Other Auto-subscription to Apple Music Voice Preview - Siri rant

[LoveTo]

As if asking Siri to play some music (locally available) and Siri saying “You need to subscribe to Apple Music first” wasn’t annoying enough, today when I asked Siri to play some music, it gave a lengthy reply which I couldn’t hear and played the song. Later when I checked, Siri auto-subscribed me to 7 day free preview of Apple Music voice without any confirmation and played that song from Apple Music. This is so bad!
I know some of us would think that it’s free so doesn’t matter but it would mark my status as already availed free trial. There are sometimes good offers for first time trials and I may no longer have those. I may not want those anyway but I’m really uncomfortable with this situation. And to make matters worse, I can’t even unsubscribe. There are no options for that on the subscription page! This is like the U2 free album fiasco all over again!
Why can’t Apple fix Siri to prioritize playing local songs first? It would also solve another annoyance where Siri won’t play local music when not connected to the internet! Doesn’t make any sense as Siri performs basic tasks on-device now!
And while we are on Siri improvements, why not combine Siri response volume to the system volume? Even when my system volume is loud, I can’t hear Siri from a distance if I forgot to increase Siri volume, which can only be done when Siri is talking!! Also, can’t ask Siri to increase its own volume!!! Oof!!! 😓

 

[Fraserpatty]

I have had luck asking Siri to speak up. She increases her volume and says I’ll speak up.

 

[LoveTo]

That helped with at least one issue. Thanks @Fraserpatty!
It’s not the most convenient as it only increases the volume little by little every time. And also, to lower it, only Speak Down seems to be working. But better than nothing! 😀

 

[Fraserpatty]

Am I the only person that Siri will no longer read notifications for? Or is this yet another function of Siri that Apple has taken away? I really need them to put that one back. It’s one of the first things I do when I wake up is have her read out my notifications to me while I get dressed or something else that involves the little room.

 

[Bogstandard]

We're increasingly being coerced to subscribe to apple services.
Baulky apps, unknowingly being entered for subscriptions, "ad nausea", ad nauseum.

 

[RRC]

We're increasingly being coerced to subscribe to apple services.
Baulky apps, unknowingly being entered for subscriptions, "ad nausea", ad nauseum.

How so? The services are offered, not forced.

Any trial can be cancelled, and you’ll always get an email or have to confirm the purchase on your phone or iPad.

 

[jollino]

I just had the very same thing happen to me. I use iTunes Match (hopefully they'll keep it around) as I'm just old school and prefer keeping a local library that I curate myself.

Earlier today I was driving and asked Siri to play an album — which I actually DO have in my own library — and it did exactly the same as the OP: "With this seven day trial, you can listen to whatever". In an even more surreal twist, it then said "There's been an error playing the song you requested", or something to that effect.

I actually had some time to kill so I tried opening a chat with Apple about it, and a very frustrated operator confirmed that:
1) the trial cannot be cancelled but I'm not charged unless I explicitly tap "Get Started" in the subscriptions page,
2) I can't use any more trials for Apple Music on this Apple ID, not even for a different plan, as the trail can't be reset,
3) I can always create a new one for a new trial (how convenient!),
4) it sucks that Siri didn't ask for confirmation but it's a done deal now, so it stays like that.

If anything, I hope that now the Music app will stop pushing Apple Music on me, since it kept randomly resetting the "Show Apple Music" setting to on.
Still, how disappointing. I would have expected this kind of dark pattern from other companies, not Apple.

How so? The services are offered, not forced.

Any trial can be cancelled, and you’ll always get an email or have to confirm the purchase on your phone or iPad.

True, but a trial should only start if you explicitly request it. I had no interest in even trying the Voice plan, and was keeping the Individual plan's trial around so that I could possibly give it a go later on, when I'd have more time to properly test it.
This way, instead, I've burned that option through no fault of my own. Now if I want to test Apple Music I have to pay for at least a month. It goes without saying that, at that point, I'd be more likely to use a 3-month Spotify Premium account and then keep that (for the record, that it is also €1 cheaper: €9.99 vs. €10.99).