First off, for those of you who don’t know what Airtunes is, Airtunes allows you to wirelessly listen to your iTunes music library through your home stereo or powered speakers. Usually this is accomplished with an Apple AirPort Express base station. But did you know you can use your Apple TV in the exact same way. You can stream music from your Apple TV as a source or you can stream music from iTunes to your Apple TV and use it as a wireless speaker.

Using Apple TV as an AirTunes source

To keep from interrupting playback, at the Now Playing screen, you can press and hold the Play/Pause button on the remote and choose Speakers from the menu that appears. Or if you haven’t started playback, you can follow these steps:

1. Choose Settings > AirTunes.
2. Apple TV will automatically detect and list your remote speakers available on your local network.
3. You can choose whether or not to allow your AirTunes remote speakers to control your Apple TV by toggling On/Off the “Control from Speakers” option.
4. Select the speakers you would like to use.
Note: AirTunes can only be used to stream music.

Using Apple TV as an AirTunes speaker

1. On Apple TV, choose Settings > AirTunes and set “AirTunes Speaker” to On.
2. On the computer, open iTunes preferences (Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences. Windows: Choose File > Preferences)
3. Click Devices and make sure to select the box next to “Look for remote speakers connected with AirTunes.”
Additionally, you can choose to disable the iTunes volume control for the remote speakers, as well as the ability to control iTunes from your remote speakers.
4. Click OK.
5. Choose Apple TV from the bottom right in iTunes .