Independent. Listener-built. Always captioned.
Wavelength is a small music & entertainment site for weekly mixes, studio sessions, and listener-submitted media. It's run as a hobby project by a handful of contributors who care about two things equally: how a track sounds, and whether everyone can actually access it.
This page explains the media formats we use, why we use them, and the accessibility practices applied across every page.
What we use, and why
Every media file on Wavelength follows a deliberate format choice, balancing quality, file size, and browser support.
| Media | Format | Why this format |
|---|---|---|
| Cover art & illustrations | SVG |
Vector artwork stays crisp at any screen size with a tiny file size, and colours can be themed with CSS — ideal for icon-like cover art. |
| Photographic uploads | WebP (JPEG fallback) |
WebP gives smaller files than JPEG at the same visual quality, which matters on mobile data; JPEG is offered as a fallback for older browsers. |
| Logo & UI icons | SVG |
Scales cleanly for the logo mark and navigation icons without extra image requests. |
| Weekly mix & music clips | MP3 |
Universally supported in every major browser without extra plugins, and compresses well for spoken-word plus music. |
| Session recordings (high fidelity) | WAV |
Used for short, uncompressed listener submissions where source quality matters more than file size. |
| Studio & interview video | MP4 (H.264) |
The most broadly compatible video codec/container pairing across desktop, tablet, and phone browsers. |
| Captions | WebVTT (.vtt) |
The native captioning format for browser video players, readable as plain text and widely supported. |
How Wavelength stays usable for everyone
These practices are applied consistently across every page of the site, not just the media-heavy ones.
Meaningful alt text
Every image describes what it shows, not the filename, so screen reader users get the same information sighted visitors do.
Captions & transcripts
Video includes closed captions via <track>; audio segments link to a text transcript where speech is involved.
No surprise sound
Nothing on Wavelength autoplays with sound. Every player waits for a visitor to press play.
Keyboard accessible
Every link, button, and form field can be reached and operated with Tab and Enter, with a visible gold focus outline.
Labelled forms
Every input on the Upload and Contact pages has an explicit, associated <label>, including the file picker.
Readable contrast
Body text runs at a minimum of 4.5:1 contrast against its background across the dark colour palette.
Built for listeners, not algorithms.
Wavelength is aimed at music fans who want a hand-curated alternative to algorithmic feeds: people who read liner notes, save mixes for long drives, and like knowing who put a session together.
Contributors submit their own mixes, clips, and photos through the Upload Media page; everything is reviewed and organised into the Media Gallery before it goes live.