🎵 Bye-Bye Siri Music

Apple had a $5/month Siri-focused Apple Music Voice Plan?

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Hi All Happy Thursday! In a strategic shift, Apple discontinued its $5/month Siri-focused Apple Music Voice Plan, pivoting to enhance overall music services amidst stiff competition from Spotify. Here’s what this means for the future of Apple Music.

Also before we dive in, any interest in breaking into a $10 trillion market usually reserved for the wealthiest investors? Start here.

Now through Nov. 15, you can invest directly in StartEngine — aka one of the largest sites in the US for startup investing through equity crowdfunding — advised by you-know-who ↑1

A new funding paradigm: While new VC deals have dropped a stunning 46% from the highs of just two years ago, new deals in the equity crowdfunding space have actually increased by 10% in that same period.

Why 40,000+ everyday investors have already invested $75MM in StartEngine2:

  • StartEngine was ranked by Inc. Magazine as top 1% of US private businesses by revenue growth, and fastest growing private companies two years in a row (2022 & 2023)3

  • They recently acquired their competitor’s assets, SeedInvest, including an investor community that’s funded over $470 million – combined with our own community, collectively committed $1.1 billion4

  • Led by legendary CEO Howard Marks (you’ve probably heard of the last company he co-founded, Activision, which was recently acquired by Microsoft for $68 billion), with Strategic Advisor Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank1

Your window to invest in this round closes in a little over a week — don’t miss your chance to join 40,000 investors before this offering closes for good.

 đźŽµ Bye-Bye Siri Music

Apple Silently Bids Farewell To Its $5/Month Siri-Only Music Voice Plan

Apple has discontinued its $5 monthly Voice Plan for Apple Music, designed to enable Siri voice command access to its catalog.

What Happened: Apple introduced the Voice Plan in October 2021, allowing users to access Apple Music’s catalog through Siri voice commands. However, as of last Wednesday, the option has been removed from Apple Music’s subscription page.

Wait What? The company created a support page to address the discontinuation of the Apple Music Voice Plan. It explained that existing subscribers will retain access until their current subscriptions expire, at which point they’ll need to transition to a different Apple Music plan.

What Else: Apple has justified this move by highlighting its commitment to providing the best music experience for its customers, with features such as Spatial Audio, real-time lyrics, browsing and discovery enhancements, and more. Notably, all Apple Music plans already support Siri integration, and Apple plans to continue optimizing this experience.

Why It Matters: Earlier this year, it was reported that Spotify had the most number of subscribers in the U.S., followed closely by Apple Music and Amazon Music. As of February 2023, Spotify had an impressive 44.4 million paid subscribers in the U.S., Apple Music boasted 32.6 million paid subscribers, and Amazon Music, a built-in perk for Amazon Prime subscribers, secured third place with 29.3 million paid subscribers in the country.

Now through Nov. 15, you can invest directly in StartEngine — aka one of the largest sites in the US for startup investing through equity crowdfunding — advised by you-know-who ↑1

A new funding paradigm: While new VC deals have dropped a stunning 46% from the highs of just two years ago, new deals in the equity crowdfunding space have actually increased by 10% in that same period.

Why 40,000+ everyday investors have already invested $75MM in StartEngine2:

  • StartEngine was ranked by Inc. Magazine as top 1% of US private businesses by revenue growth, and fastest growing private companies two years in a row (2022 & 2023)3

  • They recently acquired their competitor’s assets, SeedInvest, including an investor community that’s funded over $470 million – combined with our own community, collectively committed $1.1 billion4

  • Led by legendary CEO Howard Marks (you’ve probably heard of the last company he co-founded, Activision, which was recently acquired by Microsoft for $68 billion), with Strategic Advisor Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank1

Your window to invest in this round closes in a little over a week — don’t miss your chance to join 40,000 investors before this offering closes for good.

Disclaimers

Reg A+ offering made available through StartEngine Crowdfunding, Inc. No broker-dealer or intermediary involved in offering. This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. Please see the most recent supplement, offering circular, and selected risks.
*Kevin O’Leary is a paid spokesperson for StartEngine. See his 17(b) disclosure, https://www.startengine.com/17b.
**Based on StartEngine’s unaudited financials: $1.88M for first half of 2019 compared to $9.9M for first half 2023, since these are semi-annual numbers and have not been audited, they may not include year-end adjustments necessary to make those financial statements comparable to audited results.
***Inc 5000 measures fastest growing private companies by revenue growth over a three-year period.
****StartEngine Community: Count of 1.8 million is determined as the number of unique email addresses in StartEngine’s database as of 10-6-2023.
*****Includes $760M in funds raised as of May 9, 2023 via Reg. CF and Reg. A+ combined through StartEngine’s funding portal and broker dealer, StartEngine Capital, LLC and StartEngine Primary, LLC respectively, as well as StartEngine’s own raises. Also includes $470M in funds raised previously through offerings conducted on www.seedinvest.com outside of the StartEngine platform. In May 2023, StartEngine acquired assets of SeedInvest, including email lists for SeedInvest’s users, investors and founders seeking to raise funds.