Multi Room Audio (Spotify) using 2x Chromecast audios 1x chromecast and 1x desktop

Trying to figure how to get spotify to stream to speaker groups in my house and currently have the following setup :

1 Raspberry Pi3 w/ Spotify Connect
1x chromecast from my Mi Box
2x Chromecast Audios
Desktop PC

My goal is to be able to stream Spotify on all these devices simultaneously .

Not really sure if I can include both the Desktop and the Pi3 in the mix with the chromecasts, but so far I can’t even make Spotify stream to my chromecast devices all together.

Tried adding the chromecasts to a speaker group in google home so it would show up as an input in spotify but it only lets me add the chromecast audios to it.

Any way around this ?

Thanks !

I don’t believe this is possible with Spotify alone. Spotify doesn’t allow grouping devices. However, it can play to devices if they are grouped in another way. Therefore, if you use the “Google Home” app to group Chromecasts together, it can play to that virtual device. However, since your Desktop PC is not a Google Home device, it can’t be added to the group.

Something like MPD/Mopidy might do this for you, but I’m not sure what the support is for playing to a Google Home Device there.

@swiftlyfalling yes, the snapcast solution will not work indeed as it currently does not support chromecast devices . It works on linux, windows and android devices though so in last case I might have to go with a solution like that , spreading some raspberry or android devices + speakers through the house.

Google home grouping would be ok if it supported my chromecast built in device in the mi box but although google claims androidtv chromecasts can now be grouped together with chromecast audios as a speaker group, that doesn’t seem to be the case for most androidtv users .

So far the only thing that I found that could eventually work for this is an old project called pulseaudio, which doesn’t have any support or updates for the last 2 years .

I know this doesn’t really help you… but my Android TV (Sony Bravia) works when included in a Google Home group. Maybe it’s a Mi-Box thing…?

@sparkydave yea well, I guess they haven’t updated chromecast version to support this yet . Saw a lot of users complaining about their Bravia tvs not working not so long ago but I guess Sony has sorted this out in the meantime !

Could something like this work for you? Hopefully it could be added to a GH cast group…

Reviving an old post, can Spotify (with a Premium account) stream to multiple Chromecast devices?

In short, I’m struggling to create a whole house audio setup with multiple speaker zones. It’s been a while since I’ve used a Chromecast device so I’m not sure if they work without a TV, but I’ve also seen Chromecast Audio devices which I think would work (although a basic older Chromecast would be ideal since they’re cheaper and I’d need 8 of them).

That said, my questions are:
(1) Can I stream audio to multiple first generation Chromecast devices and group them together?
(2) If not, can this be accomplished with Chromecast Audio devices?
(3) Would either of these options give me individual volume control over each of the devices?

Open to other options/ideas if anyone has a better suggestion, this is just the first thing that’s come to mind.

Thanks!!

You can stream to any Chromecast or Chromecast Audio and yes you can group them. I have mulitple groups setup such that I can stream to a single room, certain groups of rooms or all of the house.

You can also set the volume of each device individually or as a group.

For me it works really well and has done for a few years now.

@sparkydave, any chance you could share your configuration for your Chromecasts and groups? Finally getting around to setting things up but volume is confusing. It’s setup right now so that HomeAssistant updates the volume after changing it directly on my receiver and after changing the volume from my phone, but HA seems to get confused when i use the volume slider in HA itself :confused:

Thanks!

The grouping of Chromecasts needs to be done in the Google Home app. As long as you have discovery: enabled in HA, it will automatically create a media_player entity for each group. from there you just use the entity to play your music and control volume etc.

Hi @sparkydave and @zgadson and all,

I have a AV reciever with a cromecast today in my living room, and plan to buy speakers with cromecast in other rooms.
Seems it should allow me to play spotify simultaneously in several rooms. Great.

Do you know if it is possible to play different music from spotify in different rooms at the same time?
Meaning, kids music in the living room and my music in the kitchen.
From my smart phone only? Or do I need to cast from my phone to one room and from a different device (e.g my laptop) to another room?

Thanks in advance

As far as I know you would need to use different devices to cast different music to each area.

Thanks a lot for the answer, even though I was hoping for something more positive :slight_smile:

If you were to use different apps you might be able to stream different music to each area. It’s not something I’ve ever tried but I’ll give it a go when I get home.