Is Apple Music Sing free? Selfie Sing needs a plan and iOS 27.3

You need a paid Apple Music plan. Apple’s own support guide says Sing works with your Apple Music subscription, and that you have to be signed in on a supported device with the same Apple Account that pays for it.

Selfie Sing is built on that Sing feature inside the Apple Music app. Apple also notes that what Apple Music offers can differ by country or region, which is worth checking if you’re outside the US, UK or Canada.

Here’s what the basic Sing mode already gives subscribers today, before any beta:

• Time-synced lyrics that light up as the song plays.
• A slider that turns the original singer’s voice down so yours can take over.
• On an Apple TV 4K (3rd generation or later), the option to use your iPhone as the microphone.

Not every track supports it. Apple says that if the Mic button never appears on a song, Sing simply isn’t available for that one.

Selfie Sing turns the front camera on you while you sing. The words keep scrolling on the display as you record, so you can watch yourself and still follow the verse.

The flow is short. On a song that supports it, a camera icon appears under the vocal volume control. Tap it, press the red record button, and the lyrics start moving. When you stop, a simple editor opens.

In that editor you can:

• Make your voice louder or softer in the mix.
• Trim the length of the clip.
• Add one of four sound effects to your vocals: Studio, Echo, Megaphone or Concert Hall.
• Save the video to your Photos library or send it to friends.

The original vocals stay in the background, just barely audible, according to early testers. Apple Music Sing has always worked this way: you can lower the singer’s voice a lot, but not switch it off completely.

Apple’s description inside the app pitches the feature as a party moment rather than a talent show, promising that nothing has to be pitch-perfect. The same screen also reminds people to update to the latest iOS first, which hints at the biggest catch right now.

Selfie Sing is far more limited than regular Sing. Three restrictions stand out in the first beta.

A fixed playlist. You can’t record a Selfie Sing to any song you like. It only works with a dedicated Selfie Sing playlist, which early hands-on testing counted at 49 tracks. The picks lean on crowd-pleasing karaoke staples, including Wonderwall, Like a Virgin, Respect, Since U Been Gone, Hungry Like the Wolf, 9 to 5, What Makes You Beautiful and Baby One More Time, plus songs from Marvin Gaye, Bonnie Tyler, Whitney Houston and the Goo Goo Dolls.

A one-minute cap. Recordings currently stop at one minute. That’s not long enough for a full song, and often not even a verse plus a chorus.

iPhone only, and vertical only. The camera option doesn’t show up on iPad, even an iPad Pro running the iPadOS 27.3 beta, and videos come out in portrait orientation only. That suits phone-first social apps, but not a TV-style karaoke night.

There’s also no Animoji option. The first clip of the feature, shared by app code sleuth Aaron Perris, showed an animated boar singing, but Perris said he added that himself so he wouldn’t have to post his own face. The feature itself films the real you.

Apple hasn’t published a device list for Selfie Sing yet. In fact, it hasn’t posted any support documentation for the feature at all, so details could change before release.

For the regular Sing mode, Apple’s supported list is clear:

• iPhone 11 or later, or iPhone SE (3rd generation), on the latest iOS.
• On iPad, on the latest iPadOS: the standard iPad from the 9th generation, an iPad mini from the 6th, an iPad Pro from the 5th, or an iPad Air from the 4th.
• Apple TV 4K (3rd generation or later), on the latest tvOS.

One iPhone gets a bonus. On the iPhone Duo, Selfie Sing uses the stronger rear cameras while the lyrics move to the outer display, so you can still read the words. That should give sharper video than the front camera on other models.

There’s a version split to know about too. The Selfie Sing playlist already appears for people on iOS 27.2, but the camera button only shows up on iOS 27.3. If you can see the playlist and nothing happens when you look for the record option, that’s why.

Selfie Sing came with the first developer beta of iOS 27.3, released late on Tuesday. The full update is expected to reach everyone sometime in December. It’s a bigger release than this one feature: it also brings more Siri AI features, a redesigned Health app, an adaptive dark mode and vertical tabs in Safari, and new StandBy clocks.

For most people, the practical answer is simple. Regular Sing needs an Apple Music subscription and a supported device, and Selfie Sing needs iOS 27.3 on an iPhone on top of that.

It’s also worth keeping expectations modest. Apple has tried short social videos before with its Clips app, which launched in 2017 and was pulled from the App Store in October last year. Selfie Sing could catch on, or it could fade into a fun party trick. A full-song recording limit and the whole catalog, rather than 49 hand-picked tracks, would make the biggest difference.

Apple hasn’t documented Selfie Sing yet, so the 49-song list and the one-minute cap may change before iOS 27.3 reaches everyone, which is expected in December.