Apple Music might have just topped 13 million paying customers, but that isn’t even close to the numbers Apple is looking for. Earlier this week, reports surfaced that the company is working on a major redesign of the app ahead of the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, as well as a planned marketing blitz around the new look, and now the company is working toward making the music-streaming service more attractive to students.
How? It’s simple: the company is offering a student discount. Students will now be able to use the service at half the price for standard customers, TechCrunch reports. In the U.S., Apple Music costs $10 per month, so with the discount, students will only have to pay $5 per month, automatically making it a much more attractive option than other services like Spotify or Tidal.
It isn’t just the U.S., either — students in other countries, including U.K., Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Australia, and New Zealand, will be able to take advantage of the discount as well. Apple Music’s pricing differs from country to country, but no matter what country the user is in, the discount will bring down the price by 50 percent.
This lower price will be available for up to four years following signup. These years don’t have to be continuous either, so if a student takes a semester or two off, they can resume paying the discounted price once they return to school. Just don’t think you’ll be able to pretend you’re a student in order to pay the lower price. Apple Music is using student verification technology from UNiDAYS to ensure that those taking advantage of the reduced price are actually students.
This isn’t the only way that Apple Music is working to be one of the most affordable streaming music services available. While the service’s monthly fee for a single user is the standard $10, its $15 per month family plan allows up to six family members to use the service for that price, while Spotify, for example, only allows two users to share an account for the same price.
This new membership tier is rolling out today in all supported regions, and is available to both new and existing subscribers.