Systems and methods for unifying multiple audio bus interfaces in an audio system are disclosed herein. In one aspect, an integrated circuit (IC) comprises a primary slave audio device comprising a first control circuit, and a dependent slave audio device comprising a second control circuit. The primary slave audio device and the dependent slave audio device are communicatively coupled via a slave status link, and the first control circuit and the second control circuit each configured to receive, from a master audio device, a mode instruction that indicates operation in one of a detach mode and a unify mode. The second control circuit is configured to, while operating in the detach mode, transmit a slave status to the master audio device via a second control lane, and, while operating in the unify mode, transmit the slave status to the primary slave audio device via the slave status link.