Articles by Mark Boas

HTML5 Audio — The State of Play

Guest doctor Mark Boas returns with a follow up to his 2009 article Native Audio in the Browser, which covers the basics of HTML5 audio. Read the original if you want to get a feel for the <audio> element and associated API. If not, get comfortable and dive deep to learn about the current state of play for HTML5 audio.

Native Audio in the browser

Until very recently the ability to play any type of audio within a browser involved using Adobe Flash or other browser plugins. Although Adobe's Flash player is without doubt the most ubiquitous of these, most developers and designers would agree it is better not to rely on a plugin at all. Now thanks to HTML 5 and the browsers that implement its audio tag we can play audio natively within the browser.