If you’re looking for an easy way to use a Flash-based audio player for your blog post or web page, then the Yahoo! Media Player could be the tool for you.

To put the player into action, simply create direct links to one or more .mp3 files, as I’m doing here with three archived episodes of my New Comm Road podcast:

NCR 039: Multimedia conference blogging

NCR 037: Learning about Google Reader

NCR 035: Learning about del.icio.us

Then, paste this line of code onto your page:

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://mediaplayer.yahoo.com/js”></script>

And that’s it — there’s nothing to download or install.

If this is working correctly, you should see a “play” icon to the left of each of the audio files and the player itself at the bottom or just below this post. Click on one of them to see this player in action.

Bonus: When you link to multiple files on a page or post, a play list will be created automatically within the player.

The down side? There’s no option to rewind or fast-forward a track; you can only jump from track to track.

You’re also subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service, though those don’t seem too onerous.

Final note: I have only tested this player on a basic HTML page and in WordPress and Typepad. I have not tried it with any other blog platforms.

Hat tip: HorsePigCow

Update: If you do come to the main page of this blog — Bryper.com — and are scrolling past this post to previous entries, the player still appears in the bottom of your browser.  I suspect this will annoy the heck out of the average reader, so consider that consequence if you decide to test this player on your blog. A better choice would be to restrict its use to short, stand-alone web pages.

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