Tag Archive for 'flash'

Click to hear the MP3 (playlist)

Published by Peter on April 27, 2006 in music and podcast. 4 Comments

More than a year ago, I wrote an piece on Playing mp3 with an embedded Flash player. Things change quickly in this area, so it’s time for an update.

These are all tools to play either individual MP3 files or playlists (e.g. podcast RSS feeds) in a web page. Most of them are based on Macromedia/Adobe Flash. Where possible, I’ll use my Smoothpod Mashups as an example feed.

Hosted Service (insert HTML code)

Pupuplayer Free
License: no details - I presume it’s free to use
Format: expects a podcast feed as input
pupuplayer
Pickle Player
License: no details - I presume it’s free to use
Format: expects a podcast feed as input - or can work with individual MP3 files
pickle player
FeedPlayer
License: no details - I presume it’s free to use
Format: expects a podcast feed as input
feedplayer
Webjay (now Yahoo!)
free
can work with feeds or MP3 files, can also generate a playlist from an HTML page
webjay
Webjay Wizard
This tool of mine can also be used to create the HTML code for Windows Mediaplayer, RealPlayer or Quicktime embedded players

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Playing MP3 with an embedded Flash player

Published by Peter on January 22, 2005 in webdev. 22 Comments

(There is an updated post at Click to hear the MP3 playlist (Apr 2006))

When you want to have an embedded player in a web page, there are several options: working with an embedded RealPlayer or WindowsMedia player - which do not all work on a Mac/Linux platform or with Firefox. Another option is using a Flash player. Flash/ShockWave is supported on all platforms and in all browsers. I went on a search for free embedded Flash players:

SoundBlox
License: This is an Apache-style open source project by Laszlo Systems, based on the Laszlo open-source RAD framework. It is free for non-commercial use.
Method: you reference a Javascript file in your HTML headers, and then call a Javascript function with the URL of the playlist. (This is a problem for some sites. Blogger e.g. does not allow <script> tags in its posts, only in the template.)
Format: it uses a proprietary XML format. <geek>Files in XSPF format can be converted to the SoundBlox format through XSLT</geek>
MusicPlayer
License: This is an open-source (SourceForge) project by Fabricio Zuardi. It is free for non-commercial use.
Method: you reference a Flash file and give it the URL of the playlist. The Flash file is embedded with the usual <object> and <embed> tags.
Format: it uses the standard XSPF (XML Sound Playlist Format). Webjay can convert any HTML file/feed to XSPF!
Check my Webjay wizard to generate the right HTML code for your page!
Halfbaked
License: not explicitly stated. I presume it’s free to use.
Method: you reference a Flash file and give it the URL of the MP3 file. The Flash file is embedded with the usual <object> and <embed> tags.
Format: No playlist here, just one MP3 file.
GurusNetwork
License: not explicitly stated. I presume it’s free to use.
Method: you reference a Flash file, which contains the playlist of the MP3 files to play. You can’t specify a self-made playlist
Format: No idea.
Sonify
License: not explicitly stated. I presume it’s free to use.
Method: you reference a Flash file, which contains the playlist of the MP3 files to play. You can’t specify a self-made playlist
Format: No idea.
RadioBlogClub
License: free to use.
Method: you host the player with all graphics and a config.xml file, that points to a playlist.
Format: A PHP script creates an XML playlist for all MP3 present in a local(!) folder.

For more information on playlist formats (XSPF, SMIL, ASX, …), check out Lucas Gonze’s excellent survey.

There are also some commercial options: hooverwebdesign.com ($50), wimpyplayer.com ($25), soundnails.com ($15)