Audio

Audio files can be uploaded to the media library using the Audio File media type. They can be embedded on a page layout or within a page body, displaying an audio player that your visitors can use to play the clip.

For long-form audio (e.g. podcasts), it's best to use a dedicated 3rd party audio hosting service. It may then be possible to embed the audio player from that 3rd party on your website (contact WDS to see if the service you're using is supported). The reason this is preferred is that 3rd party services have more specialized infrastructure for serving large audio files. The Audio File media type is intended for short-form audio content.

If you are using Media Central to host your audio file, you should be aware that Media Central does not have a dedicated audio player, and embedded clips use the video player. You can use the instructions to Embed Video from Media Central.

Uploading an Audio File

  1. From the admin toolbar, Content » Media Library
  2. Click +Add media
  3. Click Audio file
  4. Enter Name of the audio clp for your reference and easy searching in your Media Library.
  5. Click Choose File to upload your audio file
  6. Upload a transcript text file if appropriate. A link to this file will appear below the audio player and is an important component for accessibility of the audio content.

Embedding an Audio Player

Once uploaded, audio can be embedded on a page in two ways.

Method A) Embedding into page body

For content types that have a body field (e.g. Page, News, Event, etc), as well as Text blocks, you can use the editor toolbar to embed an audio player for a previously uploaded audio file.

Use the audio icon in the toolbar to open the embed dialog:

Editor toolbar with the audio icon circled

The audio embed dialog will open:

Audio embed dialog

Begin typing the name of the audio file, then select it from the drop-down.

Proceed to the next step and confirm the embed.

Method B) Embedding as a block

Just like with images and video, you can use a block to embed an audio player for an uploaded audio file directly into a page layout. Read through the documentation on page layouts and the Audio block for more details.