Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

whitby

Contributor
Original poster
Dec 13, 2007
397
402
Austin, TX
Although my main machines are Apple, I have a couple of desktop Windows machines and a MS Laptop (Surface Laptop 4), so decided to try the new Apple Music app on one of my Windows 11 Pro machines (i7 11th gen, 32 GB memory, 2 TB SSD, 2 TB Disk and RTX 3090Ti) .

I was surprised to see that they included Airplay capability so that theoretically I could use Airplay to play music on HomePods and any other Airplay compatible device, however this does not work correctly:
1. It shows a stereo pair of HomePods as a two individual speakers.
2. It does not play on HomePods apart from a 1 to 2 second burst and then it says it has lost connection.
3. It will play via Airplay on a pair of Sonos ERA 300s and Sonos ERA 100s. It sees them as a stereo pair and works perfectly.

I am fascinated that Apple cannot make it work on their own products correctly. Anyone else seen this issue? Looks as if Apple do not test their stuff for Windows machines. Somewhat surprising and not really acceptable.

I also notice that Apple Music is really really slow e.g. reordering playlists by various criteria or updating info. This Windows machine is faster than my 2020 iMac and the iMac is much faster.

Not a bad effort here but not really finished and feels like a beta product. I suppose it will get there, but the inability to work with HomePods makes it a non starter for me.
 

inuragon

macrumors member
May 10, 2023
94
51
2. It does not play on HomePods apart from a 1 to 2 second burst and then it says it has lost connection.
Seems to work fine on my homepod mini.
But yeah, apple has never been good at windows software.
Here's what happens when i click "view my account"
Screenshot 2024-02-24 124243.png
 

whitby

Contributor
Original poster
Dec 13, 2007
397
402
Austin, TX
Seems to work fine on my homepod mini.
But yeah, apple has never been good at windows software.
Here's what happens when i click "view my account"
View attachment 2352523
Yes it appears that Apple are very poor at developing software for anything other their own platform. Not a good sign of competence. Most of the Window apps that Apple produce are of poor quality and they make every effort to keep you in their eco system by being incompetent elsewhere. I guess when I go back to Windows etc. I will be ditching Apple products in their entirety. Such is life.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.