I have been trying to find out what is the best way to present audio on the web. This led me to look at how to present video too. I do not have any conclusions on the matter. But I have been looking at HTML5 and not using javascript or Flash. Because my platform (CMS) is WordPress, I have also been looking at plugins. I have been looking at two wordpress plugins:

PlayPress, Degradable HTML5 audio and video and oEmbed HTML5 audio

I have seen MediaElement.js – HTML5 Video & Audio Player and HTML5 AV Manager for WordPress but it is JavaScript based, and while I am not against JavaScript. I was hoping for a JS free solution (as I use JS for a lot of other things).

In my particular use case I need to use .mp3 rather than .ogg files. But as I tested most of these plugins with Safari 5.1.2 most of them revert to the flash player for playing .mp3 files. The one exception was PlayPress (version 1.1.1). My Use Case Winner…

For me the good thing about this search was that it introduced me to the presentation arguments around Audio for Everybody and Video for Everybody, including this test for Video for Everybody. I am not exactly sure if I care if I implement them or not on my site (though this may be because I do not fully understand the arguments). But it was intersting to read about H.264 and Google’s response and why things are changing on YouTube. At any rate, if you are visiting via a mobile device and some of my media does not work then please let me know.

In the course of my search I did find an interesting Flash player for WordPress as a premium plugin. This player was interesting in that it claimed to be the only one that could play different audio files per page.