Apple Music subscribers can now give a month's free access to a friend

If you're an Apple Music subscriber, you may have received a notification in the last couple of days on your smartphone, prompting you to gift a friend one month's free access to the streaming platform.

According to Engadget, tapping on the notification will give you a way to send your chosen friend an invitation that will give them a month's access to Apple Music "on top of the standard three-month trial period".

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Right now it's not clear whether the promotion was sent out to all subscribers, or whether it was limited to certain regions. Either way, it seems that some Apple Music users didn't exactly appreciate the invitation to "give the gift of music".

An article by 9to5Mac noted that "Apple’s tactic of using push notifications to promote its burgeoning Services business has annoyed many subscribers."

The article also claims that "Apple is seemingly violating its own App Store guidelines by using push notifications for marketing." A quick glance at Apple's rules for developers does state that apps on the App Store cannot use push notifications for "advertising, promotions, or direct marketing purposes."

This comes after Apple cracked down on apps that were found to be in violation of its rules due to their use of screen recording technology – although we imagine Apple will likely cast a blind eye when its own apps are in violation of its rules.