index.md

---

title: '<bgsound>: The Background Sound element'
slug: Web/HTML/Element/bgsound
page-type: html-element
status:
  - deprecated
browser-compat: html.elements.bgsound

---

{{HTMLSidebar}}{{Deprecated_Header}}

The <bgsound> HTML element is deprecated. It sets up a sound file to play in the background while the page is used; use {{HTMLElement("audio")}} instead.

Warning: Do not use this! In order to embed audio in a Web page, you should be using the {{HTMLElement("audio")}} element.

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

Usage notes

Historically, the {{HTMLElement("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.

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• The {{htmlelement("audio")}}, which is the standard element to embed audio in a document.