Apple announced it has increased prices for its Apple Music and Apple TV+ streaming services, due primarily to rising licensing costs.
In the announcement, the company said the price of Apple Music will climb to $10.99 a month from $9.99 for individuals, effective immediately. That makes the service more expensive than some competitive alternatives, including Spotify ($9.99) and Amazon Music ($4.99).
The price for the company’s popular Apple TV+ streaming video app service will rise for the first time, from $4.99 to $6.99 per month, although that is still less expensive than premium subscriptions for competitors’ services like Netflix or Warner Bros. Discovery. The standard Apple One bundle increases $2 to $16.95 per month.
At nearly $20 billion reported revenue in the second quarter ended June 30th, Apple’s streaming operations now generate nearly a quarter of its total sales. That’s up from less than 10% in 2015.
The company said the higher fee for music was made necessary by “an increase in licensing costs.”
Apple said it will also increase the fee for its annual music plan to $109 from $99 and its TV+ yearly subscription to $69 from $49.
Family Apple One bundled fees will now ring in at $22.95 from $19.95 per month, while the Premier package, which adds News+, Fitness+ and additional storage on top of Arcade, Music and TV+, goes up $3 to $32.95 per month.
The fee for Apple TV+ is going up, the company said, because the service was initially launched with only a few shows at a comparatively low price. Since then, Apple said, the service is now “home to an extensive selection of award-winning and broadly acclaimed series, feature films, documentaries, and kids and family entertainment from the world’s most creative storytellers.”
The service offers a number of popular original shows and series including “Coda,” “Severance” and “Ted Lasso.” But subscriber market share for Apple TV+ remains below top rivals like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and others.
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Apple joins a number of other streaming competitors to raise fees, including Disney+, which will raise its monthly fee 38% to $11 later this year. The service is also introducing a new ad-supported tier to be priced the same as its earlier offering at $8 a month.
Disney’s sports streaming service ESPN+ has also raised its rate 43% in August to $10 a month, for its ESPN+ streaming service.
Netflix, which raised prices earlier in the year, also recently announced the introduction of an ad-supported plan costing $7 per month, down from $19.99 per month for the premium plan option (formerly $17.99) and $9.99 for the basic plan without ads (formerly $8.99). The Netflix standard plan is currently $15.49 per month, up from $13.99.
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By Greg Tarr
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