If you are subscribing to Apple Music on Apple ecosystem, at one point you must have considered subscribing to Apple One instead. The bundled subscription plan does have its merits. For one, the supposed “individual” plan already includes all the popular Apple Music and Apple TV+ with the 50GB iCloud storage. Apple Arcade is like a third wheel, even though I play Slay the Spire through the platform. Then, there’s the “family” plan, with up to 6 participants through family sharing and 200GB iCloud storage. Did you spot the issue? The key is the price tag.

Without further ado, I’ll start from my case. Apple Music has very strict device limitation, where it constantly monitors how many devices are actively playing through the set account. The “individual” plan is not meant to be shared, therefore I see what the protection is for. Yet, Apple’s approach is overbearing on the users. If I leave Music app open on a Mac, then start playing something on an iPhone, I am immediately hit with a pop-up warning on the Mac — with the kind suggestion I may consider “family” plan for more devices. Suffice it to say, Apple is taking “individual” quite literally; only one device can play music, no exceptions.

iCloud Storage has its own pricing issue. I recall reading about a dismissed lawsuit against the company that the pricing is anti-consumer. Currently, iCloud storage begins with 5GB of free storage, $0.99 for 50GB, $2.99 for 200GB, and so on. 5GB is nowhere near enough to cover default iOS cloud backup of one device — highly recommend you do —, so 50GB is a must. In my case, I have family albums, the entirety of it, scanned, uploaded to the cloud, which takes up good amount of space, roughly 70GB on its own.

The math for the monthly bill draws even clearer picture. The “individual” plan costs $19.95 with additional $2.99 for storage upgrade to 200GB comes out at $22.94 per month, whereas the “family” plan costs $25.95. Don’t forget the nuisance the Apple Music will give out on the individual plan, or the fact that $25.95 could be split between users, up to 6 participants (i.e. as low as $4.33 per person). Family sharing has its own sets of issues, such as mandatory one payment method. But the point still stands. A single-user needs at least “family” plan to comfortably use multiple Apple devices, and the proof seems to be on the price tag.

Apple’s designation for the tiers seems to be a misnomer. Apple One is ultimately selling a pool of resources as subscription: how many devices, how much storage, and so on. Only in that interpretation it explains why Apple Music imposes its device limit so stringently, and why family plan only includes 200GB of storage (i.e. as low as 33GB per person). If Apple One is to truly cover one’s complete usage of services via monthly subscription, it needs to reorganize radically.