What happens to an Apple Music account when someone dies
Apple publishes its own process for a deceased person's account; a written request goes in through Apple's support ticket system.
Under Apple's terms, an Apple Music account closes when the holder dies and nothing in it passes to anyone.
Apple publishes its own process for a deceased person's account: Request access to a deceased family member's Apple Account; a written request goes in through Apple's support ticket system. The request takes 5 documents.
What to do
- •Apple: the account settings of the Apple Account on the receipt, at music.apple.com or account.apple.com, or in Settings on an iPhone or iPad
- •Google Play: the Apple Music app on the Android device, or play.google.com
- •A wireless carrier or other reseller: that provider
- •No access to the account settings: Apple Support billing at support.apple.com/billing
Required Documents
- Apple billing receipt or invoice, or the bank or card statement: Identifies which Apple Account is billed for the subscription.
- Death certificate: For a request to Apple Support to close the account rather than cancel the subscription. In Japan, Apple states a family certificate indicating the death of the account holder might be needed instead.
- Legacy Contact access key: If one was designated. It reaches iCloud data only, not the subscription or purchased music.
- Court order naming the requestor as the rightful inheritor: If there is no Legacy Contact and account access is needed, in the U.S., Israel and other locales
- Government-issued photo ID of the requestor
What Apple Inc.'s terms say at death
- IV.D, No Right of Survivorship
“Except as allowed under Digital Legacy and unless otherwise required by law, you agree that your Account is non-transferable and that any rights to your Account or Content within your Account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate your Account may be terminated and all Content within your Account deleted.”1
What Apple Inc. says happens7
- Subscriptions and billing
After an Apple Music subscription expires, the account can no longer play songs from the catalog, playlists added from or built with catalog music are no longer available, and Sync Library turns off. Music and playlists on the device before subscribing remain.2
A cancelled subscription runs to the end of the current paid period, after which catalog playback and catalog-derived playlists become unavailable.2
Subscriptions automatically renew until cancelled in the Manage Subscriptions section of the account settings, so an uncancelled membership keeps billing the deceased's payment method.3
When the Apple Music membership ends, the account loses access to its iCloud Music Library, including content uploaded to the iCloud Music Library servers.3
Cancellation is made from the account settings of the Apple Account named on the billing receipt, and a family member cannot cancel another family member's subscription.4
A subscription billed through Google Play is cancelled in the Apple Music app on the Android device or at play.google.com, and one that came through a wireless carrier or other reseller is cancelled with that provider, not with Apple.4
- Purchased content and licenses
Purchased iTunes Store music is Content under the Media Services Terms, limited to personal, noncommercial use, and no portion of it may be transferred or reproduced except as the agreement expressly permits.3
A Legacy Contact cannot access purchased content such as movies, music and books, subscriptions and in-app purchases, payment information, or information stored in iCloud Keychain, so neither the membership nor purchased songs come through Digital Legacy.5
- Deletion and data retention
Where a Legacy Contact was designated and approved, Apple grants access for three years from when it approves the first Legacy Contact account request, then permanently deletes the account; that window covers iCloud data, not the music.6
Apple takes permanent-deletion requests for a deceased person's Apple Account through its Digital Legacy website.7
- Passwords and login
A Legacy Contact request is answered with a separate Legacy Contact Apple Account rather than the deceased's own credentials.6
- Court orders and legal process
Without a Legacy Contact, access to the Apple Account in the U.S., Israel and other locales takes a court order that names the requester as the rightful inheritor, submitted with a death certificate through Apple Support.7
Only one person can request access to a deceased person's Apple Account, and France, Germany, Japan, Australia and New Zealand accept alternative documentation.7
- Verifying the requester
Apple requires and verifies legal documentation before assisting with a deceased person's account, generally a death certificate and possibly a court order or other documentation, with requirements varying by country or region.7
- Balances, payouts and refunds
Unused Apple Account balance cannot be redeemed for cash except as required by law; where a jurisdiction allows a refund of redeemed gift balances, Apple Support takes the request.8
Other companies and product lines involved1
- Google Play
Cancelling an Apple Music subscription billed through Google Play4
Not in Apple Music's published guidance6
- A mailing address for a written request
- How long a request takes
- A self-service executor cancellation
- An executor route to the purchase history
- An executor path to purchased music
- What happens to a family plan when the organizer dies
Sources8
- 1.iCloud Terms and Conditions
- 2.How to cancel Apple Music
- 3.Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions
- 4.Cancel a subscription from Apple
- 5.Data that a Legacy Contact can access
- 6.Request access as a Legacy Contact
- 7.Request access to a deceased family member's Apple Account
- 8.Check your Apple Account balance
A written request to Apple can ask it to provide purchase and transaction records for the estate inventory, transfer the accounts to a named family member, refund an unspent balance, close the account and preserve the account while the estate is opened.
The value that can still be kept is what the account holder moved while alive: Apple allows family pooling.
Digital Assets Recovery Letter for Apple Music drafts that request from the estate's details.
Sources
Data sourced from Apple Inc. primary sources (14 pages reviewed). How we research.
Apple Music estate claims
Apple Digital Legacy
Website
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