Apple Partners with China Mobile To Offer Subscriptions

Photo Credit: Raysonho / CC by 1.0

Apple has formed a partnership with China Mobile to offer its more than one billion subscribers in Mainland China access to Apple Music.China Mobile users in mainland China can activate the service through their China Mobile app or by visiting a China Mobile retail store. Apple Music currently offers three subscription plans in mainland China—Students (6 yuan), Individual (11 yuan), and Family (17 yuan). The partnership between the telecom and Apple could be budding, as reports from June 2024 suggest Apple held talks to bring Apple TV+ to the telecom’s large subscriber base.

The Cupertino giant is no stranger to forming partnerships to help boost its activations in new countries. In 2018, Apple tapped China’s version of TikTok—Douyin—to help boost its subscriber base in mainland China. Douyin was the most downloaded iOS app that year and the partnership has likely been a fruitful one for Apple.

The Douyin partnership saw mainland China Douyin users who already subscribe to Apple Music receive further integration between the two apps. Users can access their full music library directly from the Douyin app. For Douyin users who are not yet subscribed to Apple Music, they receive a three-month trial. Douyin was the first Chinese short-form video app to join the Apple Music partnership program.Meanwhile, outside of China, Apple inked partnerships with Airtel to bring both Apple TV+ and Apple Music to India. The deal sees Airtel’s Xstream platform feature Apple TV+ and the shut down of Airtel’s Wynk music service in favor of offering subscribers access to Apple Music. The streaming service is bundled with Airtel WiFi and Postpaid plans.

Airtel’s Wynk music platform is now rolled into Apple Music, which absorbed Wynk’s staff and subscribers. Wynk subscribers gained access to Apple’s global collection of music and playlist, as well as Apple Music Radio.