Apple Music

Apple Music Review: Lossless for $11.99, but Android Gets the Short Straw

No Free Tier: What $11.99, $19.99 and $6.99 a Month Buy

The app costs nothing to install, but on-demand listening needs a paid plan; there is no ad-supported tier. In the US, Individual is $11.99 a month, Family is $19.99 for up to six people with separate libraries and recommendations, and Student is $6.99 for verified college students, with Apple TV included and student pricing for up to four years. Apple One bundles the service with iCloud+, Apple TV and Apple Arcade from $21.95, rising to $39.95 for Premier with 2 TB of storage, Fitness+ and News+. New subscribers get one month free. The three-month offer for buyers of an eligible new audio device has to be redeemed by pairing it with an iPhone or iPad, so an Android-only household gets the single month. Without paying, Apple lists six live radio stations, from Hits to Chill. Prices are US rates and can change.

Lossless Up to 24-bit/192 kHz on Android: The Wired Fine Print

On Android, lossless sits under More, Settings, Audio Quality in the latest app, with separate choices for streaming and downloads. Apple calls files up to 48 kHz Lossless and anything from 48 to 192 kHz Hi-Res Lossless. The catch on a phone: Apple's support page lists only wired headphones, receivers or powered speakers for Android, and warns that sample rates above 48 kHz may need an external USB digital-to-analog converter. Bluetooth connections are not lossless, so most earbuds never hear the difference. Dolby Atmos works only if your handset maker supports the format. Lossless downloads also take far more storage, and songs saved earlier must be deleted and downloaded again to get the lossless version. One September 2026 Play reviewer reports lossless playback buffering even on a 1 Gbps wired connection.

AutoMix, Sing and Playlist Playground: What Android Gets and Misses

A September 2025 update to the Android app, reported by AppleInsider, added lyric translation and pronunciation, pinned songs and monthly Replay stats. Playlist Playground, which builds a playlist from a text prompt, also runs on the latest Android release, though Apple still labels it a beta for US English only. Three headline features stay on Apple hardware. AutoMix, the beat-matched DJ-style transition between songs, needs iOS 26, macOS 26 or CarPlay. Sing, the karaoke mode with adjustable vocals, needs an iPhone 11 or later, an iPad or an Apple TV 4K. Music Haptics is iPhone-only. Android has its own extras in Chromecast and Android Auto support, and the Classical companion app runs on Android 6 or later. Play reviewers also point to missing playlist folders and no Play Last option in the queue.

July 2026 Price Rise, Cancel Rules and a Shaky Android Build

In July 2026 Apple raised US prices for the first time since 2022, citing licensing costs: Individual went from $10.99 to $11.99 and Family from $16.99 to $19.99. That still leaves Individual $1 below Spotify Premium at $12.99, and Family $2 under Spotify's $21.99. Leaving costs more than it looks: when a subscription ends, every song added or downloaded from the catalog disappears from your library, along with playlists built from it; only iTunes purchases stay. On Android, the most-upvoted Play review, with nearly 6,000 helpful votes, says downloaded songs freeze while buffering, and September 2026 reviews describe crashes, sign-in screens that spin without end and Play Next queuing the wrong track. On privacy, Google Play's form lists no data shared with third parties, while purchase history and device IDs feed Apple's own marketing.