Share System Audio on Zoom for Mac Without Screen Sharing

You are in a Zoom meeting and you want to play an audio clip, a podcast excerpt, or some background music for the group. You click the microphone icon, but Zoom only picks up your voice. The only built-in way to send your Mac’s audio is to share your screen, which is not what you wanted. (Need to share audio in Discord instead? There is a separate guide for that.)

The usual fallback is holding a phone up to the microphone, which sounds exactly as bad as it is.

Why Zoom Cannot Do This on Its Own

This is not really a Zoom limitation. It is a macOS one.

macOS keeps audio output and audio input strictly separate. What comes out of your speakers does not loop back into any microphone input, and there is no system setting that changes it. That separation is deliberate: it means no app can quietly record what you are listening to.

Zoom, like every other call app, can only transmit what arrives on a microphone input. Its “Share sound” checkbox is bolted to screen sharing because screen sharing is the one path where Zoom captures audio itself. If you do not want to share your screen, you need to give Zoom a microphone that happens to be carrying your system audio. That is what a virtual audio device does.

Your Options

There are three realistic ways to do this, and they trade money against setup time.

BlackHole (free)

BlackHole is free, open source, and properly notarized, so it works on modern macOS and Apple Silicon. It creates a virtual audio device that apps can send audio to and read audio from.

The catch is that BlackHole is plumbing with no routing logic attached. Sending your system audio to BlackHole means your speakers stop getting it, so you cannot hear what you are playing. To fix that you build a Multi-Output Device in Audio MIDI Setup that feeds your speakers and BlackHole at once, matching sample rates on both.

It works. Expect 20 to 40 minutes the first time. One well-known side effect: once a Multi-Output Device is your system output, your keyboard volume keys stop working, because macOS only exposes volume control for a physical output. You adjust volume in System Settings instead.

Price: free Setup time: 20 to 40 minutes

Soundshine ($11.99 one-time)

Soundshine is a small macOS menu bar app (about 5 MB) built for this specific job. A guided wizard installs the virtual audio driver and creates a “Soundshine Microphone” input carrying your Mac’s system audio. Any app that accepts a microphone can use it, Zoom included.

There is no Multi-Output Device to build and no Audio MIDI Setup to open. Audio passes through to your speakers as well, so you still hear what you are playing, and your volume keys keep working. Quality is 48 kHz, 32-bit float stereo.

A free trial is available with an audio watermark on the routed signal, so you can confirm the setup works in your own meeting before paying.

Price: $11.99 one-time (free trial available) Setup time: about 30 seconds

Loopback ($99 one-time)

Loopback by Rogue Amoeba is the professional tool. You build a visual routing graph wiring specific apps to specific virtual devices, with independent control over each source, and you can mix your microphone in alongside system audio.

It is a one-time purchase, not a subscription. If you are running a podcast or broadcast setup where several sources need to reach different destinations independently, it earns the price. For playing a clip in a Zoom call, it is far more than you need.

Price: $99 one-time Setup time: moderate

Step-by-Step: Sharing Mac Audio in Zoom

Using Soundshine, since it is the shortest path:

1. Install it. Download the app and drag it to Applications. It needs macOS 15 Sequoia or later and runs on Apple Silicon and Intel.
2. Run the setup wizard. It installs the virtual audio driver. This takes about 30 seconds and asks for your administrator password once.
3. Toggle it on. Click the Soundshine icon in the menu bar and flip the switch. You can set the passthrough volume here too.
4. Point Zoom at it. In Zoom, click the arrow next to the mute button and choose Soundshine Microphone under Select a Microphone.
5. Play something. Whatever your Mac is playing now goes into the meeting.

When you are finished, switch your Zoom microphone back to your usual input.

Talking and Sharing Audio at the Same Time

This is the question that catches people out. Zoom accepts one input device at a time, so if the virtual microphone is selected, the meeting hears your system audio and not your voice.

Three ways around it:

• Switch between them. Introduce the clip on your normal mic, switch inputs, play it, switch back. Fine for one or two clips.
• Use a second device. Join the meeting from your phone for voice while your Mac sends audio.
• Mix at the source. A routing app that combines your microphone and system audio into one virtual device, which is the case where Loopback’s extra capability is genuinely worth it.

A Note on Older Advice

Search results for this problem are full of guides recommending Soundflower. Do not follow them. Soundflower relied on a kernel extension that Apple began blocking in macOS Catalina, it was never rebuilt for Apple Silicon, and it has been unmaintained since around 2014. If you already installed it, the Soundflower replacement guide covers removing it cleanly.

Related guides:

• Play Music in Google Meet Without Screen Sharing
• How to Share Spotify on a Zoom Call on Mac
• How to Record Zoom Meeting Audio on a Mac
• Why macOS Blocks System Audio (And the Fix That Takes 30 Seconds)