Description

The HTML element <source> is used to define multiple alternative media resources for the media elements like <audio>, <video>, and <picture>.

The media resource can be audio, video, or an image file.

The media elements will choose the first matching resource when multiple resources are defined.

The below table summarizes its usage.

Usage Details
Placement It is a child of any of the media elements like <audio>, <video>, or <picture>.
Contents None. It is an empty element.
Tags Opening tag: required; Closing tag: forbidden
Versions HTML 5

Syntax

Here is the basic syntax of the <source> element.

<source src="URL">

Examples

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Example - HTML Element source</title>
</head>
<body>
    <audio controls>
        <source src="/assets/audios/music.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
        <source src="/assets/audios/music.wav" type="audio/wav">
        <source src="/assets/audios/music.ogg" type="audio/ogg">
        Oops!! Your browser does not support audio element.
    </audio>
</body>
</html>

Attributes

The following table shows the list of supported and unsupported attributes for the <source> element.

Attribute Type Details
Element-Specific Attributes The tag <source> has some element-specific attributes listed in the below table.
Global Attributes Like all other HTML tags, the tag <source> supports the HTML Global Attributes.
Event Attributes The tag <source> also supports the HTML Event Attributes.

Here is a list of attributes that are specific to the <source> element.

Attribute Value Required Description
src URL Yes Specifies the URL of the media file.
media media-query No Specifies the type of the media resource i.e. what media or device the file is intended for. See CSS media types for more details.
type media-type No Specifies the media type of the media resource.

Browser Compatibility

The tag <source> is supported in all modern browsers.

  • Google Chrome 4+
  • Internet Explorer or Edge 9+
  • Firefox 3.5+
  • Apple Safari 4+
  • Opera 10.5+

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