Roger Fingas
Apple's Siri voice assistant in iOS will refuse to answer questions about music charts for people who aren't Apple Music subscribers, users noted on Monday.
"Sorry, [username], I can't look up the music charts for you. You don't seem to be subscribed to Apple Music," reads a canned response to questions about modern or historical chart-toppers. The problem was highlighted by Business Insider and others, and verified by AppleInsider.
The situation appears to stem from Siri's app hooks, since people who do have Apple Music subscriptions are being bounced into the iOS Music app.
Apple doesn't market such Siri questions as exclusive to Music subscribers however, and it could theoretically separate its chart database for people who want to know, rather than play, what was on a chart on a given date.
Apple Music entered virgin territory this month as the first three-month trials expired. Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that the service has about 6.5 million paid subscribers — well below Spotify's 20 million, although Apple Music is less than four months old.
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46 Comments
I asked Siri what an amino acid was. She found the wikipedia entry and offered to read it to me. "Sure," I said, after after she read me out loud about life-sustaining amino acids I feel asleep like a baby, just a baby that got a little bit smarter than before. I don't know what a music chart, is, though. Is it important to life?
Ohhh....looks like Siri has private data she won't share. Tim is really taking that data privacy stuff seriously.
This is stupid on Apple's part. Siri should "just work"
Ask Siri to "search Google for the top song on Sept 11, 1973." ;)
Wow. That's not a very good move by Apple. A bit Microsoftan.