HomePod HomePod Classical Music - How to Make Siri Work?

[newellj]

Is there some brilliant approach or work-around for making Siri work with classical music? I have 20+ years of music in my iTunes library and subscribe (at least for now) to both iTunes Match and Apple Music. I bought a pair of HomePods, set them up as a stereo pair and really like the sound in our living room. However, trying to get Siri to play classical music, even from my playlists, is completely frustrating. I am not really interested in having to fiddle with AirPlay from my phone if I'm using the HomePods, and AirPlay from my Macs won't play stereo (won't even play on more than a single HomePod - Apple, what are you thinking?).

Is there a better way to approach classical music with Siri? I'm on the verge of giving up on these, which is too bad because I really like how they're performing here. Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Jefe's MacAir]

Create a playlist then ask Siri to play that playlist using a HomePod.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Subscribe to Apple Music. You can get a free trial for 3 months. Then hey Siri play classical music.

 

[axantas]

Subscribe to Apple Music. You can get a free trial for 3 months. Then hey Siri play classical music.

You do not know a lot about that kind of music, do you?

It is indeed one of the weak points of "Siri driven" playback. "Play Beethovens 9th Symphony conducted by Furtwängler from 1942" might be slightly too much for Siri. It is impossible to trigger a playback THAT specific - even if you have it in your library.

 

[Shanghaichica]

You do not know a lot about that kind of music, do you?

It is indeed one of the weak points of "Siri driven" playback. "Play Beethovens 9th Symphony conducted by Furtwängler from 1942" might be slightly too much for Siri. It is impossible to trigger a playback THAT specific - even if you have it in your library.

Admittedly I don’t know much at all about classical music.

 

[newellj]

You do not know a lot about that kind of music, do you?

It is indeed one of the weak points of "Siri driven" playback. "Play Beethovens 9th Symphony conducted by Furtwängler from 1942" might be slightly too much for Siri. It is impossible to trigger a playback THAT specific - even if you have it in your library.

It seems to be harder than Siri can manage. I tried renaming some playlists to make it easier. "Siri, play my xxxxxx." No good, I get mostly random garbage responses such as "I can't find that," or (infrequently) I get a different recording at best. It's very disappointing. These speakers work extremely well, but Siri is a failure for classical music. She doesn't even do all that well if you want a specific vintage rock album, though, and (again) playlists don't necessarily improve her accuracy.

 

[axantas]

As I do have ALL my music locally stored (about 100 Gigs) I started to use my 256GB iPad as a streaming device for now.

I often use the HomePod for listening to radio stations. It is really interesting how many different stations Siri can play, if I ask for "Radio Ten" (example) - or even does not find that station at all in my library ?

As an alternative - without Siri though - Sonos creates a database from your local library (not iTunes libary) and can play your music directly from a cheap server. You will have to access it from the Sonos app, but it does not Airplay from that device. Airplay is possible, but not mandatory.

Concerning Sonos: I was kind of astonished, Apple does sell Sonos now as a regular offer in their stores, offering HomePod as their own product at the same time. It seems to be a valuable alternative for Apple...

 

[Plett]

As I do have ALL my music locally stored (about 100 Gigs) I started to use my 256GB iPad as a streaming device for now.

I often use the HomePod for listening to radio stations. It is really interesting how many different stations Siri can play, if I ask for "Radio Ten" (example) - or even does not find that station at all in my library ?

As an alternative - without Siri though - Sonos creates a database from your local library (not iTunes libary) and can play your music directly from a cheap server. You will have to access it from the Sonos app, but it does not Airplay from that device. Airplay is possible, but not mandatory.

Concerning Sonos: I was kind of astonished, Apple does sell Sonos now as a regular offer in their stores, offering HomePod as their own product at the same time. It seems to be a valuable alternative for Apple...

As a big fan of the HomePod system I have to admit that Siri is the weak point when wanting a specific piece of music. Anything that has any complication in the title becomes very challenging for my squat little friends.
To solve my most oft used "complicated" music to include Classical, i have created playlists with those songs with "easy" titles. Doesn't solve the Ops real problem of "hey I want to listen to a particular piece of music by a particular orchestra, recorded at a specific time" on a whim. That is where Siri show's it's weakness.

If not for automation (still f'in buggy, but whatever) I would have jumped on Sonos as well, in fact with unlimited resources i would have a few Sonos in certain rooms just because, but that is not the case. I am in too deep at this point, but I would not shy away from Sonos if I was purely wanting music

I did see Sonos is back in the Apple store, assuming it is a BT speaker that makes sense. That is a feature that would have been huge IMHO and brought more to the HomePod game. I have a JBL Flip thing that I use in my garden, doesn't sound "great" but is better than my iPhone speaker and waterproof, etc.

Radio is unexplored for me, but have automations to turn on lights in the AM and play a news channel that I favor, works pretty well.

 

[newellj]

Thanks, all. I'm not sure why my playlists are not working better. I'll keep working on this for a bit. The return period ends January 14. I'd like to figure this out - I really like how these work where they are - we'll see.