Here is my take on this. Apple Premier subscription will cost you at least $360 a year and a possibility of price increases since it is not a one time fixed price on subscribing. Any of the lower cost options adds $120 a year if you want fitness. So and individual subscription with fitness will run $300 a year with significantly less storage.The family plan with fitness will runs the same $360 as Premier if you add fitness but with much less storage.
So what Apple seems to be doing is using an old and proven marketing trick to get their customers to pay $360 a year if they wish to have fitness, the most valuable app, by pricing it such that the lower cost options offer little value and that only their highest priced offering makes economic sense. It is similar to the theater popcorn trick where the large size with free refills is only slightly more expensive than the medium and the āregularā seems tiny by comparison. Not only that but with the limited battery life of the watch and the cost of replacing it, if it can be replaced, results in it being cost ineffective to replace it, meaning in order to continue using fitness you will need to purchase a new watch every few years, and your occasionally your Phone at Appleās inflated prices.
Thanks but no thanks. I choose to wait a bit to see what their competition offers.
(Weāll gloss over the moribund $25.99-per-year [iTunes Match]
I Love iTunes Match, my get out of the house walkabouts, and 1ā38" hour drives to visit my mother are so enjoyable with anuniquely personalized and eerily interesting random play: (Ghost Wrier/Mary Lou Lord -Octopus/Syd Barrett-fiesta en el solar/Marc Ribot y Los Cuanos Postivos-Strong Blood/Trixie Whitley-Iām Only Sleeping /The Vines-Something Beautiful/Sinead Oconnor-WIlbury Twist/Traveling WIlburys-Somethingās Jumping in you /Lisa Marie and Malcoolm McLaren) As an artist, and producer I ask you to please support direct download releases from your favorite artists. Streaming services - even Apple Music -but others as well - do not compensate artists very well by streams. If you can go to the artist directly - thatās usually the most cost effective for the artist (lower service fees) especially in times when venues are difficult to open- like now- I really dislike subscription services as a way of life but iiTunes Match has always been one of the best Apple Products Iāve even used. .
I have been enjoying the AppleTV+ (free as I purchased a new iPhone last year). I love the quality of the productions and the easy access to all other streaming our family does. My current favorite is Ted Lasso: how to be a nice guy in an nasty world.
We are considering the Premier Bundle as my husband and I have individual accounts for the various services. It wold definitely save us some money. However, I am very interested in the Fitness+ service since my pilates studio has been closed for six months.
One concern we have is that we have both been using iTunes for years and I have iTunes Match. We do not want to lose what we already have. So, holding off until we get this figured out.
In theory, Apple says that Apple Music subsumes iTunes Match, but you might want to confirm that with Apple support before you subscribe to the Apple One Premier bundle.
iTunes Match has features missing from Apple Music. We were just reading what Apple Music gives you and it doesnāt allow for music tracks that are not on the Apple Store. Music Match does.
I just tested this. I have ripped MP3 files (with SoundJam!) from a non-commercial music CD I bought from an Asian guy playing an unusual instrument under a bridge in Central Park while in NYC for Macworld Expo some year. Itās completely unknown to Apple Music.
I imported it into Music in Catalina using File > Import. Then I used File > Library > Update iCloud Music to update my library. The artist and album appeared on my iPad Pro running iPadOS 14. However, they have not yet appeared on my iPhone 11 Pro running iOS 14. My guess is that sync will happen at some point, but I donāt know how to force it in iOS.
I do have Sync Library enabled in Music on the Mac in Music > Preferences > General, and in Settings > Music in both iOS and iPadOS.
I use iTunes Match, as I donāt really need (have time for) the Apple Music catalogue. iTM should work exactly the same as AM though; if youāre importing your own non-iTunes items (CDs, items from other sources, etc.), then they get DRM-free versions available to re-download from Apple, compared to tracks you download/stream (that you never owned) from the AM catalogue that all remain DRMād.
Iām still nervous about using AM though, as on its release, Apple managed to muck around and screw up huge numbers of peopleās own DRM-free music (often in lossless ALAC, to boot!). Along with artwork and release notes being deleted or swapped for wrong ones ā unforgivable if you have (read: had!) a large catalogue of items, and had to either fix these issues manually, or for some, simply couldnāt recover from the issue (see journo Jim Dalrymple).
re. Apple One, extras.
On a separate note, I believe Apple have intimated users can pay extra above even the top tier. So you can pay 30 for that, then supposedly another 10 for another 2TB more storage, and/or the TV bundle (ATV+, CBS, Showtime) likely to be another optional 5 on top.
But how this is going to all work exactly is unconfirmed ā likely at least until they announce/release iPhone 12, as thatās when a huge number of people will have the free ATV+ run out, and are wondering if Apple offer another free year due to Covid, with Apple not being able to meet their own production/release schedule accordingly, thus the lack of expected content available in this first year.
Somehow, I donāt think another year of ATV+ is on the cards though, given they want to sell these bundles to impress shareholders that theyāre taking services revenue to the next level. Weāll have to see.