Update 6/10/22: Deal is now six months for new subscribers or five months for returning subscribers.
Contents
The Offer
Direct link to offer (our affiliate link)
- Best Buy is offering six months of Apple Music for free for new & returning users
Our Verdict
Previous best deal was five months for free, this is an extra one month.
Currently at 4 months free…
William Charles (returning users 3 months)
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-free-apple-music-for-up-to-4-months-new-or-returning-subscribers-only/6515312.p?skuId=6515312
Must use the code Best Buy sends the purchaser by Sept 5th…
PSA: Do verify your subscription is really canceled.
Got an email the other day stating my subscription was going to renew, even though I canceled right after signing up. Sure enough, logged in, and it was going to renew.
P2 and a friend of mine had the exact same thing happen too, so I don’t think we all screwed up the same cancelation. This time I deleted the card on file too.
can you purchase multiple of this and stack them?
The emailed code that I received after placing the order expires Sept 5, 2022, so this can be ordered now and used later.
Not a current subscriber but had it before. It worked for me and gave 5 months of free sub. I was getting an error redeeming on iphone but it worked on the macbook.
who actually got the email? the first time this promotion happened last year i didn’t get the email with the instructions, and i tried again just now and again i didn’t get the email with the instructions.
This guy did! Took 3 minutes from my Best Buy Order Confirmation to get the email…
Subj: Activate your free trial of Apple Music now.
From: [email protected]
Maybe check SPAM, etc. Use a different address?
congratulations! i’m glad you got it and thanks for sharing information about the email details. i checked my email’s regular inbox and spam folder and still didn’t get it, which is frustrating because i just got a marketing email from best buy. if you check your order details then click payment details was your card on file authorized? my account says my card is “awaiting authorization”; maybe that’s why i’m not receiving the email even though this shouldn’t matter because this is a free offer.
Deep inside the order details, yes, it says “Awaiting Authorization”.
However, before you get to that screen, it says: Ready to Redeem
We’ve emailed you instructions to redeem your item.
My streak of free music streaming services continues! Roughly 2 years and running for at least until early 2023
Said error occurred. I have used a free trial in the past and currently do not subscribe to Apple Music.
Said i qualify for 5 months but once I singed up it gave an error message that “My Code Limit Has Been Reached” bummer
Looking for some brief feedback on Apple Music service, the pros and cons, is it worth signing up for, how does it compare to Prime music?
Depends on how you listen to music and if you’re already in the apple ecosystem. I listen mostly on AirPods and a small HomePod and I feel it works great for me.
The good:
-Apple has an excellent discovery algo, and it’s helped me find lots of new stuff. If it notes that you like a specific artist, it will let you know in your “Listen Now” section, if, say, they drop a new album or single.
-They also have a lot of really good human-curated playlists if you want to get your feet wet in new genres (they have a lot of playlists for regional jazz like Japanese jazz, Russian jazz, French jazz, all of which I have really enjoyed)
-“Default” standard fidelity sound quality is good, 256 kbps AAC (AAC > MP3 and Ogg Vorbis at the same bitrate.
-HUGE song collection, arguably The Biggest among all streaming providers (Apple claims 90 mil songs; Spotify has 82 mil)
-Hi-Fi/Lossless and Spatial are baked into the default plan cost; no need to buy a higher-tier plan (with major caveats, see below)
The bad:
-Their metal curation is a bit weaker than their jazz, rock, urban, etc. curation.
-Like most Apple things, you are treated as a second-class citizen unless you are deep within their ecosystem. For example, there is no way to stream lossless from a PC – the web player only outputs lossy/standard-quality sound, at least not without jerry-rigging some kind of solution yourself. AirPods Max can theoretically do lossless, but they’re limited by Bluetooth codecs like anything else wireless. The only way you will get “true” lossless sound is plugging wired headphones into a Mac.
-Spatial is mostly a gimmick.
Compared with Amazon:
-Amazon outputs standard quality sound at the “320 kbps level”, although they are coy about which file type (AAC, MP3, Vorbis, or Opus) that they use. Generally/arguably, at the same bitrate level, Opus ≥ AAC > Ogg Vorbis > MP3. This gets foggier/more subjective when you compare the files at different bitrates. I prefer 256 Kbps AAC to 320 MP3, although you will have people argue differently, and it’s relatively difficult to perceive differences in sound above the 256 Kbps level unless you have a really good sound setup, young ears, and are really trying to focus on the differences.
-Amazon’s song collection is smaller, 75 million to Apple’s 90 million.
-Apple gives you a digital music locker, Amazon does not
-Amazon’s Hi-Fi is much more easily accessible than Apple’s is, and the raw output numbers (24bit sound / 192kHz sampling at a bitrate of 3730 Kbps with FLAC) are second only to Tidal
-Both Apple and Amazon “bake in” Spatial Audio and Hi-Fi for no extra cost