Amazingly, I have never had to deal with podcast or audio files before in a WordPress blog or site. But a recent client needed a way to easily and attractively add mp3 files to her posts.

At first I tried the Podcasting plugin, but I didn’t have much luck. Then I tried the Audio Player WordPress plugin, which worked great – it’s easy to activate and configure, and isn’t complicated for the blog owner to use.

There are various ways to use it, but here’s the way that I like best:

1. Upload and activate the plugin.
2. Go to Options > Audio Player.
3. Under where it says “How do you want to use the audio player?” select the second option: Enclosure integration (for podcasters). This option detects if there is a link to an MP3 file in your post, and automatically adds a player for that file to the end of the post.

There are a few advantages to this format:

1. You don’t have to set up a special folder for the audio files. You don’t really have to for the other options either, but if you don’t you make the user’s life a bit more difficult.
2. The user doesn’t have to remember to use any types of brackets or code
3. The post can include a flash player and a download link, so that people have the choice to listen the file online or offline. The other options that the plugin offers take the link and create a flash player from them, which means there isn’t a link to download the podcast.

Here’s an example: I really like this song by Yael Naim, an Israeli singer, which was used in the new Macbook Air commercial. You can download the link by right-clicking on Yael’s name above, or enjoy the song here in my snazzy new audio player (I hope).

This post was originally published at Audio Player WordPress plugin automatically adds audio player to posts on WP Garage - WP Garage - wordpress tricks, hacks, and tips.