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Using Audio Player

The two plugins Audio Player and Audio Player Widget allow you to embed MP3 players on your blog. Use Audio Player to embed the player in a page or post, and use Audio Player Widget if you want the player in your sidebar. Audio Player Widget requires Audio Player, so if you want your MP3 player in a sidebar, you need to activate both plugins.

You can upload audio files (MP3 only) to your blog or play them from another location. The first step in either process is to activate one or both audio plugins on your blog: Dashboard–>Plugins.

USING an AUDIO FILE from YOUR MEDIA LIBRARY

Edit the post or page where you want to place the audio player and switch to the HTML view. Position the cursor where you want the player, and click the Add Audio link (the musical notes).

You can select an MP3 file from your Media Library, or upload a new one. Select Audio Player for the Link URL and then click Insert into Post. The file’s URL with a correctly formatted audio shortcode will be inserted into your post.

PLAYING a FILE from ELSEWHERE

Edit the post or page where you want to place the audio player and switch to the HTML view. Position the cursor where you want the player, and enter the location of the audio file preceded by audio: and surrounded by square brackets, like this (but without the spaces!):

[a u d i o:URL]

USING the AUDIO PLAYER WIDGET

You must have the Audio Player plugin activated on your blog in order for the Audio Player Widget to work properly.

Go to Dashboard–>Appearance–>Widgets.

Drag the Audio widget into your sidebar. Give it a title it you want and enter the URL of your MP3 file. You can use a file from your Media Library or one located elsewhere.

The widget code will convert the URL you enter into a correctly formatted shortcode.

CUSTOMIZING AUDIO PLAYER

You can customize many aspects of the MP3 player and how it behaves, including the colors, width, what text shows up, and behaviors like looping and autostarting. The same customizations can be used in players embedded in posts, pages, and the sidebar widget.

All customization flags are inserted by following the URL of your MP3 file with a pipe (vertical line) symbol, then the flag name and value. There are no spaces anywhere in the string. Example:

http://www.somewhere.com/mysong.mp3|loop=yes

Colors
These are the default color options. Replace the hex code with the one for the color of your choice.

bg=0xF8F8F8
leftbg=0xEEEEEE
lefticon=0×666666
rightbg=0xCCCCCC
rightbghover=0×999999
righticon=0×666666
righticonhover=0xFFFFFF
text=0×666666
slider=0×666666
track=0xFFFFFF
border=0×666666
loader=0x9FFFB8
bgcolor=0xFFFFFF

Audio Player Width
The default width is 290px. To use a different width (maybe in a sidebar text widget) use the width parameter:

width=200

Title and Artist Information
To include song title and/or artist information, use the titles and/or artists flags. Note that these are plural, even if you have a single song.

titles=TITLE|artists=ARTIST

Playlists
To configure the player for a playlist rather than a single song, use commas to separate the songs:

URL1,URL2|titles=TITLE1,TITLE2|artists=ARTIST1,ARTIST2]

Other Options
animation=no (player is always open)
remaining=yes (show remaining time instead of elapsed time)
loop=yes (loop playback)
autostart=yes
initialvolume=80 (0 – 100, 60 is default)

Some customizations can be set for ALL instances of the player on your blog via Dashboard–>Settings–>Audio Player–>Display. You do not need to touch these settings at all for the audio player to function.

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