Playing audio on your website, through HTML5, is a lot easier than you may believe. Just like with playing video, you use a few simple commands and make sure that the audio file formats are compatible with your visitors’ browsers.
To do this, you should make sure to save your audio file (mp3 or ogg are the most popular formats) in different formats by using a conversion tool such as Max for Macintosh or Switch Sound File Converter for Windows.
Why Format Matters
Take a look at the table below and you will see how each major browsers supports, or fails to support, the major audio types.
| Browser | Ogg Vorbis | MP3 | WAV |
|---|---|---|---|
| FireFox 3.6+ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Safari 5+ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Chrome 6 | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Opera 10.5+ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Internet Explorer 9 (beta) | ✓ | ✓ |
Now that you understand which audio file types are supported by the major browsers, it is time to learn how to load these audio files through your website using HTML5.
Your First HTLM5 Audio Player
Below you will notice a basic audio web player. Click ‘play’ to load the audio file.
Below is the code as well as an explanation as to what each line of code does.
What It All Means
Line one:
You are telling the web browser to make sure the audio player has volume control, play button and a timer to indicate how long the file is and how much time remains on the song while it is playing.
Line 2 & 3
The ‘source’ tag tells the browser where to find the audio file and the ‘type’ tag, otherwise known as a ‘parameter’, specifies the audio file type. This is important because the browser, such as Firefox, may only be able to load ‘audio/ogg’ file format, where the file name ends in .ogg (first line). For other browsers, such as I.E, it will look for the .mp3 file format (second line) and play that.
By having multiple options available to your visitors, you increase the number of browsers that will play these files without any problems. Best of all, they will not have to install 3rd party plugins which means the audio will be ready to play immediately regardless of their platform (desktop/mobile) or operating system (Windows or Mac).
Using Other HTML5 Audio Parameters
What if you want to auto play your audio or loop through the file continuously? Thankfully these options are available to you.
Setting Autoplay
To set your audio file to auto play, all you have to do is change the first line of code:
To this:
Looping Your Audio File
If you would like to create an endless loop of your audio file, change this line:
To this:
Complete Code For Auto Play
Complete Code For Looping Audio Files
These simple lines of code will give you the power to play audio for your visitors, even if they are on a mobile phone or tablet. Just make sure that when you load your audio, assuming you wish to have multiple versions of your audio file, you are including the lines of code needed for the ‘ogg’ format and ‘mp3′ format. The same logic applies to any other format you may wish to load.
Learning More About HTML5 Audio
To learn more about HTMl5 Audio, as well as learning about more advanced audio players you can use for your website, please review the resources listed below.
More HTML5 Audio Resources
A Free HTML5 Audio Players I Recommend
Personally, I love Jplayer. I think it is a brilliant piece of software and it can load audio and movies for your website. Check it out here.
Summary
Take a moment to get familiar with HTML 5 audio and see how much fun it is to play with. Whether you wish to load simple audio files or use a more advanced solution like Jplayer, you fill find it liberating to be able to deliver content to your visitors, of all platforms, without having to learn any programming in the process.
Should you need assistance in using Jplayer or if you would like to receive a consultation on how to add audio players to your website, please contact us.
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