Siri is a novelty. Siri is incredibly useful. Both of these things are true.
Whenever a new, funny answer to a Siri query (hey, it rhymes!) emerges, it is sure to make its way around the internet. One fine example is in this tweet from Aaron Paul:
Ask Siri “what is zero divided by zero?” RIGHT. NOW.
If you haven’t already, go ahead, it’s a fun answer. Not useful, but novel and funny. Most importantly, like all Easter eggs, finding and sharing this draws you in, builds a bond between you and Siri and, between you and the Apple ecosystem.
This same logic applies with useful queries as well. For example, try asking Siri this:
Play the top songs from 1970
Feel free to pick your favorite year. If you have Apple Music installed, Siri will reply with:
Now playing the top 25 songs from 1970…
and will build a playlist of the Billboard top 25 from that year, edited (of course) to include songs in the Apple Music collection.
Super useful, incredibly fun.
Which brings us to The Beatles. There is a gaping hole in Apple Music. A Beatles-sized hole. Ask Siri for the top songs of, say, 1964. You’ll get songs from 1964, certainly, but no songs by The Beatles, who OWNED the top of the charts back then. If you search Apple Music, you’ll get lots of Beatles music, but it’s always instrumentals and other covers.
A friend of mine who knows about such things, suggested that the agreement between Apple and Capitol Records is what’s known in the industry as an EBTB agreement. Everything But The Beatles. Here’s hoping that gets fixed.
I recommend everyone, I mean everyone, go out and buy all albums of The Beatles (in CD format) before they stop producing them. You’ll never have to worry about the music sounding substandard or degraded and you won’t have to worry about bullshit DRM. The Beatles have earned it and you shouldn’t need to worry about the music labels screwing you over down the road. Any way, all music lovers should to be literate of The Beatles.
I agree, and I have. Which brings up a question — if I asked the question, would Siri play the Beatles songs at the appropriate place? IOW, does Siri take into account the user’s library when answering the question, or does she only draw from what’s in Apple Music?
I did just that when the first CD releases appeared.
If you are Apple Music member, your song IS Apple Music song so it will play, but it still won’t list it in SIRI’s “Top Songs of 1964”, I guess.