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Apple Music Gaining New 'Voice Plan' for $4.99/Month
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Three reasons I can see:
1. To take business away from competition at a lower price point than their previous offering
2. Along those same lines, to entice people with a low $ figure only to upsell them in future. (i.e. operation get foot in door)
3. For the rare person who only uses homepods to play music and not much else.
I think plenty of people will who are interested in cheap streaming. I don't know a lot of casual listeners who actually make their own playlists, the same type of listener who's fine with their car radio and doesn't bother with bluetooth/aux in. Similarly, just ask your HomePod to play new music for you, or an album specifically, etc. You don't need a visual interface, look at the older iPod Shuffles that didn't have screens at all.
Personally, I quit using Apple Music due to interface changes, and opting to buy music instead. I don't have the Music app on my iPhone, heck. If the barrier is no interface for controls, you have media playback in control center and on top of the HomePod itself.
The Siri version looks rather rubbish in my opinion. Who would pay £5 a month and not have a UI? Apple don’t half offer some strange things and price themselves just high enough not to compete with the likes of Spotify and Amazon. I find Siri frustrating at the best of times and my watch and iPhone struggle to process a lot of the questions and commands I make as it is. I can’t imagine the frustration of asking for songs!! It’s weird how an Amazon Echo has a better voice assistant than a much more expensive product.
I’ve had Apple Music a couple of times on free trials but never been compelled to keep it beyond that.
I’ve had Apple Music a couple of times on free trials but never been compelled to keep it beyond that.
Anyway to opt out of this? Sure as H*** not paying more money to use Siri.
This is my take too. I am wondering if I would be able to invoke my already existing curated playlists on this plan? If so, this is right in line with my needs.
Oh OK, good to know you can still do that even if it's way more inefficient.
I still wouldn't be able to do that even if I wanted to because of the whole Siri not understanding other languages think, but I guess it's slightly better than I thought
I saw a clip of this at the Apple event and assumed it was a joke video from someone but it’s actually real. Crazy. Mind you so is selling cloths at $19 (they used to supply free black cleaning cloths with macs not long ago).
Apple will sell literally anything for money and the sad truth is a lot will buy literally anything Apple sells. Clever psychology on apple’s part as they know they have a lot of sheep.
"Hey Greg, it's Eddy. 'Music' doesn't seem so popular with our users. Not even all the free trials we've bombarded people with lately seem to make it fly. People seem to just prefer these guys in Sweden. Any idea what we could do about it?"
"Make Music even cheaper, Eddy?"
"But... but Greg!? We can't! We can't make it cheaper. The per-stream royalties are going to kill our bottom line! If people stream a thousand song for 5 bucks a month, how am I gonna get my fat stock options package end of the year?"
"Can't we make them play less songs? Can't we limit them somewhat? 500 songs a month or something, Eddy?"
"Greg, that ain't cool. Would make us look really stingy. The press would kill us over this. You should know better than anyone."
"You're not wrong, Eddy. So... if a hard cap on streams makes us look bad, can you think of any softer measure? Any other way we can lower the price tag, while shutting out the power users? Errr... you know, steer them to our higher tier, I mean? Something in user interface maybe?"
"Ads?"
"We don't do adds in our apps, Eddy! Unless they're our own, that is."
"Hmm... Wait! I just got a great idea, Greg! Why don't we just tie together two of our most under-appreciated services and offer the bundle for cheap..."
"We are already doing that with Apple One, Eddy!"
"Better, Greg, better! How about we make the lower tier Siri-only? We force people to go through Siri on it?
We'd basically be sneakily crippling our UI..."
"...but still look good in our next video-ad. Maybe we can put a cool skateboarder dude in it and stream on his board or something? You're really wearing your Genius pants today, Eddy!"
"Make Music even cheaper, Eddy?"
"But... but Greg!? We can't! We can't make it cheaper. The per-stream royalties are going to kill our bottom line! If people stream a thousand song for 5 bucks a month, how am I gonna get my fat stock options package end of the year?"
"Can't we make them play less songs? Can't we limit them somewhat? 500 songs a month or something, Eddy?"
