Mountain Lion: Stream All System Audio Over AirPlay To An Apple TV For Free

Did you know that you can send all system audio from Mountain Lion to an AirPlay device? We’re not talking about the AirPlay mirroring functionality that requires a 2011 Mac. If you’re a fan of Rdio or Spotify (or any other audio based application or game), you can send the audio to an Apple TV even if the application doesn’t have AirPlay built into the program. No more huddling around your laptop to share a cool new track with your friends!

Option+Click on the volume icon in your menu bar. Then select Apple TV from the output listing. Boom. Audio is now sent to your Apple TV.  But wait, there’s a hiccup – the dreaded buffering! Fear not, fellow Mac enthusiast. Here’s a nifty trick: ensure your Wi-Fi is as strong as a lion (see what we did there?). Maybe move that router a bit closer, or close those bandwidth-hogging apps. And if your stream gets lost in the digital ether, just toggle AirPlay off and on. Voila, you’re back in acoustic heaven. Happy streaming, and remember, your MacBook and Apple TV can be the best of friends with a little Wi-Fi love!

Oh Mountain Lion, you’re so awesome sometimes.

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld… Full Bio