HTML5 audio playlist – how to play a second audio file after the first has ended?

Here’s a JSLinted, unobtrusive Javascript example demonstrating how to handle and use the ended mediaevent. In your particular situation, you would trigger playback of the second audio file in your ended event handler.

You can use the code below or run the test fiddle.

Click an item in the playlist to begin playback. After one audio ends, the next will begin.

markup: (note the deliberate avoidance of whitespace between <li> elements – this is to simplify traversing the DOM with nextSibling.)

<audio id="player"></audio>

<ul id="playlist"><li data-ogg="http://www.lunerouge.org/sons/sf/LRWeird%201%20by%20Lionel%20Allorge.ogg">Space 1</li><li data-ogg="http://www.lunerouge.org/sons/sf/LRWeird%202%20by%20Lionel%20Allorge.ogg">Space 2</li><li data-ogg="http://www.lunerouge.org/sons/sf/LRWeird%203%20by%20Lionel%20Allorge.ogg">Space Lab</li></ul>

<button id="stop">Stop</button>

script:

// globals
var _player = document.getElementById("player"),
    _playlist = document.getElementById("playlist"),
    _stop = document.getElementById("stop");

// functions
function playlistItemClick(clickedElement) {
    var selected = _playlist.querySelector(".selected");
    if (selected) {
        selected.classList.remove("selected");
    }
    clickedElement.classList.add("selected");

    _player.src = clickedElement.getAttribute("data-ogg");
    _player.play();
}

function playNext() {
    var selected = _playlist.querySelector("li.selected");
    if (selected && selected.nextSibling) {
        playlistItemClick(selected.nextSibling);
    }
}

// event listeners
_stop.addEventListener("click", function () {
    _player.pause();
});
_player.addEventListener("ended", playNext);
_playlist.addEventListener("click", function (e) {
    if (e.target && e.target.nodeName === "LI") {
        playlistItemClick(e.target);
    }
});​


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