Apple finally hikes Apple Music charges for users in Nigeria

Apple Music has been sending out emails to its Nigerian users informing them that their next charges will be higher than they have been used to. Starting next month, Nigerians will pay ₦1000 for the Individual Apple Music plan which up until October used to be ₦900.

All other pans will also be having a ₦100 increase. This will mean that the student plan will now be ₦550 from ₦450, and the family plan will now be ₦1500 from ₦1400.

Earlier this week, Apple said it was increasing the prices of its Apple Music and Apple TV charges in the US, the latter product which is not yet available in Nigeria. A spokesperson for the company said that it was taking this action due to an increase in licensing costs. The spokesperson also said that the company will be rolling out new features for users in the coming months.

“The change to Apple Music is due to an increase in licensing costs, and in turn, artists and songwriters will earn more for the streaming of their music,” the statement from the Apple spokesperson reads.

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“We also continue to add innovative features that make Apple Music the world’s best listening experience. We introduced Apple TV+ at a very low price because we started with just a few shows and movies. Three years later, Apple TV+ is home to an extensive selection of award-winning and broadly acclaimed series, feature films, documentaries, and kids and family entertainment from the world’s most creative storytellers,” the statement says.

Apple Music like many other streaming platforms gives artists a cut from subscription fees users pay monthly, based on the number of streams that they generate. Apple currently pays artists $10 for every one thousand streams a song generates. Spotify, Apple Music’s fierce competitor pays artists $4 for every one thousand streams a song generates.

Artists have for years called for an increase in the cut they received from the big tech companies that distribute their songs. Apple’s spokesperson said that the iPhone makers will be raising the cuts artists receive in the future. Apple currently pays artists one of the highest cuts in the market, almost half of what other companies pay.

This comes after Apple Music has maintained the 900 naira subscription mark since it entered Nigeria. When Google’s Youtube Music announced that users were going to pay more for its products because of an additional 7.5 value-added tax imposed by the federal government on Nigerians, Apple Music rather reduced the cost of Apple Music to ₦837.21, to keep the total price users pay at ₦900.

Even with this increase, Apple Music remains competitive in the music streaming wars largely because it offers premium features including lossless audio and Spatial Audio at no additional charge to customers. Spotify, which doesn’t offer these options at the moment has been rumoured to charge more for them when it does.

This move comes barely a month after Apple hiked the prices of in-app purchases for selected apps on its App Store in parts of Europe and Asia. The company at the time said that consumers in Chile, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, Vietnam, and all territories that use Euro will be affected by the new hike.

The hike has taken effect nationwide.