7 Things You Need to Know About Playing Music with Apple AirPlay

AirPlay is a wireless streaming feature present in iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or any Windows or Mac PC with iTunes. It has been continuously expanded with even manufacturers of third-party consumer electronics adding it to their products.

Updated Apr 27,2017 | by Shannon

Ever heard of Apple AirPlay before? You probably did at some point. AirPlay is a wireless streaming feature present in iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or any Windows or Mac PC with iTunes. Some of the features of AirPlay have been available in AirTunes long ago but then at 2010, Apple released AirPlay which comes with expanded feature list.

Since then, AirPlay has been continuously expanded with even manufacturers of third-party consumer electronics adding it to their products. Summing up, the AirPlay technology allows wireless streaming of videos, music and photos from iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to Apple TV. This also allows you stream music to AirPlay receivers or speakers such as the AirPort Express. At the same time, AirPlay allows you to stream music and videos from computer to Apple TV.

1. Video and photo streaming are limited

Presently, you can only stream video and photos from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to the Apple TV. In the future, however, it is expected that there will be more boxes that allow for AirPlay video support Apple is also rumored to be talking with TV manufacturers about licensing the AirPlay technology and building it into HDTVs.

2. Better Wi-Fi than Bluetooth but not Perfect

AirPlay works on using Wi-Fi but it's not always reliable. With that, it's common to experience occasional dropout as well as a few disconnections. Still, compared to Bluetooth streaming, Wi-Fi streaming doesn't compress your music so it sounds better based on the speaker you are streaming to.

3. Connecting to handheld devices for Music Streaming is limited

When streaming from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, AirPlay allows streaming to a single device at a time. Using AirPlay-compatible app, you can connect either to a speaker or Apple TV and the play your music.

4. For Multiple Streaming, Audio source has to be Computer-based iTunes music library

Not sure why, but it's more flexible for AirPlay if you stream from iTunes running on Windows or Mac PC. When running iTunes on your computer, you're able to stream music to more than one AirPlay receiver or speakers, even control them independently too.

5. Streaming Music to different rooms is not possible

Multiroom audio systems let you stream your music from different sources simultaneously played to different rooms. But this is not so with AirPlay. With AirPlay, you are only allowed to access and stream music, videos or photos from one source at a time.

6. Using Time Capsule or other NAS as source is not possible unless computer is on

A lot of people are using networked attached storage drive or NAS to store their music just like Apple's Time Capsule. If your library is stored on NAS drives or Time Capsule, you will not be able to access it unless the host computer is on and running iTunes.

7. For the smoothest setup, use Latest Software and Firmware

Before using your AirPlay, you have to make sure that it's using the latest software and firmware on all compatible products. That means that your iTunes, iOS, Apple TV, etc. should be the latest version. This way, you can be sure that your AirPlay streaming is totally smooth.

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