Stop display of "Now Playing" on iPhone

Raicya, I think we're talking about two different things, and maybe I have a massive misunderstanding about how Airplay is supposed to work. My question is not about how to re-activate the player control (controlling "Soldier On" in your screenshots just now) after the iPhone screen auto-locks. I understand how to do that (I use face recognition instead of a passcode, but that doesn't matter), and I understand that once the phone is unlocked that screen disappears if I launch an app or interact in other ways with my phone (maybe that is what you mean by "Then Airplay is Off", just above). But that's only temporary; the player control re-appears, again and again, in my lock screen, even when I haven't been playing music or a podcast, or whatever, for many hours. Maybe that's because Airplay is always "on", even if nothing is actually playing. So my question is how to get that behavior to stop. I don't--ever--want to see that player control on my lock screen. Full stop. I'd be happy for Airplay to be totally disabled--except when I choose to turn it on to use it. How to make that happen? :-)

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I understand that Airplay is involved--and that simply "turning it off" may be the solution. But as I've said, I cannot see a way to do that. I can't seem to find a button that toggles Airplay on or off on the phone (even in Settings>General>Airplay & Handoff, which is where I'd expect to see that). And again, please see my screen shot from a few minutes ago. It won't let me uncheck (disconnect?) ALL of the devices visible there; it appears that one must be checked at any given time. If, for instance, I click on MacBook Pro, Airplay will send the audio signal from the iPhone to the laptop, as expected. But if I then click to uncheck the MacBook Pro, Airplay automatically re-selects the iPhone. Can't deselect all the devices. Can't turn off Airplay completely. The widget persists on the lock screen. Most frustrating.

Yes, we're talking about the same icon. But as I said, that simply brings up a list of devices I can choose to Airplay "to" (TV, iPhone, MacBook Pro, even my hearing aids). There is no "off" button or option, nor are there any on-screen instructions....

I appreciate your help. This is all a bit weird, though. My Airplay list seems to require that one device be selected at all times; I cannot deselect all of them. See screenshot taken from lock screen while a podcast was playing:

Thanks for your reply, but If by this you mean the Airplay icon in the upper-right corner of the "Not Playing" widget(?), that doesn't work. There IS no apparent way to turn it off. All that I see is a list of different devices to Airplay to...

I'll give that a try, thank you. mb