21 February 2022
Considering my monumental digital incompetence, is there a way to upload and play short audio files (MP3, WAV, WMA) as posts? I've looked at and even installed and activated a few highly rated appropriate plugins. And that's as far as I've got. They all call for players and that's the first thing that stymies me because I'd have thought that plugins with "player" in their titles wouldn't need external players. I can't even upload the files to the media library.
I was hoping to give my readers some Chopin music on his 212th birthday tomorrow. But in the circumstance I reckon that's out of the question. Not to worry, I'll scan some sheet music . . .
1 Answers
Shawn Hesketh answered 9 months ago
Hi Paul,
You don't need a third-party plugin to add simple audio files to your posts. Just add an Audio Block and you'll be set!
This video (part of the WordPress 101 course) covers how to add audio to your posts using the Audio Block:
https://wp101.com/tutorial/embed-video-or-audio/
Hope this helps!
Thanks. But it doesn’t work for me. Naturally.
First, I’d prefer not to embed links to external sources. Not that it matters. That said, I discovered the problem when I tried to load the music files from my desktop directly to a post: “Sorry, you are not allowed to upload this file type” popped up in pink for all types of audio files. Nor could I upload those files to the media libraries of my sites with diverse theme templates. And even copying and pasting URLs only garnered “Sorry, this content could not be embedded.”
Just tried again, same result. It’s not a copyright problem, because I can’t even upload MP3s of my own pounding. But, if it means anything, I can (but won’t) upload and embed MP4 videos . . .
First of all, for audio, you don’t need to embed a link to an external source. Just upload the MP3 file(s) to your server, as I demonstrate in the video tutorial.
As for the notice that you’re “not allowed to upload this file type,” even for MP3 files, that’s due to a limitation on your web server. Some hosts do not permit uploading certain file types to your web server. Though for the life of me, I don’t know why they would permit MP4 files—which are tyically much larger—but not MP3 audio files.
Still, you’ll have to contact your web hosting support team to ask them to enable MP3 file uploads to your web server. With that issue sorted out, you’ll be able to upload your own MP3 files and play them using the Audio Block player.
That doed it. Well, partly. MP3s with perfect titles (i.e., with no extraneous characters) upload easily and quickly and play well. Bloody amazing! But WMAs and unedited-title MP3s get “The response is not a valid JSON response.” Without really knowing what I’m talking about, I’d reckon that Java script requires a specific syntax to be valid and that certain punctuation and the WMA file extension don’t fit that syntax. Presumably my web host in London is working on it as I type.
Don’t be afraid to tell me I’m way off base. As I said, I don’t know what I’m talking about. And many thanks for putting me on track . . .