Playing music on HomePod

Ok, the HomePod is only going to be able to use Siri to play music you have purchased from the iTunes Store without an Apple Music or iTunes Match subscription. The articles you have seen about unhidden music is the music you have purchased from iTunes, not music hidden in your Library.

Without a subscription, you are limited to AirPlay music to the HomePod or using Siri to play music you have already purchased from iTunes. Here is a related Apple Support article:

Using HomePod without Apple Music - Apple Community

Open the Home app and go into your HomePod settings. Under Music & Podcasts, verify that the email Address that is shows under Primary User is the same one where you have the Apple Music subscription. If there is not one there, tap on the Primary User and set the same Apple ID used for Apple Music under the Home Pod Account.

Sorry, it really does require an Apple Music subscription to make full use of the HomePods. I understand that having another subscription is the last thing us users want and do wish there was a method, such as Home Sharing, that would make the Library easily available with Siri integration.

I did relent and have the Apple Music subscription and even for how much I hate subscriptions, I really could not recommend the HomePods without it. I actually make heavy use of the Apple Music subscription and use the HomePods daily. It is pretty convenient to simply tell Siri to play the songs I like and the music will start playing curated songs based on what I have liked/disliked. I listen to music now, more than I have ever thought I would. Whether entertaining at home or a car ride, others can tell Siri to play any song they want and it is kinda fun to hear what other people are listening too. If I like it, I just tell Siri to add it to my playlist.

That's because Homepods were only ever intended to work with Apple Music. Believe me when I say, I found out the hard and expensive way. I purchased two homepods the week they were released in Canada, at a cost of $1000.00. cad. At first they worked beautifully as a stereo pair and did what the advertisement said they would, which indicated that they would "play your purchased" music.

Fast forward a year and suddenly when I requested a song that I had purchased, I started getting responses like "homepod couldn't find that in your apple music library". Since I had paid for full apple care, I repeatedly called technical support. I wasted countless hours of time taking to senior tech support advisers. This obviously yielded no results and I spent way too much time resetting my modem and homepods (which never really seemed to clear cache or reset effectively. Finally after getting rather steamed with one tech support worker, she finally just said what I needed to hear. "Homepods were always intended to only work with apple music". Period. I was crushed, and the problems continued to develop and get worse over time. Fast forward to 2024 and my only recourse is to airplay music from my iphone to homepods...if it works. They have become so unreliable, so incredibly frustrating to use and update themselves without being prompted, even though I have update manually set in the homeapp that I finally purchased a jbl extreme 4 before Christmas. Don't buy anymore of them. They are one of only two apple products that I regret purchasing. The other is airpod max. Fortunately, Apple Vision Pro has redeemed them. But I will never again buy an apple product unless its been on the market for at least 6 months and I can find verifiable customer feedback, not youtube videos of people who test products for likes and subs and then return them.

buyer beware

Is there a problem with your Apple Music subscription?

Are you able to use Siri on your iPhone to play Apple Music, such as "Hey Siri, Play Queen"?