This holiday season, consider this gift for your music lovers
With the holiday season in full swing, here’s my top gift suggestion for any music lovers in your life.
My No. 1 gift pick this year is a subscription to Apple Music, Apple’s subscription music service that offers more than 30 million songs. Subscribers can stream or download unlimited music to Apple devices as well as many non-Apple devices, including Windows PCs and Android phones and tablets.
I spend a lot of quality time with Apple Music every day; here are four things I love about it.
First and foremost: If I can think of a song title (or part of a song title or even the artist’s name sometimes), I can usually find the song in a few seconds and be listening to it a few seconds after that. I also love being able to search for music by genre and year — such as “rock hits from 1973,” “jazz from the 1950s” or “space age bachelor pad music” to name a few I’ve used lately. I also like that searches often reveal curated playlists you can save for future streaming or download for offline listening.
Which brings me to the second thing I love about Apple Music: Siri. I mean, sure it’s cool to search 30 million songs by genre, year or artist, but it’s cooler to say, “Hey Siri! Play rock hits from 1973” and make it so.
I ask Siri to play music for me almost every day.
By the way, on iOS devices (and macOS 10.12 Sierra), you don’t have to subscribe to Apple Music to ask Siri to play music from your iTunes library. If you’re not asking Siri to play music for you already, why not give it a try?
The third thing I love about Apple Music is the price. Student memberships are $4.99 per month, and individual memberships are $9.99 per month. Those are good deals, but the best deal is a family membership, which provides the full Apple Music experience for up to six people for $14.99 a month.
Fourth, I love sharing albums and playlists with other Apple Music subscribers, especially my wife and kids. Now, when I come across a song, album or playlist one of them might enjoy, I send a link, which they can listen to immediately and add to their music libraries if they care to.
One last thing: If you prefer not to give monthly subscriptions as gifts, consider iTunes gift cards, which start at $10 and can be redeemed on Apple Music, iTunes, iBooks or apps for Macs and iOS devices.