Time to Decide Whether Apple Music Is Worth Paying For

— -- It's been three months since the launch of Apple Music, marking the end of the free subscription period for early adopters who must now decide whether the service's human curation, algorithms and selection are worth a monthly fee.

Apple said in August more than 11 million people had signed up for the service just five weeks after launch, taking advantage of a 3-month free membership, after which a $9.99 per month subscription fee will apply. A family plan providing service for up to six family members is available for $14.99 per month.

An estimated 41 million people paid for a streaming music subscription service in 2014, according to IFPI, a London-based recording industry trade group that represents more than 1,300 record labels.

Spotify -- which is the dominant player in the streaming space -- announced in June that it reached 20 million paid subscribers to its streaming service with a total of 75 million active users. Paid subscriptions, which start at $9.99 per month, were up 100 percent from last year, according to company data released in June.

Whether Apple can attract first-time streaming subscribers and potentially win over customers from competitors will continue to be the biggest challenge as the service expands into China today -- and takes on the Android market later this year.

If you haven't checked out Apple Music yet, you're still eligible to take advantage of the trial membership. Here's a quick rundown of what to expect: Your iTunes music library will live alongside the tens of millions of songs in Apple's catalog. Apple Music members will be able to add to their collection and save songs for offline listening or quickly share favorite music with friends on social media.

The service also learns what users like and offers a variety of playlists -- many of which are curated by an expert team giving the service a human touch.

Auto-renewal can also be turned off to ensure you don't forget three months from whenever you signed up for the service.

Open your profile (the red silhouette icon) in the Apple Music app, choose "View Apple ID," and log in to your account. From there, go to the manage tab under subscriptions and toggle automatic renewal to off.

After your three months are up, you can choose to renew with the card on file or continue being smitten with Spotify or whichever streaming competitor pumps you up the most.