Howler.js Web Audio Library

Howler.js is a lightweight JavaScript audio library that simplifies working with audio in web applications by providing a single, consistent API across all browsers and platforms. At just 7 kilobytes gzipped with zero runtime dependencies, it defaults to the Web Audio API for low-latency playback and effects processing while automatically falling back to HTML5 Audio for maximum compatibility across older browsers, mobile devices, IE9, Apache Cordova, and Electron applications. The library supports all browser-ready audio codecs including MP3, MPEG, OPUS, OGG, OGA, WAV, AAC, CAF, M4A, MP4, WEBA, WEBM, Dolby, and FLAC, automatically selecting the best format supported by the current browser. Audio sprites allow developers to define precise playback segments within a single audio file, reducing HTTP requests and improving load times for games and interactive applications that need many short sound effects. The spatial audio system provides both simple stereo panning and advanced positional 3D audio with configurable source position, listener orientation, distance models, and cone angles for immersive game audio experiences. Every loaded sound is automatically cached and reused on subsequent calls, improving performance and reducing bandwidth consumption. Full programmatic control is exposed for play, pause, stop, mute, volume, seek, playback rate, fade transitions with easing, and loop modes. The modular architecture allows developers to include only the features they need and easily extend the library with custom functionality. Howler.js maintains a single global Howler object for master volume control and mute across all sounds, plus individual Howl instances for each audio source. With over 25 thousand GitHub stars, the library has been used in production by thousands of web games, interactive experiences, music applications, and media platforms since its initial release in 2013.