Airplay Music Is Choppy At Beginning and End

Hello, very strange problem I'm experiencing with iTunes and Airplay. Firstly let me say that both my wi-fi signal and internet connection are excellent. I regulartly stream HD video content at full-quality without any issues.

But with AirPlay, playback is always choppy. And it is the worst at the beginning and end of each track that is played. But when the song gets going and has played for a minute, the issue seems to go away...until the song nears the end. Then the next song that plays, also starts out incredibly choppy, but gets better, and then gets terrible again.

This issue happens whether I play via my iphone or my laptop, same for my wife's devices as well.

Any idea what may be happening? It's frustrating that I can play full-quality HD movies with zero buffering issues, but music via itunes plays terribly.

Thanks in advance for any advice.