Music bought on iTunes working fine on HomePod via Airplay - own tracks not playing

The reply from vegea8 above is correct, I've had this issue and posted about it here:

HomePod AirPlay Problem - Apple Community

So this new HomePod feature is very problematic on many fronts.

• If you're using AirPlay from your own iOS device to play on HomePod, the HomePod automatically changes to streaming what you're trying to play -- i.e. not actually from your device, but from the internet.
  • For internet streaming purposes, the HomePod only knows about your iTunes purchase history, unless you also subscribe to iTunes Match or use iCloud Music Library (as part of Apple Music).
  • So if you're playing a playlist with songs that are a mix of iTunes purchases and from other sources, the HomePod only plays what you've purchased from Apple or have in iCloud as part of a paid service.

• Since the HomePod is streaming content from the internet, rather than over Wi-Fi from your iOS device, you're using up your internet bandwidth. This is not a problem for most people, but if you have to use satellite internet I can imagine this being very problematic in terms of service quality and data consumption. I've had satellite internet before, it is terrible but it is a fact of life in many rural areas where there are no other choices. Under the way things worked previously, you could AirPlay to your HomePod without pulling data off the internet.

• Since the HomePod is streaming content from the internet rather than over Wi-Fi from your iOS device, your play history (play counts and Last Played Date) don't update -- this is very problematic if you use smart playlists based on this criteria.

The workaround that I've been using is to include my AirPort Express router in my AirPlay targets (i.e. AirPlay to HomePod and my AirPort Express*). Since an AirPort Express can't stream from the internet, this forces the music to play from your device, rather than the internet. I just turn the AirPlay volume down on the AirPort Express, but leave it as a target and what I play is coming from my iPhone, not the internet. I don't have a smart TV that supports AirPlay, but I suppose that might be an alternative to an AirPort Express.

*The AirPort Express has to be the newer kind, with the firmware update to allow AirPlay 2 compatibility.

Although the workaround helps, it is a hassle and I'm not happy about this. You can provide feedback to Apple at the link below and hopefully they'll listen and correct this behavior by making it a choice rather than assuming that we all want to stream from the internet.

Feedback - HomePod - Apple

Do you have either iTunes Match or Apple Music? Have you set up handoff? Using Apple Music and handoff I'm seeing that when I attempt to AirPlay from my phone it actually hands over playback to the HomePod and I can shut down the music app on my phone. Clearly that wouldn't work in a scenario where the data had to come from your device.

tt2

Had the same problem until this morning. Solve by turning off “Siri - recognize my voice “ option in home app.. left it for a few hours and than when I used it again. Presto. it should be the culprit because as soon as I on it back again ( regconize my voice) all my playlist , songs on match and radio stations were not regconise again.

As far as I know, the homepod has, and had before the latest update, two ways of playing music. One is by receiving airplay streaming from any capable device, and the other is by streaming on its own your apple/icloud music libraries. 

If the homepod streaming music on its own, you can control it’s player, like remote control on any hifi system, on the control centre music menu. This menu will show your iPhone player, and your homepods and apple TV players. You can select any of this device’s player as long as you’re connected to the same network. 

Say that you ask siri on a homepod to play any song, and later you want to add to the queue another song, but you don’t want to ask siri to do it. You then open control centre on your ios device, select your homepod’s player (not your homepod on your iphone’s player airplay menu) and your music app will now control the homepod’s player and anything you play or add to the queue will be on your homepod’s own player, and not on your iDevice’s one. 

If you airplay content from your iphone the homepod just plays what receives from it but is your iphone the device that manages all the streaming from internet and playing functions.

I’ve noticed that with the release of ios 13.2 on iPhone and 13.2.1 on homepod and the added handoff with homepod, if you’re playing something of apple music on your iphone and you handoff it to the homepod, this does NOT select homepod on the iphone’s airplay menu making the homepod the audio output for the iphone; what it actually does is to set the homepod’s own player to play the same thing on your iphone and starting it on the same spot, and set your iphone to control homepod’s player. (I hope you understand what i’m trying to explain). This happens (or should happen) only if what your iphone is playing is playable by the homepod itself (anything of apple music, your bought itunes songs and your icloud music library), if your iphone is playing spotify, then it will select homepod as the aiplay audio output for your iphone. 

That’s pretty cool and well implemented, BUT now , if you select homepod from your iphone/ipad on ios 13.2 (not earlier) player’s airplay menu it will not set the homepod as your audio output, it will actually swith to control your homepod’s player. It will ONLY set it as the idevice’s output if it’s playing something not streamable by the homepod itself (say netflix, spotify, youtube, local songs on the music app...). If you are not playing anything it will just switch to control your homepod’s player, and then if you select on your phone’s music app something the homepod cannot play by itself (like local music thats not on your icloud music library, it will not play it). Only if your are already playing on your device something the homepod cannot play by itself (only apple music and icloud music library songs) and you then select the homepod on the airplay menu, it will actually set it as the audio output and it will play, being your device the sender of that audio.

Before ios 13.2 on idevices and 13.2.1 on homepod, if you selected homepod on your airplay menu, it will send all your device’s audio to the homepod via airplay; and you could also select to control your homepods own player. This now has changed like i’ve explained. 

I hope you understanded what i’ve tried to explain, sorry for my english mistakes i’m from spain

Oh believe me I've tried this exact method, and it did not work for me. If the Music app is playing, I'll pause and then connect to HomePods via Control Center as you've described. Going back into the Music app and Play starts the music, but I can tell it is streaming from the internet and not actually playing from my iPhone. I have not tried completely killing the Music app before connecting to HomePod via Control Center, maybe that would help but seems problematic to do (would have to re-navigate back to what I wanted to listen to).

Another workaround I've found is in the HomePod settings, by changing the default account to my wife's Apple account that fixed it completely -- I can select AirPlay right from within Music and playback stays as coming from the iPhone, not streaming over the internet to the HomePod (I can tell by launching a 3rd party music app on the iPhone and see playback activity on the iPhone).

See Use Handoff with iPhone - Apple Support. Try turning Handoff off to see if it helps.

tt2

See what Apple Support have got to say.

tt2