Feature Request: HomePod needs to properly count Apple Music played songs and stats

Staff Writer | Feb 27 2021 - 9:00 am PT

HomePod and even the new HomePod mini don’t count songs when you ask Siri to play something on your smart speaker. This affects your Apple Music Replay statistics and integration with third-party Apple Music applications.

Luckily, there is a workaround, but hopefully this is something Apple fixes sooner rather than later.

This problem isn’t new, and it’s been three years since a discussion started on Apple’s website about it. A user asked if the original HomePod counted his songs and the reply from another member was: “Not at the moment.”

I also noted this recently thanks to the new function “tbt” of the app “Next.” With tbt, you’re reminded every Thursday about a forgotten song. “Another Town, Another Train,” by Abba, according to the app, wasn’t played in more than a year. And certainly I had listened to it while in lockdown.

After this, I tested a few possibilities. First, I played a song on HomePod and waited to count on the Music app on my Mac and nothing happened. Then I did the same on the iPhone and iPad, and everything seemed fine.

Since 2018, when I first bought the original model, I’ve been asking Siri to play my favorite songs and playlists there, and now I know most of the time it’s not counting properly.

What can you do for now?

Although it’s been quite a few years of Apple’s updating iOS, macOS and the tvOS that runs on HomePod, it seems the only way the play count would work is if you use AirPlay.

So every time you want to count a song for sure, you’ll have to:

Open the Music app on your iPhone/iPad;
Click the AirPlay icon on the bottom of the screen;
Select the HomePod and start to play the song.

Why does this HomePod bug matter?

If you like the Replay of the Year by Apple Music, this is why this bug matters. If you listen to a song constantly on HomePod, it may not appear properly in that playlist. HomePod even has the ability to recognize who is speaking, which means it should be able to make sure it’s only adding songs that you request to your Replay playlists.

Although the Replay function has already many limitations compared to what Spotify Wrapped offers, it’s bad that some of your favorite songs won’t appear as they should because of this HomePod bug.

HomePod originally launched on February of 2018, but it was unveiled almost seven months earlier at WWDC17. In November of 2020, Apple announced the HomePod mini at roughly a third of the size of its big brother. HomePod mini has a great quality sound, stereo audio – if combine with another model – and the U1 chip. It recently received more features with new Handoff experience, while not everybody is happy with that.

Do you have the same problem with your HomePod and Apple Music? Tell us down the comment section bellow.

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