HTML5 Audio
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HTML5 provides a standard for playing audio.
Audio on the Web
Until now, there has never been a standard for playing audio on a web page.
Today, most audio are played through a plugin (like flash). However, not all browsers have the same plugins.
HTML5 specifies a standard way to include audio, with the audio element.
The audio element can play sound files, or an audio stream.
Audio Formats
Currently, there are 3 supported formats for the audio element:
| Format | IE 8 | Firefox 3.5 | Opera 10.5 | Chrome 3.0 | Safari 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ogg Vorbis | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| MP3 | No | No | No | Yes | |
| Wav | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
How It Works
To play an audio file in HTML5, this is all you need:
| <audio src="song.ogg" controls="controls"> </audio> |
The control attribute is for adding play, pause, and volume controls.
Insert content between the <audio> and </audio> tags for browsers that do not support the audio element:
Example
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The example above uses an Ogg file, and will work in Firefox, Opera and Chrome.
To make the audio work in Safari, the audio file must be of type MP3 or Wav.
The audio element allows multiple source elements. Source elements can link to different audio files. The browser will use the first recognized format:
Example
Try it yourself » |
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer 8 does not support the audio element. In IE 9, there will be support for audio element.
All <audio> Attributes
| Attribute | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| autoplay | autoplay | Specifies that the audio will start playing as soon as it is ready. |
| controls | controls | Specifies that controls will be displayed, such as a play button. |
| loop | loop | Specifies that the audio will start playing again (looping) when it reaches the end |
| preload | preload | Specifies that the audio will be loaded at page load, and ready to run. Ignored if autoplay is present. |
| src | url | Specifies the URL of the audio to play |
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