Play music on a HomePod without subscribing to Apple Music

Karen Khan explains how to play Spotify, Amazon Music and iTunes tracks from your iPhone via the HomePod

If you have an Apple Music subscription already you will have access to 45 million songs that can be played from your HomePod. You don’t have to have a subscription to use the HomePod, though. You could stream your iTunes library (as long as you have a

subscription to iTunes Match and have turned on iTunes in the Cloud).

You don’t have to pay for any subscription though: you can also use AirPlay to stream music directly from your iPhone to the HomePod, from iTunes, Spotify, Tidal or Amazon Music, for example.

Follow the steps below to stream music from your iPhone or iPad straight to the HomePod via AirPlay.

Stream music using AirPlay

It should be simple to stream music to your HomePod from any app, not just iTunes.

1. Swipe up to access Control Centre on your iOS device.

2. Press and hold on the audio card icon.

3. Tap the icon that looks like a triangle with loops.

4. You should see the HomePod appear in the list below.

Stream music from Spotify

1. Open Spotify on your iPhone or iPad. If you don’t have the app you can download it from the App Store.

2. Find the track you want to play. (If you aren’t all that familiar with Spotify we have some tips below this section which should help you find music).

3. Tap on Devices Available at the bottom of the screen.

4. Tap on More Devices. 5. Now Choose the HomePod, which should appear with a name based on the room it is located in You won’t have access to all the Siri features if you are using AirPlay, but the HomePod will still use the built in technology to play the music as the artist intended, according to Apple.

Stream music from Amazon Music

1. Open Amazon Music on your iPhone.

2. Find the track you want to play.

3. Tap on the AirPlay icon at the bottom of the screen.

4. Tap on the HomePod, which should appear with a name based on the room it is located in.

You won’t have access to all the Siri features if you are using AirPlay, but the HomePod will still use the built in technology to play the music as the artist intended, according to Apple.