Global Player radio stations unavailable in Apple Music

From Apple:

"Apple changed the backend for radio streaming but didn’t fully update Siri to handle these cases consistently. For stations like LBC, Siri still looks for the old Global stream first and fails instead of automatically switching to TuneIn. 

We’ve noted it as a bug. We’ve escalated this feedback to Apple for review."

The point being that WE should not be required to add "via TuneIn" (the 'workaround' which is not completely reliable) to force the backend to go via TuneIn if the Global stream has been deprecated but somehow left instructionally available.

Worked when I said "Play Magic Radio via Tune In" :)

Hi. I have a fix/workaround for some global channels! Apple Music has appended UK to a lot of radio stations for some reason. Saying the UK bit will play the channels via Siri on my HomePod. For example:

Heart UK

Smooth UK

Radio X UK

Virgin Radio UK

LBC UK

LNC News UK

I couldn’t get Magic to work though.

Update 05Dec25 18:00 GMT (day 9): I chased up Global Player support again to see if they could add weight by means of an escalation into Apple for a speedy resolution, here’s their response… “I (GP service agent) have been in touch with our team, who have confirmed that they're still in talks with Apple directly to resolve this issue. 

Unfortunately, we are unable to confirm a time frame as to when this will be resolved.”

I’m in the same boat. I have a morning automation and my kitchen HomePods used to play classic fm at 6am but since updating to 26.1 this is no longer the case.

If I ask my HomePods to play classic fm I either get the response ‘there was a problem with apple music’ or it will start playing but stop after 10–15 seconds.

26.2 has been installed and the issue hasn’t been fixed; I’ve also recently updated my eero WiFi system and that also hasn’t fixed it.

I’m glad I’m not the only one with this issue!

I have not been able to play classic Fm but you can airplay from UK radio app it’s free

Update 21 Jan 26: this Global Player/Classic FM streaming issue has been around for c. 8 weeks now.

I chased up Apple support (yet again) today, the service agent reported that they are still looking into this issue with no resolution in sight, despite numerous call-ins from other users. There is a real vagueness on where the issue lays.

I’m so disappointed with Apple of late as there’s no apparent ownership of users’ issues, and no real means to escalate or lodge a meaningful complaint into this global company.

I’ve also not had a recent update/response from Global Player support.

ps. some have stated that asking Siri to play eg “Classic FM via Tune In” works, from my experience this does not work, along with other streams from Global Player. Streams native to Tune In work fine.

@bigjules, totally agree and yes the more users who report into Apple Support the better, I’ve also lodged a complaint on this matter via: Product Feedback - Apple

WRT LBC radio, it is native to TuneIn. However to get Siri to successfully stream this station you have to be overly precise in what you ask for otherwise as you say a podcast is played, so for Siri to play LBC I say the exact following “Siri play LBC News London Radio” and it then plays the desired station, any deviation from this and it’s hit and miss.

I’m finding Siri of late a right mess and often have to repeat my commands 🤯.

Not to deviate from our original issue around Global Player streaming issues via Apple Music/Homepods/Siri 👍🏼

I concur, this now appears to have been fixed... my HomePod automation also (unexpectedly!) suddenly came on for Classic FM this morning and getting Siri to play it also works, albeit you now have to add "radio" onto the end to avoid it playing some Classic FM branded album from the Apple Music library.

OMG THANK YOU! This issue has been driving me mad for weeks! Using a combination of what you suggest above and adding on "Play... via Tune In" now works

I seem to be able to get the main LBC channel now by saying "Play LBC UK". It then does so via TuneIn.

Fri 23 Jan 26: GOOD NEWS - the Global Player streaming via Apple Music seems to have been fixed, my HomePods automation this morning was playing Classic FM, and I tested a few times to be sure, noting via Siri you have to be precise and say “Siri play Classic FM radio”, saying play Classic FM picks up a various artists album 🤷🏻‍♂️

I wonder if they've pushed out a tweak to the fix as I don't seem to need to add '...radio...' just saying 'Siri - play Classic FM' works fine again for me. What a relief!