Free, built in, and badly signposted
Apple Music already does this. Here is the button.
If your listening is Apple Music, you do not need to buy anything — macOS can send it to as many AirPlay speakers as you like, properly synchronised. The control is simply not where anyone looks for it.
Five steps, no software
- 01
Open the Music app and start playing something
The AirPlay control only appears once audio is actually playing. This trips up more people than anything else on this page.
- 02
Click the AirPlay icon in the player bar
Top of the window, to the right of the volume slider, near the lyrics and queue buttons. It is a small triangle-in-a-rectangle.
- 03
Tick every speaker you want
Here — and essentially nowhere else in macOS — they are checkboxes rather than round buttons. Tick as many as you like.
- 04
Set each room's level
Every speaker in the popover gets its own slider. The one at the top moves them all together while keeping the balance.
- 05
Keep your Mac's own speakers in the mix if you want
Your Mac appears in the same list, so the desk can play alongside the kitchen.
Where the limit begins
The moment the sound comes from somewhere other than Music or the Apple TV app, the feature disappears entirely. Open Spotify, or a YouTube tab, or VLC, and the same speakers become round buttons in the menu bar — one at a time.
SoundFerry routes Mac system audio through a virtual speaker instead of relying on player-specific integration. Check that the player uses the Mac system output.
Solving it means intervening one layer lower, at the Mac's output device — which is what SoundFerry is. Whether that is worth $19 depends entirely on how much of your listening happens outside the Music app.
Questions
Where exactly is the AirPlay button in the Music app?
In the player bar at the top of the window, right of the volume slider. It only appears while something is playing — if you are staring at a paused library and cannot find it, that is why.
Why are they checkboxes here and round buttons in the menu bar?
Because multi-speaker grouping is a feature of the Music app, not of macOS. The menu-bar control changes the system output device, and a system can have one output device. The Music app builds its own AirPlay 2 group internally and does not use the system output at all.
Same speakers, two entirely different mechanisms.
Does this work in the Apple TV app too?
Yes, with the same control in the same place — and it is the better choice for video, because the app compensates for AirPlay's delay when it controls both picture and sound.
Can I include a Sonos or a WiiM in the group?
Yes, if it is an AirPlay 2 model. The Music app does not filter by brand; anything advertising AirPlay 2 appears in the list. That is a genuinely useful and under-appreciated fact.
It works in Music but not in Spotify or Safari. Why?
SoundFerry routes Mac system audio through a virtual speaker instead of relying on player-specific integration. Check that the player uses the Mac system output.
To get the same behaviour for everything else you have to move the problem below the app, to the Mac's output device. The three routes compared →
Does lossless or Spatial Audio survive this?
AirPlay carries ALAC at 44.1 kHz, 16-bit, so hi-res lossless is down-converted to reach the speakers. Spatial Audio works to compatible AirPlay 2 devices in a group. Both are properties of AirPlay rather than of the Music app.
Do the speakers actually stay in sync?
SoundFerry manages playback across selected speakers. Timing depends on the devices and network; SoundFerry provides per-speaker delay adjustment. Try your speaker combination before purchasing. No fixed synchronization accuracy is guaranteed.
How much delay is there?
The managed default audio path adds several seconds of delay. It is intended for listening rather than live instrument monitoring, gaming or video calls. Video playback may need delay compensation.
When it is not Apple Music.
SoundFerry gives every other app the same behaviour. Free for 7 days, $19 once.
- One-time purchase, no subscription
- Free updates within 1.x
- macOS 14+, Apple silicon