# What's the best music player for website?



## JohnG (Apr 13, 2012)

Hi all,

Switching away from Flash on my website to a hosted Word Press format. Any suggestions / preferences / warnings about what kind of music playback engine to use.

I love my flash site but times are changing, so I'm going to move to HTML 5.

Thanks for any suggestions.


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## Simplesly (Apr 13, 2012)

I'm using MP3jplayer on my site. I don't love the look of it, but there isn't a better alternative that I know of. You have the option of single tracks or a playlist, and it's free. It also will fall back on flash if the viewers browser doesn't support html5. The downside is, it looks free.


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## ThomasL (Apr 13, 2012)

My vote goes to Soundcloud, but I think that for streaming from another site you need to subscribe to Soundcloud.

But their player is really good and easy to implement.


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## JohnG (Apr 13, 2012)

Thanks guys. I was going to use as a starting point a commercially available template and try to import some of the images from my current site.

The point of which, regarding players, is that the players on the templates you can buy seem to be also built in.


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## Simplesly (Apr 13, 2012)

My advice as someone who built his site with a highly customizable WP theme, is that the layout, options, and user-friendliness of the theme are more important than which audio player (if any) is included. You can always add a plug-in or put some HTML5 code on a page and voila, you have your player. WP Plug-ins just make it easier, i.e. no coding or at least only shortcodes. 

Some WP themes are very limited in what you can do to them, and most have no good playlist audio built in. Because of this limited selection, I've seen a lot of sites (composer's sites even) where I can pick out the theme almost immediately. 

Things to look for: 
- lots of color/font options
- widgets
- sidebars
- good shortcode selection
- highly customizable page layouts
- place to put your logo that doesn't scream "hey I just slapped my logo on a pre-made template!"


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## Brian Ralston (Apr 13, 2012)

Wimpy player, that use to be all flash, now has an HTML5 player called *Pickle Player* that would work well on all iOS devices.

http://www.wimpyplayer.com

but using soundcloud's ability to embed would have other social network integration and comment features that might be of value today...


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## Daniel (Apr 13, 2012)

Some people want to hear our music through their mobilephone/gadgets, I am using Soundcloud and it has a mobile version purpose when upload the song.
Light streaming is the most important to many people. 

Best,


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 13, 2012)

John,

 I would do one of the following:

1. Get a Wordpress theme that has audio features built in. 

2. Just use Soundcloud.


I chose Soundcloud because it also works outside of the website and it also becomes a place to upload tests, demos etc if you are trying out new software etc.

So what I do is create sets that will be embedded on my website which will be static. So if people visit my website, they will see these sets.

And on Soundcloud page, I can have other stuff that has test/demos/tech stuff.

Soundcloud is great because it can be shared instantly anywhere and also people can post comments, share it, favourite it.

I think its the best player for us right now although the conversion quality is not always the best. However, they have improved that recently.

There is also another massive advantage with Soundcloud - streaming load time. There is nothing faster than soundcloud.

I dont know how they figured this out but even on really slow connections, it streams really really fast.

So thats a huge plus if you want people to access your music quickly. 


Best,

Tanuj.


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## JoKern (Apr 14, 2012)

vibrato @ Fri Apr 13 said:


> John,
> 
> 2. Just use Soundcloud.


Yes, I would recommend this one as well.
It simply works and that's the most important thing.


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## Simplesly (Apr 14, 2012)

I think soundcloud has a great interface, but the sound quality thing has always really bothered me. I have never been able to figure out why some tracks sound decent, and others, particularly ones with isolated strings or acoustic guitars, sound so horrible.


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## synthetic (Apr 14, 2012)

Soundcloud is the easiest. But it has some trouble with HMTL5 and browser compatibility:

http://www.analogindustries.com/blog/entry.php?blogid=1272836053974 (http://www.analogindustries.com/blog/en ... 2836053974)

I'm using an HTML5/Javascript player called Soundmanager for my site. It works well. The problem with HTML5 players is that it's easy for someone to download the source file. If you don't want that then you need to do an additional Javascript database to hide the source. 

http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/
http://www.jefflaity.com

I'm not much of a programmer but I think I did a pretty good job. (At least on Safari, don't look at it in IE!)


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## Tanuj Tiku (Apr 15, 2012)

John,

If you install the Soundcloud plugin in wordpress, it works just fine!

I just updated my entire website. Done fully in wordpress starting with a template. 

If you go in the music section, you will see the Soundcloud players. 

www.tanujtiku.com


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## lux (Apr 16, 2012)

Soundcloud is definitely handy and nice looking.


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## Gusfmm (Apr 16, 2012)

Since the latest Soundcloud version came out, I've been wondering where the volume control went. Is it only me? Its sound quality also bothers me quite a bit.


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## JohnG (Apr 16, 2012)

Interesting about Soundcloud. About a year and a half ago, I had one very ugly experience with Soundcloud in which at least some users heard distortion and very poor sound.

Is this something that is no longer the case or does one still get that from time to time? I understand the convenience of Soundcloud but one is naturally leery of any player that could perform inconsistently. Maybe it's something "under the hood" -- some kind of conversion that works poorly with one type of sound file but is fine with another?


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## Gusfmm (Apr 16, 2012)

That's what I hear most of the time, some high frerquency distortion. The CineSamples "Piano in Blue" demos were all plagued with it, for instance. It was annoying. I find it often, not sure if in 100% of the stuff people post there, but often enough that I'd not currently use Soundcloud. I'm most certain it's got to be related to their compression algorhythms.


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## rayinstirling (Apr 16, 2012)

John,

I use soundcloud for everything now including html5 widgets on my webpage (okay it doesn't work on firefox but on everything else I've tried).
The sound quality is what it is. It's never stopped me enjoying listening to a good piece of music. I upload 16bit or 24bit wav so regardless of the compression used during streaming if I wish to allow someone or anyone access to the original, that is exactly what they will get if I allow a download.

I've said it before and I say again, do we really want top quality streamed audio going anywhere in the world without our control or should it only go to the people we choose?

Ray


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