Apple made some pretty cool announcements in the just-concluded October 18 Unleashed event. Although everywhere was abuzz with the announcements of the new MacBook Pros and the Airpods 3, Apple also unveiled the Apple Music Voice Plan. Just like Apple’s confusing iCloud+ subscription service, many are perplexed as to what the Voice Plan means and whether they will need it. As always, we will try to help you understand Apple’s latest Music subscription offering.
What is the Apple Music Voice Plan?
Before the announcement of the new base tier, the company had offered two plans for its music streaming service: the Individual plan priced at $9.99 per month, and a Family Plan costs $14.99 per month for a group of six people.
The Apple Voice Plan is the upcoming baseline subscription option for Apple Music. It will allow users to access Apple’s robust music library of 90 million songs and thousands of playlists, all with voice command. Users can ask Siri to play songs, albums, curated playlists, personalized mixes, and Apple Music Radio without navigating a touch interface.
How Much Does the Apple Voice Plan Cost?
The Apple Music Voice Plan is priced fairly at $4.99. This is the price of the student Apple Music tier and Apple TV+. To sign up for the Voice Plan, users can ask Siri to start their Music Voice trial. Users can also access it from the Apple Music app directly.
Who Should Subscribe?
Suppose you are considering opting for this new tier. In that case, it is important to know that the Voice Plan does not support Spatial Audio and lossless audio, two recent additions to the music streaming service’s offerings. There is also no Lyrics view, and users cannot download 100,000 songs to their library or see their friends’ listening history.
It is up to the user’s budget and preference to determine if these tradeoffs are not too steep. Some users may prefer the Apple Music Voice Plan because they only make use of HomePod, AirPods, and other accessories to listen to music. Hence, they may not require anything more than the service tier offers.
It is important to note that all other Apple Music plans can do everything that the voice plan can. If you’re just a music lover who doesn’t care about having a robust media library, spatial audio, or Dolby Atmos, then this would be great for you. If not, you should probably look for something higher. The Apple Music Voice Plan will be available in 17 countries when it kicks off later this year.
The 17 countries that the new plan will be available to are Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
