How To Pay Just $7.99 Or Less For Your Apple Music Membership

Last week, I put up a post proving that Apple does indeed deduct Apple Music membership fees from any iTunes balance you have, before charging your credit card. The policy had always been confusing and some people had received mixed messages from Apple Support and online forums, but I verified it using my own Apple Music membership.

That confirmation that you can use your iTunes account to pay your Apple Music membership is a critical requirement for the next logical step: cutting your Apple Music membership fee by picking up discounted iTunes cards.

If you happen to check retailer flyers or receive special offers by e-mail, you’ve probably seen iTunes cards on sale. Best Buy, Target, Staples --they all put them on sale frequently and Costco usually has them at an every day discount. Online services like PayPal and eBay also frequently discount iTunes cards. A sale price of 20 percent off face value is not uncommon, and I’ve seen them hit 25 percent off.  

I have a Family Membership to Apple Music, which costs $14.99 per month. By buying iTunes gift cards when they go on sale for 20 percent off, and adding them to my iTunes account --building a balance that Apple deducts my monthly Apple Music fee from-- that brings the effective cost of my membership to $11.99 per month.

If you are a single subscriber, your $9.99 per month membership essentially gets knocked down to $7.99, saving you two dollars per month.

That may not sound like much, but by planning ahead a bit, you can save yourself $24 to $36 per year on Apple Music. Even more if you snag cards at a particularly good price  That’s enough cash to go out and buy a vinyl album or two, for those times when digital just isn’t cutting it...

There are a number of websites and social media services such as @itunescarddeals on Twitter that track the sales, so you don’t even have to search flyers.