Will HomePod play music from my local iTunes library?

from

https://9to5mac.com/2018/01/23/homepod-can-play-purchased-itunes-music-podcasts- and-stream-beats-1-without-apple-music-s…

"If you add music to your home iTunes library that was not acquired through a purchase, HomePod will not be able to access it. It appears HomePod doesn’t have Home Sharing, which would enable that kind of feature."

Sad !!!

I hope that playing music from my Mac through AppleTV to HomePod should work.

I have a massive LP library and CD that I converted to AAC in my home library. I am looking for some small speaker for my appartement but if I can't play my own music on it, then what would be the use of the HomePod for me.

just got my HomePod yesterday and I am very disappointed. If you choose HomePod for airplay speaker it WILL NOT play movie sound OR ANY SONG THAT IS NOT ON APPLE MUSIC. I am now unable to play any of my own compositions because they are not on Apple music and obviously apple can not match them.

I hope they will solve this in the future. I am tempted to return my HomePod and get Sonos system.

I do love the sound it is amazing !!

I just got it to work with Airfoil. Love those guys at Rogue Amoeba...

I am unfortunately coming to the conclusion that you are right, but I'm having a hard time understanding why Apple would do it this way.

If music can be 'fed' from iTunes (on your Mac, for example) to HomePod (as essentially an AirPlay speaker), then surely iTunes could just as readily send music from your own CD based library on your own hard disc.

If this is not possible then the only way to use HomePod to play music is to also subscribe to Apple Music. I see the logic in doing this, to couple those two products together so the demand for each supports the other, but this removes the HomePod as a speaker choice for those people who have used iTunes to manage their own music library.

I ordered two HomePod units today for delivery on Feb 9th, not realizing this limitation. Now I feel that I must cancel the order, otherwise I will have speakers that are of no use to me (I don't subscribe to Apple Music, and I'm not particularly interested in the other features of HomePod, at least not right away).

added: however, looking at the technical specifications for HomePod, it states that it can accept "HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, and FLAC". If it only streams from Apple Music and not your own iTunes library, why is it necessary for HomePod to be compatible with such a broad range of music formats?

You should be able to AirPlay audio content from an IOS device, Apple TV, iTunes, or a Mac, to your HomePod.

See How to AirPlay audio - Apple Support.

tt2

One would imagine it will be possible to play from your local library, although it looks as if it is really intended to use Apple Music rather than rely on your own local collection. Full details will have to wait until it is released.

tt2

As turingtest2 says, we will have to wait to see on the details. It does say it works with Apple Music and if you subscribe to that then anything you have in your library should also have a copy in your iCloud area with Apple Music. The whole HomePod thing really sounds like it is designed for people who do not have a computer but do have an iPhone.

from this link I understand a little better

if I dont subscribe to Apple Music and iTunes Match, which is my case, I lose the Siri capability to play song for me but I can still do everything I need . every Mac that can access airplay 1 can be use, we can even play flac

from link

https://www.imore.com/how-homepod-works-apple-music-itunes-match-icloud-music-li brary-airplay-and-flac-files#nomusic

___________________________________________________________________________

If you buy HomePod and do not have a subscription to either of Apple's streaming services — Apple Music or iTunes Match — you'll be able to use the following audio-based features.

You can ask Siri to play the following:

Any podcast or episode from Apple's iTunes podcast directory

The news

Any song, album, or audiobook purchased through your Apple ID associated

with the device (which you can change at any time in the Home app)

Beats 1 and other live radio stations

You'll also be able to use Siri to play, pause, skip songs, and the like. And all the other Siri features advertised (HomeKit, timers, weather, traffic, etc) work, too.

Stream other audio via AirPlay

Even though HomePod doesn't ship with AirPlay 2, it can still receive audio from any device that can AirPlay. That includes your Macs, Apple TV, iPhones, and iPads, along with any third-party apps that support the feature (including work-arounds for Android and things like AirSonos).

I want to reiterate, because I've seen a number of people passing around conflicting information: You can stream any audio (including anything from your iTunes library on your Mac) to HomePod via the original AirPlay protocol.

When AirPlay 2 launches, you'll be able to stream that audio to multiple AirPlay-compatible speakers, but the AirPlay 2 protocol is not required to stream audio from your Mac or other sources.

What does this all mean in practice if you're not an Apple Music subscriber? Essentially, you'll just have to use one of your devices to AirPlay content to your HomePod instead of using Siri to request it. You'll miss out on a lot of the Siri-specific music features, but it's not the end of the world if you're primarily interested in HomePod as a speaker and for its better privacy implementations than other smart speakers.

Now that I have my HomePod(s) delivered and have begun to listen to music through them, I can confirm without any equivocation - the HomePods show up immediately as an AirPlay speaker in your iTunes, so you can direct music to them either individually or in whatever combination you want.

You cannot as far as I know use Siri to control the selection of the music however.

You can use the controls on the top of each HomePod to adjust individual volume, pause the music, and advance tracks or go to a previous track.

I don't feel this is much of a disadvantage. I'll normally select the music I want to listen to on my iTunes and then let it run. If I decide in the middle that I want to change to something different, it's not that big of a deal to do it at my computer.