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Top 9 WordPress audio player plugins to enhance your podcast or music

Top 9 WordPress audio player plugins to enhance your podcast or music

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When the subject on audio player plugins and tools to use come up, there are a few questions that come up. Some of the most common and usual ones regarding audio and WordPress are:

  • How do you play audio on WordPress?
  • What audio files does WordPress support?
  • How do I insert audio into WordPress?
  • Can I use an audio player plugin to publish sound files on WordPress?

Clearly, it’s an important topic that drives attention, that people want to know more about, which is why we’re covering it all in this article.

Whatever your connection with audio is, if you want to share it through your blog or a site, you’ll need reliable tools for it. Thinking about doing a podcast with WordPress, share the music you create, or simply offer audio content beside written one – if you’re on WordPress, there are plenty of ways to do it, both built-in and through plugins.

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How to add an audio file to WordPress?

As we said, WordPress comes with a built-in way to insert audio files. And if you use the new editor Gutenberg, simply look for an audio block and choose between Upload, Media Library, and Insert From option.

Once you decide in which way you want to insert the audio file, define settings in the right sidebar, and you’re done.

However… Although WordPress supports audio files such as .mp3, .m4a, .ogg, or .wav files, more often, you’ll need more than the built-in option to work with your files. Simply because the native option isn’t too advanced. Luckily, there are quite a few audio player plugins to pick from. And, to save you some time from searching all by yourself, these are our top choices.

9 WordPress audio player plugins that are free to use

AudioIgniter

AudioIgniter is a free, modern, and flexible audio, music, and podcast player for WordPress. It offers unlimited playlist and track creation which makes it ideal for playlists of long-running podcast shows.

The player can be embedded in any post, page, or widgetized area using a shortcode. It is responsive and works great on mobile devices. Each track supports a cover image, name, artist, and URLs for play, download, and buy. Player elements, size, and track info are also configurable. It supports popular media formats along with streaming services like ShoutCast, RadioJar, etc.

AudioIgniter Pro is also available with more advanced control and appearance options.

 

Audio Album

wordpress-audio-player-plugin-audio-album

Audio Album is a free plugin that provides shortcodes to format native WordPress audio players as an album of tracks with additional info. Initially, it was made as a tool for music playlists, but you can use it for tracks alone or sort them into albums.

There are two shortcodes to be used, depending on your needs:

[audioalbum]

[audiotrack]

Use it to create albums or tracks alone, multiple soundtracks on a single page, and more. All that for free.

Audio Dock

themify-audio-dock-plugin

Whether you want to play music on your site or share some interesting audio interview in the background, this free plugin might come in handy. Once you install it, head over to Settings to customize the Playlist and define features, such as autoplay or bar and track color styling, and you’re done! The audio files you’ve chosen will play while your users browse your site.

Compact WP Audio Player

compact-wp-audio-player

Another great simple WordPress audio player choice for your files. And, like the Audio Album, it works on shortcodes to help you embed your .mp3 and .ogg files that will play on all major browsers.

The plugin is light, so it doesn’t use too much space on your site, and once you install it, simply create a post or a page to show the player using shortcode.

mb.miniAudioPlayer

mb-miniaudioplayer-plugin

This free WordPress, audio player plugin, turns any of your .mp3 files into a small HTML5 audio player. With it, you’ll also have features like:

  • Volume and seeking control
  • Title bar
  • Rewind/mute/play button

So, once you install this plugin, the next time you insert a .mp3 file and place it into whatever post or page, it will show the player instead of the file. And if you want to change or customize the audio player skin, you can do it with this on-line miniAudioPlayer Skin Editor.

Meks Audio Player

wordpress-audio-player-plugin-meks-audio-player

Not (just) because it’s ours, but this free plugin should be among your top choices! Here’s why. It’s a fully custom-made audio player plugin that we created with podcasters in mind. It’s integrated into our brand new WordPress podcast theme, Megaphone, so we did our best to cover all the significant things such as

  • No setup required
  • Customizable player controls
  • Color style options
  • WP native audio block and shortcode support

Once you install it, you’ll find it under Settings where you can configure all that you need:

wordpress-audio-player-plugin-meks-audio-player-screenshot

And if you need any help with it, give us a shout, we’re happy to help!

MP3 Music Player by Sonaar

plugin-mp3-music-player-by-sonaar

MP3 Music Player is a freemium audio player plugin that enables you to add an unlimited number of albums, playlists, or audio tracks to your site. It works with shortcodes or – if you use Elementor, it comes as an Elementor widget.

The plugin supports .mp3 and .m4a files and comes with many features such as:

  • Unlimited color options
  • Buy Now or Download Now buttons
  • Cover album option
  • Social icons
  • Show/Hide tracklist and more.

Premium version comes with more customizable features like sticky footer player, volume control, statistic reports, shuffle tracks, and more. The price is $49 for one website and includes one year of support and updates.

PowerPress

wordpress-audio-player-plugin-powerpress

One of the best podcasting related plugins you could use (besides ours, of course) 😊 If you’re thinking about creating a podcast or you already have one and need to connect it with your site, try it out. It’s simple and easy to use, has many customizable features and SEO settings to help you stand out with your audio content. And, it comes with Apple and Google podcast support.

Seriously Simply Podcasting

audio-player-plugin-seriously-simple-podcasting

Whether you’re just starting podcasting or you want to transfer it to WordPress, this free plugin helps you manage and migrate your audio files with ease. Simple to use and work with, with it, you can run multiple separate podcasts – either yours or from an RSS feed.

Upon installation, simply head over to Podcast > Settings, and in this RSS feed area pastes the external feed URL you want to show, click on Begin Import Now, and you’re done.

wordpress-audio-player-plugin-seriously-simple-podcasting-screenshot

Furthermore, you can customize the look and feel of your podcasts and with the help of a free add-on, and also collect useful stats on your listeners. And if you need a hosting platform for your podcast, you can have it by opening a Castos account – there’s a 14-days free trial to test it out.

Bonus

We couldn’t finish this article without mentioning some more details about Megaphone, tailored podcasting WordPress theme, right? Bear with us. No matter if you’re a novice or already have your podcast, with this theme, your episodes are always close at hand and ready to play with the sticky player on the spot. Not to mention, it comes with full support for the most popular podcasting plugins, many of which we covered above. Thinking of upping your game and transforming podcast episodes into shows? Now you can, by simply assigning your episodes to categories that will display them separately by the given a choice. And, of course, there’s our post on how to start a podcast with WordPress, for all the newbies out there, if you need any help kickstarting it 😊

Conclusion

Hope this list helps you in narrowing your top choices. Some of these audio players are more for the music, while others are for podcast solutions. It’s on you to test them out and see the right fit for your business model. Moreover, now you know you’re not obligated to use third party platforms for your audio files, music, and podcasts because doing it with WordPress gives you both reliability and control over your content and how you display it. If you have any doubts or questions regarding this, feel free to let us know in the comment section below.

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Ivana Cirkovic

Ivana is a Digital Marketing, PR and Social Media consultant with over nine years experience in the field. She is also a WordPress enthusiast and an active member of WordPress community who lives online almost 24/7. In love with Twitter, WP, photography and NYC.

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