.99 per month. The Student plan, available to verified students enrolled in a degree-granting university, increased by $1, from $5.99 to $6.99 monthly.

Apple confirmed the increase and its reasoning in a statement provided to multiple outlets, including Music Business Worldwide, Variety and 9to5Mac. "As a result of rising licensing costs, Apple Music is increasing its subscription price beginning today," the company said. New subscribers signing up for Apple Music now pay the higher prices immediately, while existing subscribers are typically transitioned to the new rates at their next billing cycle, following notification from Apple.

Alongside the Apple Music increase, Apple also raised prices on select tiers of its Apple One bundle, which combines multiple Apple services, including Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Arcade, iCloud+, Apple Fitness+ and Apple News+, into a single subscription. The Individual Apple One plan remains unchanged at $19.95 per month. However, the Family tier rose $2, from $25.95 to $27.95 per month, and the Premier tier likewise increased $2, from $37.95 to $39.95 per month.

Friday's increase marks the first change to Apple Music's pricing since October 2022, when the company raised its Individual plan from $9.99 to $10.99 per month, citing the same explanation of rising licensing costs at the time. Apple's statement in 2022 also emphasized that the increase would allow "artists and songwriters" to "earn more for the streaming of their music," a framing the company did not explicitly repeat in this week's announcement. Apple Music originally launched in June 2015 at $9.99 per month in the United States and held that price steady for seven years before the 2022 increase, meaning the streaming service has now raised its core subscription price twice in just under four years after nearly a decade of stability.

The 2022 round of increases also extended to Apple TV+ and the broader Apple One bundle at the time and was applied globally. Apple's other subscription products have seen more recent, separate adjustments as well. The company raised prices for Apple TV, Apple Arcade and Apple News+ in October 2023, along with their corresponding tiers within Apple One. Apple TV then saw an additional standalone price increase in August 2025, though that change did not extend to Apple One bundle pricing at the time.

Even with the new increase, Apple Music remains priced below its primary competitor. Spotify raised the price of its Premium Individual plan earlier in 2026, moving from $11.99 to $12.99 per month in the United States and other markets, meaning Apple Music's new $11.99 rate still undercuts Spotify by a dollar even after Friday's adjustment. Apple has previously poked fun at Spotify's pricing moves on social media, according to 9to5Mac, adding a note of rivalry to the two companies' parallel price increases this year.

Friday's Apple Music price hike arrives just weeks after Apple raised prices across a broader swath of its hardware lineup, including Macs, iPads and other devices, a move the company attributed at the time to a sharp, unprecedented increase in memory chip component costs tied to surging global demand for AI infrastructure. Macworld noted that the Apple Music increase represents yet another product line where Apple has passed rising costs on to consumers in relatively quick succession this summer, with the streaming price adjustment following closely on the heels of the hardware pricing changes.

The increase touches a substantial base of paying customers. Apple's Services division, which includes Apple Music alongside the App Store, iCloud, Apple TV+ and other subscription offerings, generated nearly $31 billion in revenue during the company's most recent quarter, according to Macworld's reporting, underscoring how significant even incremental subscription price increases can be to Apple's overall financial performance given the scale of its combined services business.

Industry observers have suggested Apple's pricing shift could signal further changes ahead for the broader streaming landscape. Digital Music News noted that Apple has shown earlier signs of potentially introducing new subscription tiers for Apple Music, while Spotify has continued pursuing its own AI-focused "Super Premium" ambitions, suggesting both companies may be positioning for additional structural changes to their subscription offerings beyond simple across-the-board price increases.

For consumers, Friday's change means a modest but real increase in monthly costs, with the standard Individual plan rising by roughly 9% and the Family plan increasing by nearly 18%. Apple has framed the adjustment as a direct response to licensing pressures within the music industry rather than a broader strategic repricing, consistent with the reasoning it gave for its only prior increase in 2022. Whether additional increases follow in the coming years remains unclear, though the roughly four-year gap between Apple Music's two price hikes to date suggests the company may continue to revisit its streaming pricing periodically as licensing costs and competitive dynamics within the music streaming industry continue to evolve.