Does Apple Music persist across devices?

[danmart]

I treated myself to a HomePod and love it, so I may buy at least one more for elsewhere in the house. I know AirPlay 2 isn’t here yet. My question for Apple Music users: if I pause music playing on one device and start it playing on another does the music pick up from the first device? Or would it just keep playing whatever it was playing previously?

Ideally I’d like to pause play in one room then pick it up in another, or on my iPhone as I leave the house. Does it work that way at present?

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

 

[Rigby]

Sadly syncing playback across devices isn't possible right now. It seems like an obvious thing, but for some reason Apple hasn't bothered.

Spotify can actually hand off playback from one device to another ...

 

[danmart]

Shame, thanks for posting

 

[Uofmtiger]

"That includes HomePod not counting against any Apple Music device or concurrent stream limit — set it up one or more HomePods with your iPhone or iPad, leave the house with that device, and anyone who stays or comes home can still listen to Apple Music on any or all the HomePods you've set up."

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/02/07/homepod-streams-dont-count/


The reasoning is that you may leave the house with your iPhone and want to play music, while someone back at the house also wants to play different music. Seems logical. Use Airplay if you need to pick up where you left off.

 

[danmart]

I guess either option has both positives and negatives

 

[danny842003]

"That includes HomePod not counting against any Apple Music device or concurrent stream limit — set it up one or more HomePods with your iPhone or iPad, leave the house with that device, and anyone who stays or comes home can still listen to Apple Music on any or all the HomePods you've set up."

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/02/07/homepod-streams-dont-count/


The reasoning is that you may leave the house with your iPhone and want to play music, while someone back at the house also wants to play different music. Seems logical. Use Airplay if you need to pick up where you left off.

I figured it was just a bug that would be fixed sooner or later.

 

[Uofmtiger]

I figured it was just a bug that would be fixed sooner or later.

Maybe if they add multiple accounts to it down the road. Right now, with one account controlling all music, it makes more sense just to make the speaker somewhat independent when it comes to audio. Obviously, the upside to this is the fact that you don't have to pay for two subscriptions to listen to AM on two different devices at the same time.