What is the equivalent word for "screening" when referring to recorded sound only?

Solution 1:

Audition is usually thought of as a trial performance of an actor, dancer, or musician. But its root derivation is from the verb to hear.

I agree with the comment of @rhetorician. You audition a tape or attend a digital audio file's audition.

movie : screening :: audio tape :: audition

Solution 2:

Interesting question! The only contexts I can think of are album launches or audiophile 'listening parties' and the like, at which a recording might be described as being 'played in full' or similar. Having said that, I agree with @terdon that 'playing' does not really work.

If you really need a noun then I don't think you could improve on 'presentation' although this is not audio-specific. You could possibly get away with 'airing' or even 'broadcast', although the latter suggests the use of radio technology rather than live performance.

Solution 3:

Off the top of my head I would say playing since we play recordings. Something like this would work:

John Lennon's Lost Recording will be played at 19:00 in the Abbey Road theater.

You can't really say "I went to a playing" the way you could "I went to a screening" but you can work around that, for example:

I went to a playing of a beautiful recording.

As long as it is clear that you are referring to a recording, I think that playing is perfectly good.