4.8.7 The audio element

Categories:
Flow content.
Phrasing content.
Embedded content.
If the element has a controls attribute: Interactive content.
If the element has a controls attribute: Palpable content.
Contexts in which this element can be used:
Where embedded content is expected.
Content model:
If the element has a src attribute: zero or more track elements, then transparent, but with no media element descendants.
If the element does not have a src attribute: zero or more source elements, then zero or more track elements, then transparent, but with no media element descendants.
Content attributes:
Global attributes
src
crossorigin
preload
autoplay
mediagroup
loop
muted
controls
DOM interface:
[NamedConstructor=Audio(),
 NamedConstructor=Audio(DOMString src)]
interface HTMLAudioElement : HTMLMediaElement {};

An audio element represents a sound or audio stream.

Content may be provided inside the audio element. User agents should not show this content to the user; it is intended for older Web browsers which do not support audio, so that legacy audio plugins can be tried, or to show text to the users of these older browsers informing them of how to access the audio contents.

In particular, this content is not intended to address accessibility concerns. To make audio content accessible to the deaf or to those with other physical or cognitive disabilities, a variety of features are available. If captions or a sign language video are available, the video element can be used instead of the audio element to play the audio, allowing users to enable the visual alternatives. Chapter titles can be provided to aid navigation, using the track element and a WebVTT file. And, naturally, transcripts or other textual alternatives can be provided by simply linking to them in the prose near the audio element. [WEBVTT]

The audio element is a media element whose media data is ostensibly audio data.

The src, preload, autoplay, mediagroup, loop, muted, and controls attributes are the attributes common to all media elements.

When an audio element is potentially playing, it must have its audio data played synchronized with the current playback position, at the element's effective media volume.

When an audio element is not potentially playing, audio must not play for the element.

audio = new Audio( [ url ] )

Returns a new audio element, with the src attribute set to the value passed in the argument, if applicable.

Two constructors are provided for creating HTMLAudioElement objects (in addition to the factory methods from DOM Core such as createElement()): Audio() and Audio(src). When invoked as constructors, these must return a new HTMLAudioElement object (a new audio element). The element must have its preload attribute set to the literal value "auto". If the src argument is present, the object created must have its src content attribute set to the provided value, and the user agent must invoke the object's resource selection algorithm before returning. The element's document must be the active document of the browsing context of the Window object on which the interface object of the invoked constructor is found.