Can't Control HomePod music from other devices

Well I am very excited to share that I have figured it out!!

It turns out that there is a setting to disable explicit content from playing on the HomePod. You can read about how to change it here: Change HomePod settings - Apple Support

All of the songs that I could not play had in common that they had explicit lyrics. It appears that when a song is added to your library, it is not enforced, and I was able to play explicit songs. But if they are not in your library, then this setting must apply.

Thanks for the help in figuring this out!!!

Thank you. You are correct, I failed to mention that I restarted everything, cable modem, router, both devices, and HomePod. I just did it again, while resetting the HomePod as well. I also changed the AirPlay & Handoff setting to Ask. I also followed @turingtest2's advice and turned off private Wi-Fi for this network (even though it has been working fine with it on for months).

Currently, I can now play many songs from Apple Music from iOS controlling the HomePod. However, there are a few artists that I cannot play any music from. It is VERY strange. I can play these artists music on my phone, I can AirPlay these artists from from my phone to the HomePod, I can use iOS to control my Apple TV and have it play these artists, I can ask Siri on the HomePod to play music by these artists, but I cannot use iOS to control the HomePod and play these particular artists. Their music is not in my library, it is only on Apple Music, which I have a subscription to.

It is almost like I need to clear the cache of these artists on the HomePod. Trying to play one of them from iOS controlling the HomePod was what alerted me to the issue in the first place!

Any ideas?

Adding that I am able to play these artists through a different iOS device controlling the HomePod, whom I share my Apple Music subscription with. This makes me think it may be related to my specific Apple Music account, so I am unable to play them through two different devices of mine, and the only common factor would be my login.

Thank you tt2!

However, I do not own these songs in any form. I have only ever listened to them by searching Apple Music and streaming them. They are not added to my library. They are not downloaded on any device.

I will use an example. If I take control of the HomePod, I can play most music through it, directly from Apple Music, with no issues. But if I try to play any song by the artist Doja Cat (no judgement, please!), I cannot. Any song of hers, whether I have ever listened to it before or not. Again, never purchased any songs of hers, I do not own any albums, and they are not even added to my library, so they definitely are not downloaded on any devices.

The weird thing is that I can play any song of Doja Cat on my iPhone directly, or control my Apple TV and play those songs. And my wife, who I share my Apple Music subscription with, can play Doja Cat songs while Controlling the HomePod from her phone with no issues.

It is almost like there are a few artists that are somehow corrupted for me. Very odd!

Thanks for the suggestion. I added some songs to my library, and magically, it worked. But only for those specific songs.

To be clear, I am referring to being able to play the song using an iOS device to control the HomePod. I did not download them (auto download is off, and I double checked that they were not downloaded), but once they were in my library, I was able to play them via this method. I could only play songs that I added to my library, not any other song by the artist. Once I removed a song, I could no longer play it with this method on the HomePod.

It seems to be only a specific set of artists (seems like 3 artists right now) that this is happening with. I can't play any songs of these artists unless it is in my library. But other artists, ones that I have never listened to before, I can play all of their music via this method, without adding anything to my library.

So we have another piece of info to work with, but still some very strange behavior.