Apple Music's Lower-Priced Voice Plan Being Discontinued

[cocky jeremy]

I'm sure all 6 subscribers are very sad about this.

 

[kc9hzn]

I still buy albums from time to time. Far better to have an entire library dedicated to my own taste than handing over it to an inferior AI and better-not-exist voice assistant.

I typically will mostly stream, especially since I can just add tracks to my library and existing playlists. But I still occasionally will buy CDs for the hard copy (for stuff that I absolutely want to keep) or other formats for novelty or the listening experience. Most music I enjoy, I just don’t care enough to have the hard copy, but I like to have the option for the most important (or most likely to vanish) tracks/albums. Other times, I’ll just record onto MiniDisc, that’s an option I have.

 

[kc9hzn]

Real life user here! My dad is blind and terrible with technology so never learned how to interact with his iPhone using assistive features. He only interacts with it with Siri. So this voice only Siri plan gets him literally everything he needs at a lower cost.

And he’s surprisingly effective at getting what he wants despite the many issues with the system. We’ll obviously have to move him onto the full priced plan now. But hey, super niche. I’m not surprised it’s going.

It’s a shame your dad has never learned how to use the assistive features, as Apple’s accessibility features are excellent. In a previous job, one task I ended up with was assisting an older gentleman who was blind with his phone. In all honesty, his questions and problems were usually more sophisticated than the questions and problems most people tended to ask me about. He could use his phone quite well with just VoiceOver and was expert at using various accessibility apps that really made his life easier, so it was mostly questions about finding specific sorts of things online (though I did end up helping him take a social media profile picture once).

 

[jujubi]

Pretty sure they introduced this plan to farm data from users to improve Siri. We all know none of us use Siri to play songs because it does'nt work.

 

[jimbobb24]

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!

Still technically challenging. Listening accurately still one of the hardest machine problems.

 

[Macalicious2011]

Soon they will launch an Apple Music tier with ads.

 

[Spotlighter9]

'Siri, play some Taylor Swift'

'I'm ordering a ride for you using 'Lyft'. Where would you like to go?'

* Cancels voice plan * <<< This probably happened lots of times.

Siri: "I'm sending a link to your phone with more information about tailoring Swift Programing Language"

 

[smoothbit]

I don't listen to enough music for £10 a month to be worth it to me, but £5 felt justifiable.

Using Siri as the only interface is an awful experience, but it's an awful experience that cost half the price of the usual one, and since I only used it on my HomePod mini anyway, the Voice plan was sufficient.

Once it stops working I guess I'll go back to YouTube for music discovery, combined with buying CDs/DRM-free-M4As for the two or three albums I buy a year.

I've been using a 4th-gen iPod to make my YouTube videos for the last few months and if it had Bluetooth I'd happily use it instead of even my iPhone.

 

[KFridman]

I still have it and am still being billed. Just notified of the latest charge. And it says I'll be billed again on 1/26.

 

[ebika]

Apple sent me an email yesterday about the Apple Music Voice plan actually ending soon, with some bonus time after the announced Nov 1, 2023 shutdown. Boo 😒. I know this plan wasn’t popular. I loved it because I get the whole music catalog for $5/month. You don’t have to use Siri. The app functionality is constrained, but you can type into a search box.