HomePod music pauses when another device (playing different music) starts a new song.

I recently purchased two HomePod Minis and setup them up in two different rooms. With the home app they are also linked to the Apple TV. And my wife's iPhone also shares the network.

What we have found is if I ask Siri to play music on my phone (when I'm not home) that when the music starts on my iPhone, it'll pause the music on the home pod. Resuming the home pod will stop the music on the phone.

If I tell home pod to resume, it will, but then as soon as the music on the iPhone advances to the next song, the home pod pauses again. And crazier, if the home pod advances songs first, the iPhone pauses.

Needless to say, this is infuriating. Two home pods and two iPhones and it's impossible to get them to keep playing music independently.

I've searched everywhere and couldn't find anything about this (besides a lot of "randomly pauses" but this isn't random, it's very reproducible).

help please!