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You can upload audio files on Mastodon. The upload works just like attaching images or videos, but you select a sound file instead. You can also attach artwork by clicking Edit and then Choose Image.
There is no time limit on audio, but it has to be within the file size limit on your server (usually 40MB).
Supported formats are MP3, OGG, WAV, FLAC, OPUS (rename it to end in .ogg), AAC, M4A or 3GP.
(Music is "Modern Technology" by Mokka Music, used under CC-By licence)
Andrea
@feditips and you can add alt text just like you do for photos.
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Hmm... not sure, but sometimes files don't play properly when post is federated. It may start playing later though, I tried reporting this on Mastodon github and the examples were working by the time people responded to them.
netmikey
@feditips Oh, and here's the reason btw
netmikey
@feditips Hmm, am I the only one where media on mastodon doesn't work most of the time? Clicking play, nothing happens, playhead dosen't move.
Leisureguy
@feditips I would add that for the hearing-impaired, the alt-text should describe the audio content. For example, "a slow, bluesy boogie, solo piano with no vocal, single notes more than chords."
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Indeed! And it means videos need two descriptions: visuals for sight-impaired and audio for hearing-impaired.
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No?
Expert Plus 🍀
@feditips your post IS longer then 500 characters......
Lulu
@feditips test
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Works fine!
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What does it say?
Stefan Scholl
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!ouy knaht ,aahA
Stefan Scholl
@feditips "segassem oidua gnol evol elpoep"
FinchHaven sfba
Ditto for me, also on sfba dot social, Firefox browser tab
Whoa
Wait: check that
It *does* begin to play in a newly-opened tab when I click "download"
At the end it doesn't ask me to 'save' anything
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Yeah, it sometimes doesn't federate correctly, but then starts to work later on.
I've tried to raise this on the Mastodon github but the examples I gave worked by the time they were responded to.
Karl Auerbach
@feditips For me the playback does not work - it's just an image with a non-functioning start-play (triangular) icon and a couple of never changing time numbers.
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Yeah, the website interface does this too, it will automatically play separately while you browse other posts (but you can switch it off if you prefer).
Dodo & the Brawn
@feditips my app will continue playing it even when I browse away. So that's nice. (It's an option.)
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Yeah, Mastodon isn't primarily designed for this.
Long media is better suited to media-based Fediverse platforms like @peertube and @funkwhale which both have podcast features.
People on Mastodon can follow accounts on PeerTube and channels on Funkwhale, they'll see the media appear in their Mastodon feed.
controlfreak
@oliverg @feditips you could do but
micro blogging, esp masto is a bad place for big media, you are forcing any server with anyone following you to get, store and serve the media. This is already a huge burden and cost esp in the mastodon backend and esp for small and medium servers and volunteers
Between ephemera, federation issues of interoperability, versioning, glitches and admin wars is not ideal for availabilty and visibilty
Best put it somewhere actually made for storage and/or media
Oliver Gassner :mastodon:
@feditips could this be used to create a Podcast feed?
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That's not the case. I can play the audio from mstdn.social over on chinwag.org (see screenshot).
Inamovible :unverified:
@feditips Because of cross-origin request, embed only works for the people on the poster's instance. Everywhere else, it won't play. I wouldn't advise to use this feature in its current state: unless 100% of your audience is on the same server as you, it will generate frustration for everyone else…
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Good points. Possibly this problem?
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/14391
Looks like instances have to have a specific setup for audio to play successfully on the web interface?
Inamovible :unverified:
@feditips Happy to know that.
I don't know what the problem is then, because like others mentioned, it doesn't play at all in embed mode (issuing a cors error in console, thus my previous misguided message).
What's more strange is that the file seems correctly federated (I can get the file from my instance using the download button).
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Hmm... hey @IceCubesApp do you support audio playback currently, or is it on roadmap?
BrisWombat
@feditips …current version of #IceCubes app shows the touchable alt text icon, but not the audio attached. Or is this just the same localised to my instance you have mentioned?
Sparkymike
@feditips Could it cause the uploader problems if copyrighted material is uploaded?
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Yes, but the same is true of any server on any internet serivice.
I am not a lawyer, but in most countries I think the responsibility for that is with the person who owns/maintains the server.
If you upload material that breaks your server's rules, the admin may delete the post and/or suspend or remove your account.
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What happens when you try to upload m4a?
not my K-husband, my K-cat
@feditips sorry to bother... i've been uploading audio files a long time here but a few months ago m4a stopped working. now i have to convert to mp3 to upload anything. i was wondering if you might know anything about it. (server admin couldn't figure it out either)
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Is this for any kind of m4a or just a particular file?
I can't find anything about this on Mastodon github, are you comfortable starting a new issue there?
not my K-husband, my K-cat
@feditips it just says upload failed. it doesn't work on either megalodon app or browser
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I'm wondering if there's something specific about your phone's recording format that Mastodon doesn't like, or if it's a wider problem.
not my K-husband, my K-cat
@feditips it's for any audio file i record on my phone. i haven't tried with any other kind of m4a, but my instance admin has, and it seems to work for them iirc.
oh i didn't know this was a thing! i will go look up how to do that. many thanks. i appreciate your talking this over with me.
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Hmm... I wonder if it was to do with an update, either on the phone or on Mastodon?
not my K-husband, my K-cat
@feditips it's possible. what was strange is that it was working for half the year, then it stopped working
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@billgraefe @briankrebs @ivory
Darn... hopefully they get to this at some point!
Bill Graefe
@feditips @briankrebs Huh. Ivory: @ivory can’t process this audio. I imagine it’s on their to do list
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