How to play a sound using Swift?

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Most preferably you might want to use AVFoundation.
It provides all the essentials for working with audiovisual media.

Update: Compatible with Swift 2, Swift 3 and Swift 4 as suggested by some of you in the comments.

Swift 2.3

import AVFoundation

var player: AVAudioPlayer?

func playSound() {
    let url = NSBundle.mainBundle().URLForResource("soundName", withExtension: "mp3")!

    do {
        player = try AVAudioPlayer(contentsOfURL: url)
        guard let player = player else { return }

        player.prepareToPlay()
        player.play()

    } catch let error as NSError {
        print(error.description)
    }
}

Swift 3

import AVFoundation

var player: AVAudioPlayer?

func playSound() {
    guard let url = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "soundName", withExtension: "mp3") else { return }

    do {
        try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(AVAudioSessionCategoryPlayback)
        try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true)

        let player = try AVAudioPlayer(contentsOf: url)

        player.play()

    } catch let error {
        print(error.localizedDescription)
    }
}

Swift 4 (iOS 13 compatible)

import AVFoundation

var player: AVAudioPlayer?

func playSound() {
    guard let url = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "soundName", withExtension: "mp3") else { return }

    do {
        try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback, mode: .default)            
        try AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setActive(true)

        /* The following line is required for the player to work on iOS 11. Change the file type accordingly*/
        player = try AVAudioPlayer(contentsOf: url, fileTypeHint: AVFileType.mp3.rawValue)

        /* iOS 10 and earlier require the following line:
        player = try AVAudioPlayer(contentsOf: url, fileTypeHint: AVFileTypeMPEGLayer3) */

        guard let player = player else { return }

        player.play()

    } catch let error {
        print(error.localizedDescription)
    }
}

Make sure to change the name of your tune as well as the extension.
The file needs to be properly imported (Project Build Phases > Copy Bundle Resources). You might want to place it in assets.xcassets for
greater convenience.

For short sound files you might want to go for non-compressed audio formats such as .wav since they have the best quality and a low cpu impact. The higher disk-space consumption should not be a big deal for short sound files. The longer the files are, you might want to go for a compressed format such as .mp3 etc. pp. Check the compatible audio formats of CoreAudio.

Fun-fact: There are neat little libraries which make playing sounds even easier. 🙂
For example: SwiftySound

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