How to Listen to Your WebDAV (Nextcloud, Synology) Music with AirPlay
Your music collection lives in WebDAV (Nextcloud, Synology) — and your best speaker is a HomePod, an AirPlay soundbar, or the Apple TV connected to your living-room system. The problem: WebDAV (Nextcloud, Synology) has no way to connect the two. Cloudist Play does. It turns your WebDAV (Nextcloud, Synology) account into a full music library on your iPhone and sends any track to an AirPlay device with one tap.
What You Need
- An iPhone or iPad (the AirPlay button ships in the iOS app)
- A WebDAV (Nextcloud, Synology) account with your music files in it
- An AirPlay device: HomePod or HomePod mini, Apple TV, or AirPlay-enabled speakers and soundbars from Sonos, Bose, JBL, Denon, and many others
- Cloudist Play — free on the App Store
Step 1: Install Cloudist Play
Download Cloudist Play from the App Store. The app also runs on Android, the web, and Mac — but AirPlay streaming is an iPhone/iPad feature.
Step 2: Connect WebDAV (Nextcloud, Synology)
Open Cloudist Play → Add Account → WebDAV. Enter your server URL — for example https://cloud.example.com.
- Nextcloud / ownCloud: the app detects your server automatically and opens a secure browser login (Login Flow v2) — 2FA works, and an app-specific password is created for you
- Synology NAS: install the WebDAV Server package, enable HTTPS (port 5006), then sign in with your Synology username and password
- Any other WebDAV server: enter the full URL plus your username and password
Step 3: Let It Scan
The app scans your account for audio files and reads the embedded tags — title, artist, album, and cover art — to build a browsable music library. If your files sit in one folder, you can run a partial scan of just that folder.
Step 4: Tap the AirPlay Button
Play any track and open the Now Playing screen. Tap the AirPlay button at the top, then pick your HomePod, speaker, or Apple TV from the list. That's it — your WebDAV (Nextcloud, Synology) music now plays through the big speakers.
Everything you'd expect keeps working while streaming over AirPlay:
- Queue and gapless playback — albums flow track to track without gaps
- Background playback — switch apps or lock your phone, the music keeps going
- Lock screen and Control Center controls — pause, skip, and seek from anywhere
- Equalizer — the built-in 5-band EQ keeps working on AirPlay routes
- Cover art and track info — shows up on Apple TV and AirPlay displays
With AirPlay 2 speakers you can even select several speakers at once in the route picker and fill multiple rooms in sync.
Which Audio Formats Work?
Cloudist Play streams your original files — no quality loss:
| Format | Extension | Type |
|---|---|---|
| FLAC | .flac | Lossless |
| WAV | .wav | Lossless / uncompressed |
| ALAC (M4A) | .m4a | Apple lossless / AAC |
| MP3 | .mp3 | Lossy |
| AAC | .aac | Lossy |
| OGG | .ogg | Lossy |
| WMA | .wma | Lossy (auto-converted) |
More Than One Cloud?
Cloudist Play connects to several services at once and merges them into one library: Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, Yandex Disk, WebDAV (Nextcloud, Synology) and S3-compatible storage. See the full list on the cloud providers page. Prefer Chromecast speakers? Cloudist Play casts to those too. And for your videos, the sister app Cloudist Watch does the same thing with AirPlay on your TV.
Is It Private?
Your files never leave WebDAV (Nextcloud, Synology). Cloudist Play streams them directly using credentials stored on your device — no middle server stores your music or tracks what you listen to.
Summary
WebDAV (Nextcloud, Synology) stores your music; AirPlay is how it should sound. Install Cloudist Play, connect your account, open a track, and tap the AirPlay button — your cloud library plays on HomePod, Apple TV, and every AirPlay speaker in the house, complete with queue, equalizer, and lock-screen controls. Free to start.