HomePod HomePod Only Plays Certain Purchases

[ouimetnick]

This strange issue impacts all of my HomePods, not just the Mini that I used for demonstration purposes in the video.
I can say "Hey Siri, play Body Bag" and she will play it no problem. I purchased this song from the iTunes Store in 2018.

I can also say "Hey Siri, play Get Up Stand Up, and she says I didn't find Get Up Standup on Apple Music" Except I've never subscribed to Apple Music in the first place. I purchased this song from iTunes in 2013.

Asking her to play Jinglebells (purchased in 2007) and she responds with I didn't find Jinglebells on Apple Music (again, no subscription)
Numerous other examples like "play Is It Love" "play Is This Love" "play Like A G6" all return the same "I couldn't find_____ on Apple Music. These examples were purchased between 2007-2014.

I can ask her to play Long Time Gone (purchased in 2013) and she plays it w/o issue. Yet asking her to play Margaritaville (also purchased in 2013) doesn't work.

Asking her to play a song purchased last week like Manic Monday works.

If all of these songs were purchased under the SAME Apple ID and the HomePod is setup under that SAME Apple ID, why won't she play all of my purchases? It's strange problems like this that I only use these HomePod products as dumb speakers and only AirPlay my full lossless audio files to them, rather than wasting time messing with them when half of the time she won't play my music.

On another note, I have created playlists of my music in iTunes and sync them to all my devices. If I say play "Grandpa Order" or "Green Day Favorites" she has no idea what I'm saying. Would an iTunes Match subscription resolve this or do I have to pay for Apple Music?

If you would rather watch a video, I made a detailed video explaining the problem.

 

[VinW]

I have a similar issue with my new HomePod mini (updated in 14.3 and reset afterwards), although worse and slightly different (I opened a thread yesterday):
- worse because the HomePod mini won’t play any of my songs when I request “Hey Siri, play ..... by .....” -> I always get the same error “Sorry but I couldn’t find ...... on Apple Music

- different because if I just ask Siri to play an artist, it plays the songs from my iTunes library

So in the end this seems super buggy bordering on unusable.
No such issues with my Google Nest mini, although I much prefer the HomePod sound....
I just find it hard to believe a company like Apple can release such massively buggy devices...

 

[rob559]

Yes, I have the same kind of issues with purchased music on my Apple ID. Some artists won't play "cannot find on Apple Music". I'm not a subscriber. Song titles are problematic. Sometimes only one song will play from an album when asked to play certain artists. ....Weird

 

[VinW]

Hello,
The issue is still there in 14.4.
It has improved in the sense that more songs are played upon request.
But it is still a minority: I will mostly get a “Sorry, but I couldn’t find xxx on Apple Music”.
And I know those songs (that I purchased in iTunes) are there since they get played if I ask to play the artist (that works, but it is not a bypass at all because you have no control at all on which songs are played!).
I am still very disappointed with Siri on those Homepods.
Using them as glorified Bluetooth speakers is just lame.

 

[VinW]

I have had the same behavior since purchase of both HomePod and HomePod Mini in December.
In14.3 and now in 14.4.
—> I can ask for artist but if I ask for a specific song it fails in 90% of the cases “I am sorry but I couldn’t find xxx on Apple Music” (although the song is there and it even gets played if I ask to play the artist).
On top of that I also experienced the same errors as you: Siri seems to accept to play something and then “Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Music”.
All in all extremely disappointing compared to my Google devices, and very frustrating because the HomePods have a significantly better sound.
But as such they are only usable as glorified Bluetooth player (with a 2 seconds time lag in that case ).

 

[mkaen]

This is maddening. Has anyone had success figuring this out?

Used to work. But now, I ask for a playlist and it's "I couldn't find that on Apple Music". I'm not using Apple Music!!