It was a bit over two years in the past that Apple debuted a brand new $4.99 Apple Music Voice Plan to go alongside its colourful HomePod mini audio system. Now, it seems to have quietly killed off the extra inexpensive plan.
Whereas we’re by no means fairly certain how a lot uptake the plan bought, it looks like a protected guess that it wasn’t as standard as Apple had hoped. The plan was designed to offer entry to Apple Music solely by voice. This was ideally finished from a HomePod mini however was additionally potential from most different Apple gadgets with Siri assist.
The Apple Music Voice plan supplied up your complete Apple Music catalog, however it lacked necessary options comparable to Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, Lossless Audio, lyrics, private music libraries, and social sharing, plus it didn’t work on third-party gadgets just like the Amazon Echo.
Subscribers to the Apple Music Voice Plan additionally ended up with a dumbed-down expertise within the Apple Music app with no potential to manually browse the Apple Music catalog or create private playlists. Even the “For You” part was conspicuously absent. As a substitute, customers had been directed to make all their requests for particular songs by voice or select from a brand new set of 250+ temper and exercise playlists.
The Apple Music Voice Plan was solely a person plan. There have been no household choices out there. Anyone in your house might apply it to a household HomePod, however they’d have to buy their very own Voice Plan in the event that they needed to entry it from a private machine like an iPhone.
Availability was additionally restricted to solely a handful of counties. Along with the US, prospects might solely join Apple Voice in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Eire, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, and the UK. In contrast, the usual Apple Music plan is out there in over 150 nations.
Evidently, the Apple Music Voice Plan was an odd thought from the get-go. It may need made extra sense if Apple bundled it with the HomePod mini; it might have been Apple’s means of matching up the ad-supported plans from rivals like Spotify. Apple has made it clear that an ad-supported tier is out of the query, however the voice plan with a HomePod mini buy might make a wonderful means of drawing extra customers into full paid Apple Music subscriptions.
The primary hints of the plan’s demise had been present in iOS 17.1 by the parents at 9to5Mac, however the remaining affirmation got here earlier right this moment when Brazilian website MacMagazine seen the disappearance of the Apple Music Voice Plan subscription web page from Apple’s web site. Apple has additionally scrubbed all mentions of the service from its web site.
Whereas it’s unclear why Apple is canceling the plan, it’s probably a mix of poor uptake and the elevated prices of operating the service. Final 12 months, Apple Music elevated by $1 monthly, first with the coed plan going to $5.99/month, adopted by the person and household plans rising by $1 and $2 to $10.99/month and $16.99/month, respectively. On the time, Apple cited greater licensing prices for music, and it’s arduous to think about that the Apple Music Voice Plan was exempt from these. The timing means that Apple might have had a fixed-term pricing association with the music labels that’s now coming to an finish.
Since Apple hasn’t formally introduced the elimination of the Apple Music Voice Plan, it’s additionally unclear how these nonetheless subscribed to it will likely be affected.