Digital Sharing for Apple Users: A Take Control Crash Course (2014)

Broadcast Audio from Your iOS Device

In the previous chapter, I told you how to Broadcast Your iOS Device’s Screen to other devices, which is handy for things like watching videos on a larger screen. But sometimes you want to broadcast only the audio from your iOS device—the canonical example being wanting to play music from your iPhone or iPad through your home stereo system or Apple TV.

Once again, AirPlay is the right technology for the job, and although the process is nearly identical to broadcasting your screen, there’s an extra variable involved—you can broadcast to another whole class of devices, including Apple’s AirPort Express and numerous third-party AirPlay speakers, receivers, and media streamers. And, if your target device is a Mac or PC, you’ll use different third-party software to receive the audio.

Set Up an AirPlay Receiver

AirPlay receivers fall into several categories. Some are powered speaker units designed solely or primarily for streaming music via AirPlay. Others are full-blown audio components that happen to support AirPlay as one of many input sources. Still others are simple gadgets that add AirPlay support to an existing audio system. If you have, or decide to buy, one of these, consult the manufacturer’s setup instructions.

You may also already have an AirPlay receiver in one of these forms:

· Apple TV: Go to Settings > AirPlay and make sure AirPlay is turned on. If you use the optical audio output, your TV need not be turned on.

· AirPort Express: Set up your device as described on this Apple support page.

· Mac or PC: Use free software called AirFoil Speakers to turn your computer into an AirPlay audio receiver.

Use AirPlay from iOS

1. On your iOS device, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to display Control Center.

2. Tap AirPlay.

3. Tap the name of the device you want to send the audio to. Do not turn on Mirroring (which is just for video).

Your iOS device’s audio should begin playing from the AirPlay receiver. To stop broadcasting, repeat the steps but select your iOS device in Step 3.

Broadcasting Audio from a Mac or PC

Recent-vintage Macs have a built-in capability to send all audio to an AirPlay receiver (press Option and choose the receiver from the Sound menu) or just iTunes audio (use the AirPlay menu). To send audio from another arbitrary app, try AirFoil. AirFoil also lets you use an iOS device as remote control for music playing on your computer through AirPlay speakers.

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“Sending tunes through an AirPort Express to the stereo sounds way better than playing through the iPhone’s speakers.”

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