Methods and systems are provided for reusing audio streams in an audio mixing environment such that processing resources (e.g., CPU cycles) are not wasted on encoding the same audio streams multiple times (e.g., more than once). Instead, processing resources are conserved without comprising audio quality. The methods described herein are particularly useful when a participant transitions from using a shared encoder to using the participant's own encoder, and when the participant transitions from using the participant's own encoder to using a shared encoder.