Skip to main content

Apple confirms Apple One subscription bundle, bringing together Music, TV Plus, Arcade, and more

Apple confirms Apple One subscription bundle, bringing together Music, TV Plus, Arcade, and more

/

The hardware giant leans into its software offerings

Share this story

The long-rumored bundle bringing together Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple News Plus, and iCloud storage is here. Apple will give customers different options to combine its streaming services in a new Apple One bundle.

There are three types of bundles: Individual, Family, and Premier. The Individual plan gives subscribers Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, and iCloud storage (50GB) for $14.95 a month. The Family plan includes the same apps but with 200GB of iCloud storage for $19.95 a month. The Premier plan gives subscribers Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, 2TB of iCloud storage, Apple News Plus, and the newly announced Apple Fitness Plus for $29.95 a month. Fitness Plus is a new subscription service launching before the end of the year that includes training for yoga, cycling, running, core, and strength exercises, among other types of workouts. It’s $9.99 a month by itself.

The Individual plan works out to a savings of over $6 per month based on standard monthly pricing of the apps, according to Apple, while the Family plan works out to $8 per month in savings. The Premier plan works out to a savings of over $25 per month.

Apple One purchases come with 30-day free trials for apps that people don’t have already, according to a press release. Customers will be charged once a month for all services that are included in their bundle, and they can change or cancel the plan they’re on at any time. Customers who choose either the Family or Premier plans can add up to six family members. Apple One will be available starting this fall in over 100 countries and regions.

Bloomberg previously reported that Apple One was gearing up to launch alongside Apple’s new lineup of iPhones this fall. The different plans are targeted at different types of customers. As Bloomberg noted, a family using one plan that combines Apple Music ($9.99 per month), Apple TV Plus ($4.99 per month), and Apple Arcade ($4.99 per month) would likely purchase a plan that comes with additional iCloud storage. Through the bundle, they could save money per month on the different services.

Apple’s reportedly been working on a bundle for years, and it’s easy to see why. The company’s services division is growing, and CEO Tim Cook has called it an area in which Apple wants to invest. Plus, bundling services is a good way to cross-promote: people might want Apple Music but not Apple TV Plus, but bundling Apple TV Plus with Music might help Apple drive up overall usage of its new entertainment platform while also collecting monthly revenue. Think of how Amazon bundles Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Music with its general Prime subscription fee.

The bigger deal is Apple creating an ecosystem that is harder to leave. If someone has their gaming, music, and entertainment resources all in one monthly subscription package, that might deter them from using alternative apps like Spotify. Apple creates an ecosystem that houses people’s needs and grows its services sector while doing so. Bundles can help generate a steady, consistent flow of monthly revenue and hopefully sell more hardware along the way. If everything is on people’s iPhones or iPads, they’re likely to just upgrade those devices and stay within the ecosystem than switch to an Android device, for example.

This is what Apple is hoping for, anyway. Hey, it worked for Amazon.