Testing Apple's New Apple Music Voice Plan in iOS 15.2

[JosephAW]

It’s funny, I pretty much operate Apple Music this way with the $9 dollar plan, I don’t use any of the radio stations or their suggestions or playlists, I only play specific albums that I like.
Maybe this will evolve into a Pandora type service where it starts out with an ad and then you can listen to a song for free.

 

[zapmymac]

My taste in music is far too picky to rent music. I love the all the songs I’ve purchased over 40+ years. Playing rented stuff is just irritating for the most part. Every few years I’ll try a month of Spotify to see if there are new songs I want to purchase, but that’s about it for me.

I keep buying/supporting artists I like as well. Hopefully, the rest of the world sees value in this going forward. ?

 

[urnotl33t]

I’m still an iTunes Match only subscriber, and one of the things that drives me bonkers is how you can’t manually queue up songs on a HomePod using an iOS device. Not Airplay-ing songs, but having the HomePod do the playback.

Probably this voice plan wouldn’t enable that ability, but I can dream.

Do Apple Music, ditch Match. You can manually queue on HomePod from iOS. I did it just tonight.

In Music, tap the bottom bar with the play controls on it.
In the new view, tap the airplay icon


Then tap "control other stuff" (this is the key!! Don't be fooled and tap the airplay to HomePod).

Then tap your HomePod at the bottom (usually).

Now you're controlling HomePod only. While in this mode, any "play next", "play later", etc. is on the HomePod.

Similarly, you can get this from control center, too. Open CC, long press on the same airplay icon. Then do same actions.

This is good for when your iOS thing lost its mind and can't see HomePod anymore, yet HomePod is still cranking out the tunes. Do the CC+long press method, tap Control HomePod, and boom! You reconnect like usual, play controls, and you see the up next list again.

Enjoy!

 

[Rychiar]

I’m glad I pay $4.99 for the full plan

 

[DrRadon]

Anyone taking bets on how long it will take till this gets discontinued?

 

[ThE.MeSsEnGeR]

I don't know if it's just me, but ever since Apple announced this feature a while ago, Siri has been acting pretty lame with Apple Music. I am currently subscribed to Apple One Premier Plan. So, I'm paying that hefty $29.95/mo.

Before, I used to be able to ask Siri to play a song or an artist, and it would start playing it immediately, wether I have that in my library or not. But now, one of two things happens:

• Siri says, "one sec...", "still working on it...", "something went wrong, please try again later."

or

• Siri says, "I did not find [x] in your Apple Music Library, would you like me to start a Radio station?"

It's becoming increasingly frustrating and making me regret paying for Apple Music.

 

[Gofu]

This is quite frankly useless.

I’m in the UK. If I ask Siri to play “Flipperkoenig” by “Welle:erdball” it plays “Fly By II” by “Blue”.

????

 

[fortheus]

Stupidest plan ever

 

[svish]

Watered down version of normal plan. Might be better off subscribing to $10 plan.

 

[maxfromdenmark]

Apple Music Voice Plan is for people who just want music playing and want to use the Apple Music features of an Apple device with Siri as its primary UI like Apple Watch or HomePod. You're paying less to use the same exact user interface you would already use on a HomePod mini or an Apple Watch with AirPods.

This is to give those users access to Music, if they don't already subscribe. This is not for iPhone or Mac Apple Music users, though it'll still work there. This is not for those who pick specific songs to play. Your way of using Apple Music is outside the scope of this tier and you should (and probably do) have the full Apple Music experience.

If you already go around the house asking your HomePod to "play music that I like" or lift your wrist as you begin a run and say "Hey Siri, play workout music", then this is for you and it'll work the same way, but for half the price.

Nice but when I asking my HomePod “play music I like” I can only hear “sorry there was a problem with Apple Music”.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Nice but when I asking my HomePod “play music I like” I can only hear “sorry there was a problem with Apple Music”.

You don’t get it do you? That is the song itself!

 

[ohhithere]

Is this why I can no longer have Siri change my star ratings lately? Just me?

 

[flur]

I would have given it a whirl if I could make my own playlists. I have need for a second account that doesn’t mess up my Spotify algorithms, and I only use Siri on my HomePod, so this would work for me. But I need to make my own playlists.

 

[jimimac71]

The only plus to Apple Music is they have more songs than anyone else. On the other hand, I grew up with AM radio and music with DJs and commercials. So listening to music for free on the Internet works for me. Listening to 181.fm or Accuradio means they pick the songs, but I pick the genre.
You have to ask, and this is a great place to do so, how many would listen to Apple Music for free with ads, versus paying for either of the price points? I would think Apple could make a handsome profit by reminding people with advertising, just how much they need the latest Apple product.
Video streaming services, free with ads, are insanely popular. Just sayin'.

 

[adamclarkthomas]

You can't do this? You can if you have apple music by pressing the now playing tile on the control center, tapping on control other speakers & TVs and then choosing a homepod. Tap the song title on that screen and your music app will open and you can choose songs, add them to up next, etc.

Unfortunately, you can't add to a Homepod queue via the iOS music app if you aren't a full fledged Apple Music subscriber. You can only control it via Siri. Which remains a bummer to me, since I don't really want to shell out for a streaming plan. Prefer to buy music directly via Bandcamp, mostly.