![]() (HTML5 allows you to set an attribute without a value. By default, the audio element has no controls. Other users will see a player element like the one shown in Figure 1, thanks to the controls attribute being set. The message “Get an HTML5 browser!” will appear only when the page is loaded in a non-HTML5 browser. Note that HTML5 simplifies the syntax of the root HTML element from what you might be used to. ![]() ![]() For example, to load and play test.ogg in an otherwise-empty HTML page using the browser's default controls, you could use the following page: Garrick, shrink below. Instead of using an img element, you use an audio element, and the syntax of the two elements is similar. It's a lot like adding an image to a page. Fortunately, you can put an audio player explicitly in any HTML page. Most Web users care about appearances, so the default audio controls alone probably won't cut it for most people. If all you really want to do is play one file at a time, and you don't care what exactly shows up in the browser window, you can stop reading now. Note how much HTML you've had to write so far: none. Google Chrome's default audio player control-other browsers have similar control sets, but different appearances.īrowsers render controls differently, but you'll see all the usual controls: play/pause button, position slider, current track position indicator and volume control. With some customized HTML and JavaScript, the interface can be anything you want. Any Web server can be your own personal “cloud” server that you can use for personal or business use. Modern HTML5-compliant Web browsers like Chrome, Firefox (Iceweasel to Debian users) and Apple's Safari all support the HTML5 audio element, which can make audio files as easy to handle as image files. What if you want to use your own storage solution, like your own personal (and appropriately secured) Internet-accessible Web server? What if you live outside the United States, where some cloud services are not yet available?Īll these problems make “cloud” solutions more like fog, obscuring the truth that there is another way. Aside from listening to your music, once you transfer music to the service, you can't download it again easily if something happens to your personal storage. Also, transfer to the service is one-way. What if you want to share music with other people? (I am, of course, talking about legal music sharing involving files with Creative Commons-type free licensing or recorded cover songs with appropriate royalty payments being made to songwriters through licensing agencies like the Harry Fox Agency.) Cloud services can't help you. “Cloud” music services have other downsides as well. ![]() There also are financial costs associated with the corporate offerings (explicit fees comparable to Internet-hosting costs, vendor lock-in and so on) that also are unattractive. Most of my own music is stored in Ogg Vorbis files, and none of the big company services seem to support it, lack of patents notwithstanding. Who wants to use proprietary software anyway? File-type support is limited as well with all the corporate products I've mentioned. Other products have a Web interface, but uploading works only through a proprietary “app” not available for Linux users. For example, Apple's service relies on its proprietary iTunes application, which doesn't exist in Linux. If you're reading this article, you're probably a Linux user, and as often happens, support for Linux is being neglected by these big corporate solutions. This is the kind of thing the Internet is for, right? It's easy to see the appeal of these services. ![]() These services allow you to store your music on a corporate server and access it through your own Internet-connected device anytime you like. Recently, “cloud”-based music services, from big names like Amazon, Google and Apple, have been getting attention in the press. ![]()
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