Music Gift Cards Compared: Six Cards Checked in October 2026
The music gift cards most worth buying in the UK are Record Tokens, Bandcamp, Ticketmaster, Spotify Premium, Apple and my own art print gift card for music fans. The real differences are how long each one lasts and what it can actually be spent on, so I read the terms for all six in October 2026 and put them in one table.
Gift card
Art Print Gift Card for Music Fans
Emailed straight away or on a date you choose. No expiry, and any balance stays on the card.
Six music gift cards side by side
I sell one of these cards, so I have tried to be fair to the other five. Where a rival card does something mine cannot, the table says so.
| Gift card | What it buys | Values | Expiry | How it arrives | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record Tokens | Vinyl, CDs and cassettes at participating independent record shops in the UK and Ireland | £25 and £50 from Record Store Day; a card can be topped up to £250 in a shop | Relaunched in 2018 with eight-year validity; the scheme says it currently replaces expired cards | Physical card | Mostly spent over the counter; some shops take them on their websites |
| Bandcamp | Digital albums and tracks, plus physical records and merch where the seller accepts it | Four set values, 10 to 100 | Funds do not expire | Email, or printed at home | Website only, not the app; locks to the first account that redeems it |
| Ticketmaster UK | Gig, festival, comedy and theatre tickets, plus some merch, on ticketmaster.co.uk | Amount of your choice | 12 months | Physical card or e-gift card | Desktop website only, not the app or mobile browsers; some events will not accept it |
| Spotify Premium | Months of a Premium Individual subscription | Fixed lengths; a 12-month card has been around £120 on the high street | Check the card; redeem it promptly | Physical card or code | Not for Family, Duo or Student plans; only works in the country where it was bought |
| Apple Gift Card | Apple Music, iTunes downloads, apps and Apple hardware | £25, £50, £100 and others | No expiry | Physical card or email | UK Apple only; it spends on far more than music, which cuts both ways |
| Mike Bell Maps art print gift card | Any of my music discography or film plot map art prints, and the delivery charge | Seven values, £25 to £183 | No expiry | Email, sent now or on a date you choose | Only spends in my shop; any unspent balance stays on the card |
Checked against each issuer's published terms in October 2026. Terms change, so the sources are listed at the end of this post.
Which music gift card lasts longest?
Bandcamp, Apple and my card have no expiry date at all. Record Tokens come close, with a long validity period and a stated policy of replacing cards that have lapsed.
Ticketmaster is the short one at 12 months. Which? has warned about exactly this, after one of its own writers found a birthday Ticketmaster card had lapsed before she used it.
UK law lets each issuer set its own expiry, provided the buyer is told at the time. If the person you are buying for waits for the right tour, a 12-month card is a gamble on the touring calendar.
Which card sends the most money to the musicians?
Bandcamp is the clearest answer. Bandcamp states that on average 82% of what a fan spends goes to the artist or their label, usually within a couple of days.
Record Tokens keep the money in independent record shops, which matters if the person you are buying for already spends Saturdays in one. Streaming cards are the least direct route from your money to a musician.
My card goes to a one-person studio. I research and draw every map myself from the sleeve credits, and the prints are made to order by my print partner, so there is no warehouse or middleman between the two of us.
Matching the card to the kind of music fan
- They buy records: Record Tokens, or Bandcamp if they buy a lot of small-label vinyl by post.
- They go to gigs: Ticketmaster, bought close to when the tickets they want go on sale.
- They stream everything: Spotify or Apple, but check which plan they are on first.
- They support new and independent artists: Bandcamp.
- They already own the records and have strong opinions about who played on them: that is who my card is for.
The small print on streaming subscription cards
The Spotify gift card terms say it can only be redeemed for full-price Premium Individual months. If the recipient shares a Family or Duo plan, the card is no use to them until they leave it.
It also has to be redeemed in the country where it was bought, so a UK card will not help a relative in Spain or the US. An Apple card is more flexible, since it can go on Apple Music or on anything else Apple sells.
Where my art print card fits, and where it does not
My card will not buy a record, a ticket or a month of streaming. What it buys is a whole career drawn as a London Underground map, with the studio albums in order as stations and the credited musicians as lines running through them.
The prints are Giclée on 230gsm premium fine art paper, unframed or in a black wood frame. I set the card values so that each one above £25 clears a whole print, because a card that leaves somebody to find the difference feels like a voucher rather than a present.
Honestly, it works best alongside one of the cards above rather than instead of it. A Record Token buys the next record; a map shows where that record sits in everything that came before it.
Music gift card questions people ask
What is the best music gift card in the UK?
It depends on how they listen. Record Tokens suit vinyl buyers, Ticketmaster suits gig-goers, Bandcamp suits fans of independent artists, and Spotify or Apple suit people who stream.
Do music gift cards expire?
Some do. Ticketmaster UK cards last 12 months, while Bandcamp funds, Apple Gift Cards and my art print card have no expiry date.
Can a Spotify gift card be used on a Family plan?
No. Spotify gift cards only pay for full-price Premium Individual months, not Family, Duo or Student plans.
Can Record Tokens be spent online?
Sometimes. They are mainly spent in participating shops, but the scheme says some independent record shops accept them on their own websites.
Can I schedule a music gift card to arrive on Christmas morning?
Mine, yes. You choose the send date at checkout, so it lands on the day rather than sitting in their inbox for a week.
Does the art print gift card work outside the UK?
Yes. The value shows in the recipient's local currency at checkout, and it can be put towards the delivery charge as well as the print.
Where these details come from
Record Tokens: the Record Store Day UK token page. Bandcamp: the gift card terms of use. Ticketmaster: the Ticketmaster UK gift card help page. Apple: the Apple Gift Card listing at Currys. My own card: the gift card page, which always shows the current values.
A gift card that never runs out of time
Let them pick the artist, the size and the frame. You pick the day it arrives.
Choose a gift cardEmailed. No expiry. Redeemable against any print.
If you are short on time, my post on the last minute gift for music fans has the Christmas order dates, and the music art prints collection shows every map the card can be spent on.
