Cast audio only from Google Chrome to Chromecast

This is a not particularly satisfying work around, but it seems to work.

My issue was that the Google Cast extension and GPU processing in Chrome were hammering my CPU and the audio from Spotify was choppy. If only there was a way to have audio only. Well there is, kind of. Take your tab into a new window and reduce the window size to nothing. This caused my CPU usage to drop dramatically, and the audio streams nicely now. My TV just displays a thin grey line across the center of the screen, which I assume is the single pixel of my window or something. I’m pretty happy with that.

A Chrome window shrunk to a thin strip showing only the tab bar and toolbar

Changing tracks is a pain in the ass…