Get a free surprise from Apple’s App Store this week or Apple Music for six months

Starting tomorrow, Apple users will be able to get a “daily surprise” from the App Store. We don’t want to ruin the surprise, but we suspect that’ll mean a free paid app or game. The offer will run until Sunday, December 29.

Apple used to run an annual “12 Days of Christmas” promotion where it offered a range of apps and content for free in the 12 days leading up to December 25, but as 9to5Mac reports, it canned that campaign in 2014. So far, a daily surprise teaser has popped up in the App Store for some users in Asia and Australia, but expect to see it in the US App Store soon if it’s not there already.

There’s an Apple Music promo, too – If you’re a long-time Spotify user who’s been wanting to give Apple Music a try, 9to5Mac reports the company is also currently offering a six-month free trial, which you can sign up for via Shazam, the music-recognition tool Apple acquired in September 2018.

To activate the free trial, identify a song with Shazam on an iPhone or iPad (or, if you’ve already got the app, pick one of your previously Shazamed tracks) and choose “Open in Apple Music.” Thereafter you’ll be prompted to subscribe to Apple Music and will only be billed in June 2020.

We'd recommending setting a reminder on your phone or calendar to cancel Apple Music the day before the trial expires. If you’re still digging it, you can go ahead and let the first bill roll in. But if you realize you haven’t opened the app since December 2019 and choose to cancel you’ve lost nothing.