We all enjoy watching YouTube videos on websites, but how do you embed mp3 files so that they are played inline when you click on the link, rather than taking you to an ugly page? What plugins or other options are there to make the user experience a little nicer?
If you simply use Add Audio to add a link to an mp3 file then you get a link like this one below.
Clicking on the link opens a new window that plays the mp3.
You can enhance this a bit by setting an attribute of target=”_blank”
One way of getting the mp3 to show in a page is to include it within an iframe. This can be done easily using the [iframe](...) plugin. The disadvantage is that the mp3 starts playing automatically. So that’s no good for more than one mp3 per page.
The other choices boil down to deciding which is the best plugin.
| Plugin name and description | Plugin links: WP,homepage,bw notes | Version, total downloads, last update, tested |
|---|---|---|
| Single MP3 Player Sound spectrum driven single MP3 player with full XML support. | single-mp3-player home ... | 1.0.0 7194 2010-12-06 3.0.5 |
| Xtreme MP3 Player v2 The most advanced XML MP3 Player application. No Flash Knowledge required to insert the MP3 Player SWF inside the HTML page(s) of your site. | x-treme-mp3-player-v2 home ... | 1.0 6242 2011-09-01 3.0.5 |
| WPaudio MP3 Player Play mp3s and podcasts in posts with the simplest, cleanest, easiest mp3 player. New HTML5 support for iPhone, iPad, Android & mobile browsers. | wpaudio-mp3-player home ... | 3.1 190387 2010-10-25 3.0.5 |
| Audio Player Audio Player is a highly configurable but simple mp3 player for all your audio needs. You can customise the player's colour scheme to match your blog | audio-player home ... | 2.0.4.1 474675 2010-01-27 2.9.2 |
| podPress A plugin for Podcasters using WordPress. | podpress home ... | 8.8.10.13 787377 2012-02-01 3.3.2 |