Listen to blog posts: I added audio

I added an optional audio version for blog posts. If a post has one, you’ll see a “Listen to this post” player at the top and can hear the post read aloud instead of (or while) reading.

What I built

The feature went in on March 10, 2026. Here’s the gist:

• Per-post audio – Any post can have an audioUrl in its frontmatter. When present, the layout shows a simple audio player (“Listen to this post”) so readers can play a voice recording of the post.
• Same content, two formats – The audio is a reading of the post; the full text stays on the page, so it’s still accessible and indexable as before.
• Upload flow – I set up a private upload page at /blog/upload-audio that sends files to Vercel Blob (no 4.5 MB request limit). Uploads are protected by a secret (BLOG_AUDIO_UPLOAD_SECRET). After uploading, I copy the blob URL and add it to the post’s frontmatter as audioUrl.
• Layout support – The BlogAudioPlayer is wired into all my blog layouts (PostLayout, PostSimple, PostBanner), so audio appears consistently whether the post uses a simple layout or a banner.

So: I record a reading of a post, upload it, drop the URL into frontmatter, and that post gets a “Listen to this post” block. No change to how I write the post otherwise.

Why audio

Some people prefer listening, or want to multitask. Having an optional audio version doesn’t replace the text; it just gives another way to consume it. I kept the implementation minimal: one player component, one upload page, and a single frontmatter field.

If you’re reading this on the site and see the player at the top, you can try it. If not, I might add an audio version for this post later. Either way, that’s the “audio thingy” I added—built March 10, blogged today.