What is the Apple Music Voice plan?

Once upon a time in 2021, Apple introduced something cool called Apple Music Voice. It was like having a DJ in your pocket, and you could tell it what to play using just your voice. It was also cheaper than Apple Music.

However, in November 2023, Apple decided to hit the stop button on this Siri-only music plan. Let’s rewind and check out what is Apple Music Voice, how it works, how much it costs, and why you can’t subscribe to it anymore.

What is Apple Music Voice?

Launched in 2021, Apple Music Voice was a subscription plan under Apple Music that let you access the whole Apple Music library using voice commands on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other compatible Apple devices.

It was an affordable alternative to Apple Music that offered complete control through Siri. With Apple Music Voice, you had access to the Apple Music catalog of over 90 million songs, hundreds of new stations, personalized playlists, and mixes for any occasion or mood.

However, Apple discontinued the service in November 2023, citing the lack of features like immersive Spatial Audio and real-time lyrics. And since all Apple Music plans already work with Siri, the company didn’t see a need for a dedicated Siri-only plan.

How does Apple Music Voice work?

The Apple Music Voice plan was built around Siri’s capabilities. Instead of manually selecting songs or artists in the Apple Music app, you made selections by instructing Siri.

For instance, to listen to a particular artist, you could say, “Play (name of the artist) on Apple Music.” If you had a specific track in mind, you could request it directly by saying “Play (name of the track) by (name of the artist).”

Similarly, you executed all other actions on the app by instructing Siri, whether it was searching, pausing, or skipping tracks.

To provide a more versatile experience, the Apple Music Voice plan allowed you to choose from numerous Apple Music playlists such as New Music Daily, Today’s Hits, Rap Life, and more, all optimized for voice commands.

You could ask Siri to play specific genres using prompts like “Play the Rap Life playlist” or “Play Today’s Hits playlist” or by using more personalized prompts like “Play a workout playlist” or “Play cool RnB from the 70s.”

How much is the Apple Music Voice plan?

The Apple Music Voice plan was priced at $4.99 per month, but you could use it free for a week thanks to the 7-day free trial. This placed it around half the price of the standard Apple Music plan of $9.99 per month for pretty much the same song library.

Apple Music Voice had some limitations. For example, it lacked lossless audio, offline song downloads, and spatial audio. And because it was exclusive to Siri-enabled devices, you could not use it on Android phones and Windows PCs.

With the service discontinued, Apple’s cheapest plan is the $5.99 per month student tier which is only available to students.

How to get the Apple Music Voice plan

You could get started with Apple Music Voice by saying “Hey Siri, start my Apple Music Voice trial” or by signing up in the Apple Music app. The process of subscribing to the Voice plan through the app varied, depending on whether you were already an Apple Music subscriber or not.

For new Apple Music users:

1. Open the Apple Music app on your iPad or iPhone and select “Listen Now” at the bottom-right corner.
2. Locate the box labeled “Play anything with Siri” and tap on it.
3. Click “Subscribe” to sign up for the Apple Music Voice Plan using your Apple ID account. It costs $4.99 a month after the free 7-day trial expires.

For existing Apple Music subscribers:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and tap your name at the top.
2. Select Subscriptions and choose Apple Music.
3. Under Options, pick Voice (1 Month).
4. Confirm your decision to switch to the Apple Music Voice plan.

Once successfully subscribed, you would receive music suggestions based on your preferences and a history of your recently played songs via Siri. You could enjoy the service on your HomePod mini, Apple TV, AirPods, iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other Siri-enabled devices, including CarPlay.

Note that you cannot subscribe to Apple Music Voice anymore as it has been discontinued. Apple has turned off auto-renew for existing subscribers. But if you have an active plan, it’ll remain valid until the end of your billing cycle unless you switch to another Apple Music plan: Individual, Student, or Family.

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