Yahoo Finance Apple to hit streaming service users with inflation-busting price rise
Apple has raised the cost of its music and TV streaming services above those of rivals such as Spotify and YouTube.
The inflation-busting price rises means Apple is one of the highest-priced consumer streaming services for music, TV and film content.
An individual Apple Music subscription now costs £10.99 per month, whereas streaming rival Spotify's equivalent Premium service is priced at £9.99. Apple had previously charged the same as Spotify.
Similarly, the Apple TV+ individual package is rising from £4.99 a month to £6.99, an increase of 40pc. That price level is below Disney Plus, however, which is priced at £7.99 a month for an individual subscription.
Despite ploughing an estimated $4.2bn into commissioning original content for its T streaming service, Apple has failed to secure many breakthrough shows. HBO’s Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon, is not available on the site.
One of Apple TV’s bigger hits is Severance, a Ben Stiller-directed series based around office workers with brain implants that separate their work personas from their personal lives.
In contrast Netflix’s popular series The Crown, a semi-fictionalised account of the Royal Family’s life and times, is returning in November. Amazon Prime’s Lord of the Rings prequel, The Rings of Power, has captured the JRR Tolkien fanbase.
Apple said the price hikes were because the cost of acquiring content for its services had increased. Meanwhile, global inflation is increasing with the consumer price index measure in the UK running at more than 10pc.
A spokesman said: "Current subscribers will receive notifications of the planned price increases 30 days prior to the service renewing at the higher price."
Nick Baker, TV and streaming expert at price comparison website Uswitch, said the Apple price increases would be a test of customers’ loyalty.
He said: “AppleTV+ has fewer movies than Netflix, whose Basic With Ads package launches next Thursday at £4.99 a month. It also relies solely on original shows like Ted Lasso and The Morning Show, while the likes of Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video can both draw heavily on large back catalogues."
YouTube Premium, which gives advert-free access to the Google-owned website's collection of music and films, starts from £11.99 per month. Last week Google said the price of its family subscriptions in the US would be increasing to $22.99, up from $17.99.
