Can I play music from my macbook on my iPad for free?

Question

Is there an app that works to play music that's on my macbook on my iPad? Right now my iPad is connected to my stereo, and is only the 16 gig model, so I can't exactly move all my tunes onto it. I know I can use airfoil to play iTunes on my macbook and have the iPad act as the speaker control, but it is expensive. I installed the Remote app and set up home sharing but it only seems to work in the opposite direction (play music on my macbook speakers using the iPad as the controller).

Answer 1

This is exactly what iTunes Home Sharing allows you to do -- stream music stored on my Mac using your iDevice.

The short steps for setting this up are:

1. Enable home sharing in iTunes on your Mac:
   • Start iTunes
   • Go to Preferences -> Sharing and make certain 'Share my library on my local network' is checked.
   • LEAVE ITUNES RUNNING!
2. Now connect to your shared library from your iDevice:
   • Go to the Settings app and click on the Music settings
   • Scroll down to the bottom of the Music settings page and you'll see the 'Home Sharing' setting
   • Enter your iTunes account ID and password to enable your iDevice to see your shared library
3. Use the Music app on your iDevice to access your shared library
   • Open the Music app
   • Your shared iTunes library should now be available as a source of audio in the app

This works for video, audio and podcasts as well. If your Mac puts itself to sleep you might need to wake it back up for the shared library to show up in your iDevice before you can stream audio or video from it.

Answer 2

You can listen to music stored on your MacBook using the built-in Music app. First turn on Home Sharing in iTunes on your Mac, then in Settings on your iPad. On your iPad, in the Music app select your iTunes library.