One frequent query by people who are new to publishing audio or video is, "What's a good Flash player to put on my website?" Adobe's Flash is a universally recognized standard for embedding media within web pages so the question makes a lot of sense.

Direct media links to mp3 or Quicktime files for example make sense for downloading but yield mixed results when trying to play them directly in the browser. The results depend on the browser type, browser version and software installed on the user's computer. Meanwhile Flash is supported by something like 98% of all web users.

If you're hosting your media on a site like Flickr or YouTube then you probably won't need your own player. But those intrepid souls who host their own media or just want to have more control over the experience will want to know about their options to put a Flash player on their blog or website.

JW FLV Media Player

The JW FLV Media Player has become the gold standard for white label media player. JW FLV supports mp3 audio and flv video files. It also will load media stored in RSS feeds which means it can work well for audio podcasters. Setup and usage is very simple with the online Setup Wizard.

JW FLV Player with Audio Playlist

JW Image Rotator

The JW Image Rotator is available from the same developer as the FLV Media Player. This tool allows you to embed image slideshows on your website. The player includes support for dynamic transitions between images and supports RSS feeds that include images. The RSS support allows you to load photos from your Flickr account or any other service that provides you an RSS feed for your images. As an added bonus you can utilize the same setup wizard as the FLV Media Player to configure the display.

JW Image Rotator with Transition

Flow Player

The Flow Player is an open source media player that supports flv video, mp3 audio and jpg or png images. The Flow Player can be configured to work with media playlists and can also be skinned to include a watermark.

Flow Player with Watermark

EasyListener by Yahoo

The EasyListener from Yahoo supports audio files only. This player is very easy to setup with the provided online embed code creator. The EasyListener crawls a webpage for MP3 links and loads them into the player. You can also activate this player by pointing it directly to an RSS feed that includes audio enclosures for podcasting. This player suppors display of your RSS Feed image as well as several different colors and form factors.

EasyListener with Configuration

Making A Choice 

I'm sure there are more choices out there. Please feel free to recommend what you're using in the comments of this post. My best advice about deciding on which player to use is to experiment with different players in a test environment to see which player comes closest to meeting your needs.

The social media publishing platform known as Utterz announced a very nice feature this week that allows anyone to voice their support for a U.S. Presidential candidate and share it with the world.

The Vote 08 initiative allows site visitors (no registration required) to record a message of support for their favorite candidate by making a phone call or by recording right in the browser. Once the recording is completed the user gets a very nice looking flash badge that can be placed on other sites and social networks. People can click on the badge to hear the person's recording of support for their candidate.

I tried it out and the system works as advertised. The Utterz initiative is a great tool in assisting with the democratization of media because it lowers the bar to allow just about anyone to have their opinion heard. This follows along with the simplicity of the entire Utterz service. By simply adding a branding layer and opening up the interface to all site visitors Utterz has made a very powerful platform more powerful and more relevant.

I could easily see them rolling out things like this for many types of events that people are passionate about, including sports. Can you say March Madness?

The posting of this file is long overdue. I lead a discussion about podcast statistics at the PodCamp Philly event on September 8, 2007. I've put the audio I recorded from the session up on the Internet Archive. If you have any interest in new media statistics then I believe it is worthy of a listen. Be warned that the sound quality is just okay.

Podcamp Philly Statistics Discussion - Direct Download

Note: In the audio I identify myself as a member of the team at RawVoice. That is no longer the case.