How to preload a sound in Javascript?

Manuel Ignacio López Quintero picture Manuel Ignacio López Quintero · Mar 15, 2011 · Viewed 55.3k times · Source

I can preload images easily thanks to the onload function. But it doesn't work with audio. Browsers like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc. don't support the onload functions in the audio tag.

How do I preload a sound in Javascript without using JS libraries and without using or creating HTML tags?

Answer

McKayla picture McKayla · Mar 21, 2011

Your problem is that Audio objects don't support the 'load' event.

Instead, there's an event called 'canplaythrough' that doesn't mean it's fully loaded, but enough of it is loaded that at the current download rate, it will finish by the time the track has had enough time to play through.

So instead of

audio.onload = isAppLoaded;

try

audio.oncanplaythrough = isAppLoaded;

Or better yet.. ;)

audio.addEventListener('canplaythrough', isAppLoaded, false);