I've performed the following test successfully in Xcode 11.5 with an iOS 13 simulator.
class ViewController: UIViewController {
var audioPlayer: AVAudioPlayer!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
guard let audioData = NSDataAsset(name: "Example")?.data else {
fatalError("Asset not found")
}
do {
self.audioPlayer = try AVAudioPlayer(data: audioData, fileTypeHint: "m4a")
self.audioPlayer.play()
} catch {
fatalError(error.localizedDescription)
}
}
}
Sadly this same example does not work in iOS 14. I've filed a radar (FB7800041) about this.