In setting up audio demos in a RW site, with a Stacks Audio Player, I have the option for MP3s, Oggs or even WAV files. I had expected only an MP3 option. Should I make all three formats available in Resources? Is it so certain players can use? TIA.
You can see mp3 for example is supported on all browsers.
At one point I believe some browsers on Windows needed Ogg. For a few years I’ve only used MP3s. My students who use the webpages have had zero problems: and they use Mac and Win and a variety of browsers.
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mp3 
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It was all to do with licensing, rather than compatibility.
The decoder required to playback MP3 and MP4 files is owned by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). I believe there were some tensions regarding incorporation of this ‘closed’ codebase into open source browsers (like Firefox) and ethical issues of donation-based software having to pay very high fees into a private company to license the decoder.
So for many years, MP3 and MP4 support was absent in a couple of big-name web browsers. Hence these additional formats had to be offered as a way of a fall-back or safety net.
The legal issues have since been resolved. Most newer web browsers can now playback MP3 / MP4 files without any problems.
It’s a personal choice if you want to supplement your MP3 / MP4 files with other formats. I tend to add WebM or OGG variants as a best practice still, but plenty of other people don’t.
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