<bgsound>: The Background Sound element (obsolete)

The Internet Explorer only HTML Background Sound element (<bgsound>) sets up a sound file to play in the background while the page is used; use <audio> instead.

Attributes

balance

This attribute defines a number between -10,000 and +10,000 that determines how the volume will be divided between the speakers.

loop

This attribute indicates the number of times a sound is to be played and either has a numeric value or the keyword infinite.

src

This attribute specifies the URL of the sound file to be played, which must be one of the following types: .wav, .au, or .mid.

volume

This attribute defines a number between -10,000 and 0 that determines the loudness of a page's background sound.

Example

<bgsound src="sound1.mid">

<bgsound src="sound2.au" loop="infinite">

Usage notes

Historically, the <embed> element could be used with audio player plug-ins to play audio in the background in most browsers. However, even this is no longer appropriate, and you should use <audio> instead, since it's more capable, more compatible, and doesn't require plug-ins.

You can write <bgsound> as a self-closing tag (<bgsound />); however, since this element is non-standard, doing so will still not validate.

Browser compatibility

See also

• The <audio>, which is the standard element to embed audio in a document.