I’m having a weird experience with Apple Music on my iPhone (12 Pro, iOS 15.2.1) and on my MBP (first gen of the TouchBar, which is, admittedly, a few OS releases behind). Somewhat randomly, Apple Music’s sound will cut out. The indicator will show it is playing, and the “progress bar” will show that it is going through the song, but no matter what I do with the volume, there’s no sound. It happens when sending music to AirPlay connected speakers (laptop), to a Bluetooth speaker (iPhone), and through the built-in speakers (both laptop and iPhone). Playing another track will usually bring the sound back, but when I go back to the song that “went silent,” it will go silent again. Happens on both streamed and locally-stored songs.
Yes, when connecting to my HomePods (no matter if mini or not) AirPlay (not very often, but it happens). I try to avoid AirPlay. It works for some time until it does not. And then it works again. And then not any more. And I am talking about AirPlay from one Apple device to another Apple device… No third party involved.
No, when playing Music through the device’s speakers or through my AirPods.
Beware: Apple had severe cloud and music issues within the last 24 hours for some users.
So that might be one potential reason if it happened when you wrote about this.
I had this issue on my Mac, until I finally figured out that I was connected to Airplay speakers not connected to the same WiFi.
Really weird, it started playing and after 30 seconds or so, it just went silent. It was intermittent and very strange. Eventually I figured out that I was connected to my home Sonos when I was at my office, and vice versa.
I think this has been fixed now though…