How's this for a PlayStation perk? If you have a PS5 console and don't currently subscribe to Apple Music, you can get six months of music streaming absolutely free.
The deal is available to users in the UK and in the US, and getting it is simple: search for the Apple Music app on your PS5's search bar or look for it under All Apps in Media Home. Open it and either sign in with an existing Apple ID or create a new one. Once you've done that, you've got up to six months of Apple Music completely free.
There's no great rush to redeem the offer, either. It's open until 15 November 2024.
If you don't already subscribe to a music streaming service this is a really good offer, and if you do it might just persuade you to switch.
Apple Music is great, and it's even greater when it's free
I'm a big fan of Apple Music, partly because of the way it integrates so well with Apple's various devices – as the owner of Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple TV 4K, HomePods and HomePods mini that's a big benefit – but mainly because it offers better sound quality than Spotify Premium and delivers lossless audio without requiring you to subscribe to a more expensive tier.
I prefer Apple's focus, too: it's a music app, not a podcasts and audiobook app: if you want those, Apple has separate apps for them. And Apple has been investing heavily in Music features, such as collaborative playlists, which is erasing the lead Spotify had in that department.
As a musician and as a fan of relatively un-famous bands the fact that Apple appears to be less greedy when it comes to paying musicians is a big plus too. Spotify has long been criticised by artists for its apparent favouring of the very biggest names in music, and just last month it announced that it was going to stop paying any money at all to artists whose songs didn't do more than 1,000 streams. It's not the only streamer telling new and niche acts that it thinks their music is worthless, but so far Apple hasn't joined in that particular attack on people already struggling to make a living from their music.
I think as a paid service, Apple Music is one of the best streamers. As a free one for six months, it's absolutely worth getting on your PS5.
