1. Use the WordPress audio shortcode
WordPress has a built-in audio embed feature, since version 3.6, which not many people know about. It’s the quickest and easiest way to embed an MP3 file into your page or post without using any plugins.
You can also paste the audio file URL directly into the page/post editor and it will display a smart audio player for your visitors.
2. Use a plugin
Check out plugins like Blubbry which is a great tool for publishing audio onto your website as well as to iTunes if you want to publish the audio onto a podcast too. Also keep an eye out on our recommended WordPress plugins page.
The player has extra features than the default WordPress player, such as allowing your visitors to download the MP3 to their computer.
With the above two options, you will need to host your own audio file by adding it to your media library or onto something like Amazon S3.
3. Host on Soundcloud
By hosting your audio file on SoundCloud and embedding their player onto your website, you get the added benefit of your audio being on a network where others can easily find it and subscribe to your channel, as well as share your audio on their social networks. You also don’t have to worry about configuring any plugins or hosting your own audio file.
- SoundCloud is the world’s leading social sound platform where anyone can create sounds and share them everywhere.
- Recording and uploading sounds to SoundCloud lets people easily share them privately with their friends or publicly to blogs, sites and social networks.
- It takes just a click to share sounds to Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Foursquare.
- SoundCloud can be accessed anywhere using the official iPhone and Android apps, as well as hundreds of creation and sharing apps built on the SoundCloud platform.
Selling Your MP3’s?
If, on the other hand, you want to sell your MP3’s on your website you can use a shopping cart system like WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads and set up your website as an e-commerce store, which gives you the added benefit of having an all-in-one system to handle the payments and delivery of the MP3 download to the customer.
This would be a great option if you sell MP3 training, hypnosis audio, motivational audio, or even your own music if you’re in a band.
