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The lower-cost Apple Music Voice Plan is being discontinued this month in the U.S. and all other countries where it was available, according to an Apple support document. Brazilian website MacMagazine was first to alert us to this news.

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"Beginning in November, Apple will discontinue the Apple Music Voice plan," said Apple. "We are focused on delivering the best, most robust music experience possible for our customers, with features like immersive Spatial Audio, Apple Music Sing with real-time lyrics, intuitive browse and discovery features, and so much more."

Apple said existing subscribers can continue to use the Voice Plan for the duration of their final billing cycle, but they will lose access after that period. It's unclear why the plan was discontinued, but Apple says other Apple Music plans "already work seamlessly with Siri, and we will continue to optimize this experience."

Apple added that existing subscribers will receive a notification prior to the end of their final billing cycle with more information.

Priced at $4.99 per month in the U.S., the Voice Plan was designed to let users access Apple Music exclusively through Siri. The plan launched as part of iOS 15.2 in December 2021 in the U.S., Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, and the U.K.

The primary way to subscribe to the Voice Plan was by asking Siri, and music playback was controlled via Siri too. While the plan provided access to the entire Apple Music catalog with over 100 million songs, it lacked some features available on more expensive plans, such as downloading, spatial audio, and Family Sharing.

This story was updated with additional information from Apple.

Article Link: Apple Music's Lower-Priced Voice Plan Being Discontinued
 
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Reactions: gusmula
Never had that plan, but when I'm in my car I often use Siri to change a song, and sometimes it takes 5-6 tries and different prompts to be able to listen to what I want. Sometimes I even have to give up and listen to whatever Siri decided to play.

This plan must have been soooooo frustrating, I can't even believe it was an actual plan.
 
Has anyone on this forum ever had firsthand user experience with this? I can only imagine it would be subpar, but I'd love to hear from anyone who has feedback about this.

It is bad. If you want listen to songs from other language, you will need to switch Siri to that language and you will need to speak that language. Because Siri in English mode doesn’t translate understand anything other than English. If I say Siri Play 青花瓷 by Jay Chou, it will play some English songs.

I sometimes wants to listen K-pop or J-POP, I need to switch to Korea or Japanese. Then I have to make it to typing mode, using Google Translate, translate to Japanese or Korea. Then it will play.

Luckily I speak Mandarin and I can use Siri to find Chinese songs. Even with native language, sometime Siri will play different songs.
 
If you've ever tried to ask for even a standard classical work via Siri it's apparent it's unfit for purpose. I was surprised when they introduced it. I do wonder why it's so hard for them to sort it out. Can I suggest it's not now technically difficult - they just can't be bothered!
 
A lower-priced option should be something like Spotify (free) and Amazon Music (Prime) on mobile, where you can access a playlist/"radio station" but not play a particular song.
 
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