Changing <source> with HTML5 Audio works in Chrome but not Safari

Question

I'm trying to make an HTML5 audio playlist that will work in each major browser: Chrome,Safari, Firefox, IE9+. However, I can't figure out how to change the sources in a cross browser compatible way.

UPDATED For example, changing the <source> tag's srcs works in Chrome but not Safari. While @eivers88's solution below using canPlayType works it seems easier to me just to change the <source> tag's srcs. Can anyone explain to me why my code directly below works in Chrome but not Safari?

JS:

var audioPlayer=document.getElementById('audioPlayer');
var mp4Source=$('source#mp4');
var oggSource=$('source#ogg');
$('button').click(function(){    
  audioPlayer.pause();
  mp4Source.attr('src', 'newFile.mp4');
  oggSource.attr('src', 'newFile.ogg');
  audioPlayer.load();
  audioPlayer.play();
});

HTML:

<button type="button">Next song</button>
<audio id="audioPlayer">
  <source id="mp4" src="firstFile.mp4" type="audio/mp4"/> 
  <source id="ogg" src="firstFile.ogg" type="audio/ogg" />                      
</audio>

Inspecting the HTML after the button click, the <source src=""/> does change in Safari, its just that the HTTP request is not made, so they the files don't get load()ed and play()ed. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Answer 1

Here is a working exapmle. It's a little bit different from what you have but hopefully this can be helpful.

HTML:

<button type="button">Next song</button>

Javascript/jquery:

    var songs = [
    '1976', 'Ballad of Gloria Featherbottom', 'Black Powder' 
]
var track = 0;
var audioType = '.mp3'
var audioPlayer = document.createElement('audio');

$(window).load(function() {

    if(!!audioPlayer.canPlayType('audio/ogg') === true){
        audioType = '.ogg' //For firefox and others who do not support .mp3
    }

    audioPlayer.setAttribute('src', 'music/' + songs[track] + audioType);
    audioPlayer.setAttribute('controls', 'controls');
    audioPlayer.setAttribute('id', 'audioPlayer');
    $('body').append(audioPlayer);
    audioPlayer.load();
    audioPlayer.play();

});

$('button').on('click', function(){
    audioPlayer.pause();
    if(track < songs.length - 1){
        track++;
        audioPlayer.setAttribute('src', 'music/' + songs[track] + audioType);
        audioPlayer.load();
        audioPlayer.play();
    }
    else {
        track = 0;
        audioPlayer.setAttribute('src', 'music/' + songs[track] + audioType);
        audioPlayer.load();
        audioPlayer.play();
    }
})

Answer 2

For some reason, Safari can't use the <source> tags for swapping between songs but Chrome can. Just changing what gets loaded into the src attribute on the <audio> tag works on both Chrome and Safari but then there is the ogg vs. mp3 issue.

I guess one way to get around this ogg vs. mp3 issue is to use Modernizr does feature detection to load the ogg mime-type in Firefox and the mp3 in Chrome/Safari. Here's a reference on that: Detecting html5 audio support with Modernizr.