"Greg, that ain't cool. Would make us look really stingy. The press would kill us over this. You should know better than anyone."
"You're not wrong, Eddy. So... if a hard cap on streams makes us look bad, can you think of any softer measure? Any other way we can lower the price tag, while shutting out the power users? Errr... you know, steer them to our higher tier, I mean? Something in user interface maybe?"
"Ads?"
"We don't do adds in our apps, Eddy! Unless they're our own, that is."
"Hmm... Wait! I just got a great idea, Greg! Why don't we just tie together two of our most under-appreciated services and offer the bundle for cheap..."
"We are already doing that with Apple One, Eddy!"
"Better, Greg, better! How about we make the lower tier Siri-only? We force people to go through Siri on it?
We'd basically be sneakily crippling our UI..."
"...but still look good in our next video-ad. Maybe we can put a cool skateboarder dude in it and stream on his board or something? You're really wearing your Genius pants today, Eddy!"
I missed the very beginning of the keynote, so when I saw this headline that was my first thought. What a letdown. LOL.
It does not. The plan comparisons make a distinction between "Available on Apple devices" (Voice) and "Available on other supported devices" (all others).
Indeed. Offhand, I'd guess it's aimed at lower barrier-of-entry for casual listeners, who maybe are just getting this subscription and a HomePod mini. No physical interface, just talk to Siri, and you can ask for any song, or album, or artist, and any of the playlists they provide, but you can't build your own playlists. It wouldn't interest me, but I can perhaps see what they were aiming for...
If they wanted to bring in and lock users, they could have a promotion where you get 1 yr Apple Music with the purchase of a HomePod mini.
The HomePod only really shines with a subscription.
The HomePod only really shines with a subscription.
This was by far the most confusing part of the presentation. It appears to be Apple Music but just made far more awkward to use for half the price. What?
I guess you can ask for whole albums from what was implied, but it also seemed to have a focus on playlists and I've always been REALLY disappointed by any of the Apple Music playlists. If I play any album from a wide array of genres I like and it's set to play more similar music when the album ends, it usually plays me loads of new great stuff which I love and add to my collection. I've discovered lots of great new music that way. But the playlists I find to be garbage. The "Alternative" one is never remotely alternative either! It's doesn't sound much different to the pop one! It sounds like a small handful of the most obvious alternative artists and just less well known pop ones. 🤷🏻♂️
I guess you can ask for whole albums from what was implied, but it also seemed to have a focus on playlists and I've always been REALLY disappointed by any of the Apple Music playlists. If I play any album from a wide array of genres I like and it's set to play more similar music when the album ends, it usually plays me loads of new great stuff which I love and add to my collection. I've discovered lots of great new music that way. But the playlists I find to be garbage. The "Alternative" one is never remotely alternative either! It's doesn't sound much different to the pop one! It sounds like a small handful of the most obvious alternative artists and just less well known pop ones. 🤷🏻♂️
I think we should be able to use Siri, on any of our Apple devices to find/play/stop music without having to pay for it. I won't even call it a privilege, it should be a free and basic with every Music subscription. I can see the natural connection to the HomePod for voice commanded music. But paying for it seems money grubbing on the part of Apple.
Maybe I don't understand the service? I hope that is the case. If not I hope this is not voted for by Apple customers via a subscription.
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This is Apple Music on Apple Devices ONLY but WITHOUT Lyrics, Music Videos, and Spatial Audio/Multi-Person.
This is NOT paying to use SIRI, This will allow you to use an app as well. This also allows you to specify a song to play, specify an album, specify a playlist.
Apple has a cheaper Apple Music subscription for ONLY Apple devices and hopes you buy a Home Pod Mini or two ....or add many more in your house, and toss out any other smart music device.
This is NOT paying to use SIRI, This will allow you to use an app as well. This also allows you to specify a song to play, specify an album, specify a playlist.
Apple has a cheaper Apple Music subscription for ONLY Apple devices and hopes you buy a Home Pod Mini or two ....or add many more in your house, and toss out any other smart music device.
The person that said, "It just works" never asked Siri to play a song from Apple Music.