“Apple is late to the subscription music party, but it is bringing Siri along to have a little fun,” Joan E. Solsman reports for CNET. “Unlike [rival] services, Apple adds the element of voice commands with its Siri virtual assistant. Voice commands like ‘play the top 10 alternative songs now’ and ‘play the top song from 1982’ will automatically retrieve those tracks.”
“Listeners who experiment with Siri’s chops as their personal music helper may find it to be the most playful part of Apple Music. Asking it to play the No. 1 song on the day you were born or the most popular song on the soundtrack to your favorite movie can be a fun rabbit hole to tumble down,” Solsman reports. “But it’s more important than just party tricks: Most subscription music services offer the same fundamental proposition, and a unique element like Siri may help Apple Music stand apart.”
“‘Until relatively recently, there had not been a lot of marquee innovation in the subscription music space, in the features of the product,’ said Dan Cryan, analyst with IHS. With Spotify’s introduction of an element that matches the beats per minute in the song to the cadence of your running, and with Apple integrating Siri, ‘we are starting to see more difference and some innovation on the user experience,’ he said,” Solsman reports. “A three-month free trial works in Apple’s — and Siri’s — favor. Letting people experiment with the service, and Siri integration may give them the opportunity to make it part of their routine. Also working in Apple’s favor: iPhone owners already use Siri for other simple tasks. About 42 percent of iPhone owners turn to Siri at least once a month, according to ComScore.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Siri, if you haven’t queried her in awhile, is vastly improved. We noticed that, around the release of Apple Watch, Siri began to work better and faster, with fewer mistakes. We’re not sure if this occurred sooner, but Apple Watch caused us to use Siri much more and, consequently, we’re were surprisingly happy to discover a significant improvement. We can’t wait to try using Siri to interact with Apple Music.