Apple Music Voice Plan
With its shift into virtual events last year, Apple has shown an increased willingness to toss in a couple of curveballs as a sort of opening act. The HomePod mini headlined the iPhone 12 unveiling last October, so it seems appropriate that Apple also opened this year’s event with something completely unrelated: music.
Apple Music’s Zane Lowe took the virtual stage for quite possibly the first time ever to talk about a new way of calling up theme and mood-based Apple Music playlists using Siri, and while that was a nice and moderately interesting expansion of both Apple Music and Siri, it’s what came next that threw us for a loop.
It appears that Apple has decided that one way to draw in more Apple Music subscribers is to offer a lower-cost plan that’s based entirely around Siri. The new Apple Music Voice Plan will cost only $4.99/month, and it will offer access to the widely expanded array of curated playlists available on Apple Music.
It’s going to be available only on Apple devices, not third-party speakers, smart TVs, or game consoles, and there will be other limitations, but it’s still an interesting new development that we did not see coming.