How to Play Music from PC on Google Home

This post covers how to play music from PC on Google Home speakers. But why would you want to do this? Well, maybe you have some local audio files in your music library on your Windows computer. And, you’d like to cast them to your Google Home enabled speakers. Or, you could play your local content through a Chromecast or Chromecast Audio receiver. Thus, here’s how to stream to your Google Home speakers from your PC. In fact, this process works very much like Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), where you can play audio stored on the PC on UPnP enabled network speakers.

How to Play Music from PC on Google Home: Preparing for This

First, make sure your PC and Google Home devices you wish to cast to, are on the same computer network. That is, they all should connect to the same router.

Next, install a Chromecast enabled app / program on your PC that you want to play the music from. E.g. Here, we use the Google Chrome web browser.

Finally, if you’re planning on doing this often, and you’re using the Chrome browser, then pin the Cast button to your Chrome toolbar for quick access.

How to Play Music from PC on Google Home Speakers

1. Bring Up the Chromecast Enabled App

Screenshot of the Google Chrome browser on PC desktop, with shortcut icon highlighted. How to Play Music from PC on Google Home. — Google Chrome browser on PC desktop, with shortcut icon highlighted

Screenshot of the Google Chrome browser on PC with main menu button highlighted. — Google Chrome browser on PC with main menu button highlighted.

2. Bring Up the Chrome Browser Main Menu

Screenshot of the Google Chrome browser on PC, showing its main menu with the -Cast- item highlighted. — Google Chrome browser on PC, showing its main menu with the -Cast- item highlighted.

3. Click the Cast… Item to Continue with How to Play Music from PC on Google Home

Thirdly, the Cast To menu then pops up. Then this shows all speaker devices found on the same network as the PC.

Screenshot of the Google Chrome browser, showing its -Cast To- menu, with the -Living Room Speaker- highlighted. How to Play Music from PC on Google Home. — Google Chrome browser, showing its -Cast To- menu, with the -Living Room Speaker- highlighted.

4. Choose the Google Home Speaker Device to Play To

In the screenshot above, we arrowed the Living Room Speaker device.

We then click on this speaker.

This then brings up the Living Room Speaker window. Furthermore, this says that any audio playing on the current tab is no being cast to our Living Room Speaker Google Home device.

Screenshot of the Google Chrome browser, showing the -Living Room Speaker Casting- window. — Google Chrome browser, showing the -Living Room Speaker Casting- window.

No, any audio that a page displaying in the current tab plays, will now stream to the Living Room Speaker device.

5. Next, Put the Audio File you Wish to Play into the Chrome Browser Address Bar

How to play music from PC on Google Home speakers.

6. Then, Let the Music Play, to Continue with How to Play Music from PC on Google Home

Once you enter the local URL of the file on your PC you wish to play, press the Enter key.

This starts the file playing on your Google Home speaker device.

Screenshot of the Google Chrome browser on a PC, playing a local audio file. How to Play Music from PC on Google Home. — Google Chrome browser on a PC, playing a local audio file.

Additionally, on this screen, you can control the position in the file currently playing (left slider control). Plus, you can set the volume of the Google speaker (right slider control).

7. Done with How to Play Music from PC on Google Home !

How to Change Google Home Speaker you’re
Playing Music On

1. Bring Up the Chrome Browser Main Menu

2. Click the Cast… Item

The Cast To menu then pops up. Now this time, you see the current speaker receiving the music audio.

E.g. See this in the next picture.

Screenshot of the Google Chrome browser on PC, showing the -Casting Local Content to Living Room Speaker- window, with the -Back-link highlighted. — Google Chrome browser on PC, showing the -Casting Local Content to Living Room Speaker- window, with the -Back-link highlighted.

3. Click the <– (Back) Link

We’ve pointed at the <– (Back) link with the pink arrow in the last picture.

This then takes you back to the list of available Google Chromecast enabled devices, as shown next. This time though, you see the speaker currently playing the PC audio, colored blue.

Screenshot of the Google Chrome browser, showing its -Cast To- menu. The -Living Room Speaker- is playing and the -Office Speaker- is highlighted. — Google Chrome browser, showing its -Cast To- menu. The -Living Room Speaker- is playing and the -Office Speaker- is highlighted. How to Play Music from PC on Google Home.

4. Next, Click the New Speaker to Play your Audio Content

In our case here, we click Office Speaker.

Then, playback switches to the office speaker, and then the Casting Local Content window again appears as follows. It shows the office speaker now playing.

Screenshot of the Google Chrome browser on PC, showing its -Casting Local Content to Office Speaker- window. — Google Chrome browser on PC, showing its -Casting Local Content to Office Speaker- window.

5. Done with How to Play Music from PC on Google Home !

You have now successfully changed from one receiving Google Home speaker device to another.

How to Stop Playing Music (Casting) to the Google Home Speaker Device

For devices equipped with the Google Assistant, you can stop casting by saying to them:

Okay Google, stop.
Hey Google, stop.

But to stop casting from the PC, when at the PC, run through the following routine.

1. Bring Up the Chrome Browser Main Menu

How to play music from PC on Google Home speakers. Screenshot of the Google Chrome browser on PC, showing its main menu with the -Cast- item highlighted. — How to play music from PC on Google Home speakers. Google Chrome browser on PC, showing its main menu with the -Cast- item highlighted.

2. Click the Cast… Item

The Cast To menu then pops up. This time, you see the current speaker receiving the music audio. See this in the next picture.

Screenshot of the Google Chrome browser on PC, showing the -Casting Local Content- window, to -Office Speaker-. The STOP button is highlighted.. — Google Chrome browser on PC, showing the -Casting Local Content- window, to -Office Speaker-. The STOP button is highlighted. How to Play Music from PC on Google Home.

3. Click the STOP Link

Clicking the STOP link stops the casting to Office Speaker (in this case), and returns the audio output to the PC speakers. Moreover, the content continues playing at the PC.

4. Done.

AT last, you have now successfully stopped playing music from your PC on a Google Home speaker device. Congrats!

References for How to Play Music from PC on Google Home

Revision History

2021-08-17: Shortened the internal links and tags lists.
2019-02-26: Added tags.
2018-05-07: First published.

How to Play Music from PC on Google Home

How to Play Music from PC on Google Home: Preparing for This