Cheaper than Spotify? Apple Music is the Latest Service to Slash Price in India

This morning, The WSJ reported Apple's streaming music service overtook Spotify in paid subscribers in the U.S., and now it hopes to do the same in the Indian market by way of a big price cut. The company's individual plan in India is now 99 rupees per month ($1.43 USD), versus the 120 rupees per month ($1.73 USD) it was previously.

In addition, the price for the Apple Music student plan dropped from 60 rupees per month to 49 rupees; and the Family Plan is now 149 rupees per month versus the 190 rupees per month it was before the price cuts. The new, lower prices are available to both existing subscribers and new customers, it appears.

Part 1. The Fierce Competition of the Music Streaming on India Market Place

India is a crucial market for streaming services, and one that’s a more recent battleground for major U.S. tech companies in addition to Spotify.

In March, YouTube Music and its paid subscription service, YouTube Premium, launched in India, following Amazon and Google, which already operate their music services in the region. This year, Spotify also entered India amid a complicated licensing dispute with Warner Music, which impacted the number of tracks available.

But these companies aren’t just duking it out with one another for domination. India today has a rich music scene that includes local players like Gaana, JioSaavn (created via the JioMusic and Saavn merger), Wynk and others.

And recently, JioSaavn and Gaana both slashed their annual subscription prices by 70 percent. Those cuts were focused on locking down customers for a year — keeping them away from YouTube, Spotify and Apple, as a result. The recent discounts saw JioSaavn's premium tier drop to Rs 299 per year — 70 percent down from Rs 999. Meanwhile,Gaana Plus was discounted to Rs 298 per year instead of Rs 1098, as before.

Apple doesn't disclose its Apple Music subscriber count in India, but it has 56 million subscribers on a global basis.

The service has been customized for the Indian market, with playlists that feature local music, including those popular in regional languages like Malayalam and Tamil, The Indian Express noted. It also has 14 localized radio stations and deals with leading Indian labels like Saregama, T series, Zee Music, YRF, Universal and Sony.

See original news: Apple Music Cut Price in India

Part 2. How to Permanently Preserve Apple Music for Free?

As we all know that even if you have subscribed Apple’s streaming service, you are able to enjoy Apple Music songs on Apple authorized devices only, such as iPhone, iPad, Macbook, etc since the Fair Play DRM protection. In other words, users can't play Apple Music on common machines like Sony Walkman, MP3 Player, Zune, and so on. In addition, once you stopped subscription Apple Music service, all the songs on your library will unplayable.

Is there an effective method to listen to Apple Music on any device and preserve these beautiful tracks forever? The answer is positive. Here you meet AudFree Apple Music Converter, which is an one-stop audio converting program supports to remove DRM protection and convert Apple Music to MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC, M4Ac, and M4B. In addition, this amazing tool can preserve the ID 3 tags so that you can effortlessly manage your Apple Music library.

Now, let's see how to permanently preserve Apple Music by converting Apple Music to MP3.

Step 1. Add Apple Music Tracks to AudFree

Launch AudFree Apple Music Converter on your PC or Mac, then move your mouse to the left- bottom corner and click the fist music icon button to load iTunes on your computer. Then you are allowed to browse all the Apple Music tracks. To add Apple Music songs to AudFree, simply drag and drop them from iTunes to AudFree main interface. 

Step 2. Set the Output format as MP3

In order to play Apple Music on any device and preserve them forever, here you are suggested to set the output format as MP3. Just touch the audio button next to the convert option and then you will enter the Format Settings Window, where you can define output format, sample rate, bit rate, etc.

Step 3. Convert Apple Music to MP3 with One Click Only

Now, please tap on the “Convert” button and then AudFree will start to remove DRM and convert Apple Music to MP3 losslessly. Once it completed, you can click the history button to locate converted MP3 format Apple Music songs on your local folder. Congratulations, now you have gotten DRM-free Apple Music, which can be played on any machine and preserve them forever even you stop to subscribe Apple Music service.