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I already have the family plan but something that comes to mind is Siri volume. If I am someplace I cannot interact with her loudly I might whisper a command but she replies at whatever volume my phone is at. Ha. I wish she could pick up on the volume at which I ask for something and reply with a similar level. Of course an off/on setting for those that dont want that.
What a brilliant idea. Our phones can measure dB sound levels…respond with the same dB measured. Or even a little higher. But not just whatever we set our volume to the last time we set it…which quite often was in a different context. Because of course when do you change the volume? When it doesn’t suit your current context.
 
A kind of radio service that takes audience requests. And more or less plays back those requests.
Mmmmhh, not sure Apple provides more values with this this over IHeart or something like that, just need Siri to integrate a bit with Spotify or other music services and it could be ads-supported. No need to charge so much for this “new” service without a GUI on GUI based device…
 
Siri still gets half of my voice dictation wrong so why would I pay for this? 0/10
Siri gets about 90% of my voice dictation correct. I won't pay for this though because I already have an Apple One subscription (which is a great deal for the size of my household).
 
If Siri wasn't actually a steaming pile of dookie, this wouldn't be so bad. No matter how many different ways I ask Siri to play music by the band "Red" ... she will always play Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's infuriating, lol. "Play music by Red" "play music by the band Red" ... I'll even ask her to play a specific album by Red and she will start playing random music by the Chili Peppers.
 
Poor strategic move. Siri has about 40% strike rate in getting songs right which is bad enough. Not having a way of choosing via Music will just result in a frustrated customer. On the hook, but then will leave never to return. Shame.

I haven't been keeping statistics, but for me it's at least 95% getting song requests right. And probably a couple of points more.
 
Purely subjective, though. And the more Siri gets used, the better it gets (supposedly). Machine learning is called "learning" for a reason.... it learns over time. So logic stands that this is a smart move, as it encourages more people to interact with Apple Music by voice thereby improving the overall service.
I concur. This is not only to provide a cheaper tier for Apple Music, but to also indirectly train Siri.
 
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Some ask why, but I guess why not? It’s cheaper, and that alone may be enough for some people. I’m sure there are people who use voice assistants like Siri routinely, either as a novelty or function, or both. If you’re someone who just wants to play stuff and aren’t meticulous about your library, this is a cheap way to listen to just about anything at anytime, and it is probably minimal effort on Apple’s part to offer it.
Yup. Although I’m not a user of any voice assistants, here are increasingly more younger people who are using (and are getting used to) here voice assistants. Even in my country, I’m amazed many young people are using voice assistants and smart home devices (eg those multi colored LED bulbs, Google Home mini, etc). The later generation are definitely more accustomed to this interactions.
 
I have 2 HomePods and Siri gets it right about 60% of the time. I too, have attempted to re-state my requests and sometimes she just latches onto the wrong song/album/artist and will not let go! Frustrating. iTunes Match user since 2011.

However, I am in the middle of the trial period for Apple Music, so I will see if streaming works for my household. The g/f so far likes how it functions on her Apple Watch (curated playlists). Me, I play 10% of my Match songs 90% of the time ?
 
I was going to say this is stupid, but might be useful for people with vision disabilities or people who are more interested in having music recommendations made than picking specific songs? (Basically background music folks, which is pretty common)
My guess is that it's primarily aimed at people who mostly use Apple Music for playlists and little else. That they recently added 250 new playlists may have something to do with it as well.

 
Poor strategic move. Siri has about 40% strike rate in getting songs right which is bad enough. Not having a way of choosing via Music will just result in a frustrated customer. On the hook, but then will leave never to return. Shame.
I use Siri to play music when I’m driving all the time and it’s no less accurate than me occasionally fat thumbing the wrong letters when searching for a song in the app.

And if people don’t like the voice only experience they can upgrade to the full version. Not sure you understand customer behaviour so much as just personally don’t like this idea for yourself.
 
I already have the family plan but something that comes to mind is Siri volume. If I am someplace I cannot interact with her loudly I might whisper a command but she replies at whatever volume my phone is at. Ha. I wish she could pick up on the volume at which I ask for something and reply with a similar level. Of course an off/on setting for those that dont want that.
Siri is always too loud for me, so I said "hey Siri, set your volume to 10%" (or something close to that) and now she responds quietly every time, which suits me fine. It's still always loud enough to hear.
 
I briefly had a HomePod Mini in the summer but returned it because it was absolutely miserable to make work as intended without an Apple Music subscription. Ultimately I was having to AirPlay to it from my phone. Maybe this cheaper plan is a result of complaints about the HomePod's functionality without a subscription.
 
Poor strategic move. Siri has about 40% strike rate in getting songs right which is bad enough. Not having a way of choosing via Music will just result in a frustrated customer. On the hook, but then will leave never to return. Shame.
There’s a commercial for “La Brea” that tells you explicitly to ask siri to do xyz thing to find all episodes. Yet if I repeat what they say, verbatim, it fails every time.

Which is why I never think of using Siri for anything. Ever.
 
I hope this isn’t snarky, because it’s not meant to be and is a serious question. Why would this new voice plan cost 1/2 much for the same selection of songs. It’s not like the Apple Music tap interface costs then anymore to run then Siri costs. If anything it would cost them less.

Does anyone have any concept to what the logic behind this plan is? Maybe it’s just to attract people to try out Siri? That’s all I could come up with
 
this is one of the most outlandishly underbaked ideas apple has ever slapped their name & logo onto.

who the hell greenlit this LOL
 
Does anyone have any concept to what the logic behind this plan is?
My take: They’re intentionally crippling the user interface on that plan so they can make it cheaper.

Since it’s harder to use, even bordering on being unusable for „power users“ and music enthusiasts, I‘m pretty sure that the voice plan customers will play less songs on average. So that‘s less royalties to pay to the music industry.

A hard per-month song cap would look too stingy and „not cool“ though.
 
How is it that Apple can price this lower than their normal Apple Music plan? Are they just counting on people using it less on average since it can be harder to use?

I imagine the per-song royalties to the copyright holders are going to be the same.
It would be the same except because Apple gets to pick exactly what to play it can purposefully play songs that approximate what you ask for but cost way less per play.

For example, if you ask Siri to “play mr rogers neighborhood,” apple will play the cover song theme by “TV Tunesters” when really, almost anyone would want the authentic mr rogers original, which probably costs a lot more.

This happens with LOTS of songs, often you’ll get some cover or something—not the intended song. Wheras when you search for mr rogers on your iPhone you can pick the correct source material very easily.

I think many people don’t realize that Apple is basically delivering inauthentic listening experiences. If this is true, I think Apple is doing harm to the credibility of the company and to the artists that create these original works.

This is particularly insidious when Apple is playing a “station” based on a song, where it takes great liberty to play songs people don’t notice are “cheap.”

I do not think Apple is the only streaming service to do this. But I think it is funny that FM radio does not have to do this because they don’t pay licensing. So commercial radio plays the real thing, because they can.
 
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Hey Siri play Swedish Radio P3
- playing **** you with CeeLo Green.
 
It's telling that they offer Siri as an econ option rather than a pay-extra add-on. In other words, it's a poorer experience than the conventional point-and-click/tap interface and Apple knows and admits it.
 
It's telling that they offer Siri as an econ option rather than a pay-extra add-on. In other words, it's a poorer experience than the conventional point-and-click/tap interface and Apple knows and admits it.

In what bizarro world would a siri-only interface be better than the normal interface (where you can also use siri in addition to the existing point and tap interface?)
 
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