See full gallery on TechnoBuffaloApple Music launched on Tuesday, and in an effort to get people to sign up, it’s offering a free three-month trial (during which artists will get paid). That’s pretty great, and should give you plenty of time to decide whether or not you want to switch from Spotify. But, man, Apple is being really sneaky about how it hopes to keep people inside its streaming ecosystem.
When you sign up, you’re required to either pick an Individual ($9.99 per month) or Family ($14.99 per month) plan, which is set to automatically renew when your free trial is up. You can’t just sign up and then later decide if you want to keep your subscription or not—Apple is taking it upon itself to decide for you. But in case you’re not comfortable with having automatic renewal turned on, you can easily switch it to off.
- Head to Settings > iTunes & App Store
- Tap your Apple ID and enter your password
- Tap “View Apple ID”
- Under the Subscriptions option, go to “Manage”
- Toggle the “Automatic Renewal” option
Or, alternatively, you can simply go to the “Account” button in the Apple Music app, go to “View Apple ID,” tap “Manage,” and then turn auto renewal to off.
If you signed up today (June 30), you’ll have until Sept 30, 2015 to decide whether you want to keep Apple Music or not. Me? I’m undecided. I’m currently a Spotify subscriber, and haven’t yet found a compelling reason to stick with Apple Music just yet. We’ll have some hands-on impressions soon, so stay tuned.