This article explains the basics of adding sound to a Web site, discusses the pros and cons of various formats, and takes a look ahead at some really world-shaking things to come. There's a revolution under way in the audio world. Personal computers are now powerful enough to be viable professional audio workstations. Musicians and recording enthusiasts are like kids in an ear-candy store, as audio recording gets better, easier and cheaper at an amazing tempo. Meanwhile, there's another little revolution going on, called the Worldwide Web.
Web pages are by no means limited to text and graphics.
Web audio is booming in certain areas such as Internet radio stations and online music distribution, but few mainstream Web sites include sound. The main reason is simply bandwidth. Digital audio files are large. Even with a fast modem, forget it. It takes far longer to download an audio clip than it does to play the darn thing back.