We have compiled this list of embedded flash players aimed primarily at web masters who wish to present MP3 audio files on their websites in an attractive and user-friendly way.

Feel free to copy the source HTML code for your own use but please:-

• be aware that some of the players require a license fee for commercial use;
• don’t link directly to the players on this site; copy them to your own site (license permitting).

JW FLV Media Player

The JW FLV Media Player is a flash player which requires a license for commercial use. Various parameters can be controlled via flashvars.

Dewplayer Mini

The Dewplayer Mini is a free flash player. It has a very simple and elegant design, but nothing can be customised – it’s always this size and green!

Odeo MP3 Player

Odeo has a pretty nice player but it requires you to type the exact duration of the song in the embed code. You can skip this step but then the progress bar won’t reflect the true status when you play the song. There’s also no volume controls.

Great new screencast here for Crunch, run by Darren Fell. The cast was produced by the Brighton based professional screencast producers, Procasts, and we did the professional voiceover!

Screencasts are  very powerful way of demonstrating software to your potential clients.

Yes, our very own Andy White sat down with Jason Leonard OBE, record-capped rugby union prop, and talked to him about his life and his involvement in Ballz.com.

Find more podcasts the podcast gallery.

Forget horrid, old-fashioned tape players with uncomfortable headphones – now you can use your iPod to guide you around the 2007 Turner Prize at Tate Liverpool.

Tate Liverpool are offering free audio guide downloads from their Turner Prize mini site. Visitors can now walk around the exhibition at their own pace and listen to prize judges talk about the careers of the four featured artists.

The MP4 format means that video iPods can also display visuals of the artists’ work.

Jemima Pyne, communications manager at Tate Liverpool, said: “It is important that Tate offers its visitors as much information as possible about the exhibition and the four nominated artists, to help people get more out of their visit.

“The fact that the guide is also downloadable from the Tate website allows visitors to see the guide before they visit.”
Significance to Internet marketers

A great example of the use of what I call a supplementary podcast. I think I’m the first to use this term These are podcasts designed to be listened to/watched while doing a specific activity, thus enhancing the user’s experience of that activity.

Tate Liverpool have made the podcasts available both on their website AND in iTunes – good move.

The new Zune media player from Microsoft launches today. Early reports talk of full support for podcasting. What does this mean?

The new features relevant to podcasters and podcasting appear to be:-

• The Zune Marketplace, the software that comes with the Zune, now includes a podcast directory;
• A 1 click method of subscribing to podcasts from within web pages;
• The device can sync with the base PC over the home wireless network – users will always leave home with the latest content. BUT – the Zune has to be plugged into a power source AND the process has to be started manually – kind of defeats the purpose.

My thoughts on all this:-

• iTunes has had the magic URL 1 click subscription method for a long time – i.e. itpc://podcast/rss/feed/path
• There needs to be a divorce between the media player and the PC – this has started with the Zune but is not yet complete. The holy grail is surely a media player which you can have in your pocket, which downloads new podcast episodes (that you previously subscribed to), over the phone network/wimax/wireless, without the need for a PC.

Significance to content producers

Ensure you put a Zune 1 Click subscribe link/button on your podcast web page – Paul Colligan has a nice tool to generate the URL and also some links to button you can use.

Add the Zune Marketplace to your list of podcast directories that you submit your podcasts to. There’s a download link for the Zune Marketplace below, you don’t need a Zune for it to work. There are about 1.2 million Zune owners right now – they’re hungry for podcasts – is yours in the Zune Marketplace?

Significance to content consumers

With a Zune, you’ll no longer be tethered to your PC – well, not in the wired sense anyway.

With the Zune Marketplace podcast directory you now potentially have new podcasts to subscribe to and an alternative to iTunes.

Related links

• www.zunepodcastsubscription.com/ – Paul Colligan’s tool for generating a Zune subscribe button edit delete
• www.zune.net/en-us/products/zunesoftware/download.htm- Download the Zune Marketplace software