HTML5 - Learn HTML5 and JavaScript for Android - page 45

Figure 3-4. <audio /> element in Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich

The <audio /> tag also supports several additional media-based attributes.
Table 3-1 shows these attributes and their descriptions.

Table 3-1. HTML5 Audio Attributes

Attribute Value Description

src — Used to specify a single audio file instead of using

the <source /> tags.

preload none | metadata |

auto

Used to specify whether to preload the audio file.
It's advisable to set this to either none or
metadata. This will prevent the browser from
downloading the entire audio file without the user's
knowledge.

autoplay autoplay Used to tell the browser to automatically play the

audio file. If you do not want the audio to play
automatically, do not add this element.

loop loop

Used to specify whether the audio should
continuously loop. This attribute will not accept a
number. If you would like your audio to loop for a
specific number of times, you can do this using the
JavaScript audio API.

muted muted

This will mute the audio. Note that this does not
appear to be supported in Android Browser.

controls controls

Used to tell the browser whether to render the
default controls. If you produce your own UI for
your audio player, this can be handy.