HomePod "Sign in to Apple Music to play songs on your HomePod."

[UltimateSyn]

I'm on my Mac trying to use iTunes to AirPlay songs to my HomePod. My Mac and the HomePod are both connected to my phone's personal hotspot. When I try to play a song I am presented with this error:

Then, I enter my correct password for my iTunes account (I do not have an AM subscription), it loads for a second, says "Accessing iTunes Store..." and then stops. As soon as I click play again the cycle continues.

I was able to AirPlay from my iPad, no such luck with the Mac. Anyone experiencing this / know what's up? Thanks!

Edit: To clarify, this is happening even with non-DRM'd songs that I downloaded that do not exist in iTunes / AM

 

[tubular]

I had the same issue using HomePod as a speaker. My guess is that it's needed only for the initial set-up, though. After that, I could log out and still use the speaker.