By 
The ultra-affordable Chromecast has been a massive success for Google. Tons of apps and even games have built in support so you can “cast” things to your TV. While casting things to a TV is really cool, sometimes you just want to cast audio. Soon that will change.
Google has announced “Google Cast for audio,” which puts the casting feature in speakers, sound bars, and receivers. Google Cast-ready speakers will show up just like the Chromecast. Simply press the “Cast” button in compatible apps and choose the audio device. The speakers pull the audio from the cloud for great audio quality.
The first Google Cast for audio devices will arrive this spring from Sony, LG, and HEOS by Denon. More will arrive later in 2015. In the future Google hopes you will be able to cast to anything with a screen or speaker.
http://youtu.be/8q0yZomXuSw
[via Google]
Would be great if you could only cast audio to the Chromecast unit itself too.
I’d bet that will happen when they roll out the audio only casting. I don’t know why the Chromecast couldn’t just keep playing the video slideshow while you cast audio.
Just plug in a Chromecast to any device that has an HDMI port and you’re good to go. I know people that do this with audio receivers already.
Would be great if you could send AUDIO ONLY, much more battery friendly when mirroring screen if any given app don’t support cc.
ChromeCast (I Like to use with Spoticast) > SonyTv (PowerSavingMode:PictureOFF) > Any Audio System.
Yeah, you should be able to send audio to anything with HDMI input. Just have the GUI on the device you’re casting with.
But I would like to send AUDIO ONLY. Much more battery friendly.
Get Spotify on board, then I’ll check it out.
Who needs spotify when there is Play Music?
The awesome thing about Chromecast is that it works with the TV I already have and it’s cheap. If it cost $100, or if I had to buy a new TV to use it, those would be deal-breakers.
Requiring me to buy new speakers, or some kind of new receiver, is a similar deal-breaker. I could sell crappy speakers, I have so many and they all work fine. Bluetooth, RCA, speaker-wire, RF-wireless, Logitech 1/8-inch, I have them all.
If the new receiver cost $35, I would buy one for me and one for my wife and I’d use it every day. Heck, it would eliminate the need for one of the computers in my house altogether.
That’s great and all, but I can already cast music to the Chromecast, so no real need to buy extra speakers – just cast to a room with a nice audio setup. What I wanna know is when we’ll be able to cast Play Music to GTV…typically the best system in the house. You can cast Netflix, Photos, YouTube, Plex and a few more to GTV, but not your own music app? Come on Google. I’ve asked on G forums and all I get is passed around.
PLEASE let this be multi-room capable, I would love to be able to rock play music throughout the entire house. I realize there’s other multi-room options out there as well but I’m not really entirely sold on any of them just yet, hopefully Google delivers.
Yeah a SONOS Setup is expensive as heck for a full house environment
I kept hoping SONOS would go on sale for Christmas but never saw anything compelling enough to get me to buy. The other thing I dislike about SONOS is, as far as I can tell, I can’t integrate it with my current systems, I have a 5.1 setup in my living room and a sound bar in my bedroom and would strongly prefer something that can integrate those components rather than requiring me to purchase speakers for those two rooms as well as the den, kitchen and maybe bathroom that I would like to get audio on. I’m tempted to try out the Pure Jongo series as that seems to offer what I’m looking for but a lot of people report the setup as being pretty balky so I’ve been holding off, hopefully these products will offer what I’m looking for.
The Sonos Connect would work for a 2.0 speaker setup http://www.amazon.com/CONNECT-Wireless-Receiver-Component-Streaming/dp/B001CROHX6
I have been doing this for some time, plugged in to my receiver, I just don’t turn my tv on.
This seems like a great addition to my older home theater.
I’ve been holding out getting a newer receiver that can do wireless and 4k upscaling. My odd Onkyo thanks you Google.
Also, Google could benefit from making affordable wireless speakers too. Our an alarm clock clock, speaker, cell dock charger all in one
I’d just be satisified with a universal alarm clock that fully dims to black or a very very dim red to eliminate light pollution, high power usb charging(and contactless charging for future phones hopefully), bluetooth, and a projection clock. It MUST have the projection clock and I don’t want bright colors…again red only. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why no one is making this kind of thing.
Dear Google,
Make the next Chromecast with an analog/optical out like the Airport Express, in addition to the HDMI port. We will love you forever.
Sincerely,
Everyone
but make the audio run off the external usb optional power, so you don’t need a TV turned on to utilize it. Otherwise, just make a separate audio out/wifi capable device that can work with a speaker. If I want my TV to be powered on for “just music” I can use my Roku or Kindle Fire TV apps, which I hate doing for “just audio” since it’s a waste of power.
Or…. I could use a bluetooth/nfc to audio input device. Or… they could make a Googlecast to audio input device. I refuse to buy brand-specific sound bar, speaker system, blah blah blah. Just because there is an i-everything device doesn’t mean everyone else needs to be so dumb. I have a stereo, which I have extended into my bathroom through the wall (that’s right boys…you can be jealous) and I have speakers/soundbars in rooms/basement/garage where I need them. The last thing I need is niche products. Buh.