diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 084bb6a..75fd259 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ So hls.js runs wherever Media Source exists (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Android, des
 
 - **VOD** — scrub with buffered range, ±10s, speed, resume, chapters, `?t=` timestamps, quality.
 - **Live** — none of those, because each is a lie about a stream with no end: nothing to scrub towards, no position worth remembering, no speed but 1. A LIVE badge instead. HLS flips into this from the playlist, after the bar has already been drawn.
-- **Audio** — a compact bar in normal flow: no stage, no fullscreen, no picture-in-picture. Still a full transport.
+- **Audio** — a compact bar in normal flow: no stage, no fullscreen, no picture-in-picture. Still a full transport. Inferred from an `.mp3`-shaped URL or from an `<audio>` element passed as `media`; pass `audio: true` when the host knows better — a radio station is an `.m3u8` with no picture in it, and would otherwise get a black stage and a LIVE badge.
 
 ## Everything else it does
 
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index aa99572..96752db 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "@profullstack/player",
-  "version": "0.5.0",
+  "version": "0.6.0",
   "description": "One web player for every source a Profullstack site serves: MP4, HLS, MPEG-2 transport streams and audio, with one control bar, on desktop, mobile, PWA and television.",
   "keywords": [
     "video",
diff --git a/src/core/player.ts b/src/core/player.ts
index 581a22e..636e123 100644
--- a/src/core/player.ts
+++ b/src/core/player.ts
@@ -53,6 +53,17 @@ export interface PlayerOptions {
   kind?: SourceKind;
   /** A server-declared Content-Type, if one was seen. */
   mimeType?: string;
+  /**
+   * Draw the compact audio bar whatever the source looks like.
+   *
+   * The audio shape is normally inferred from the source, and an `.mp3` gets
+   * it without asking. A radio station is HLS: the URL ends in `.m3u8`, the
+   * playlist carries nothing but AAC, and the inference draws a black 16:9
+   * stage with a LIVE badge over a picture that will never arrive. The host
+   * knows it is audio; this is how it says so. Inferred as well when the
+   * element handed in through `media` is an `<audio>`.
+   */
+  audio?: boolean;
   /**
    * Stable key for this recording; what a resume position is filed under. Omit
    * and nothing is remembered — which is right for a live stream and for
@@ -211,7 +222,11 @@ export function createPlayer(root: HTMLElement, options: PlayerOptions): PlayerH
     },
     caps
   );
-  const audioOnly = isAudioKind(choice.kind);
+  const audioOnly =
+    options.audio ??
+    (typeof HTMLAudioElement !== 'undefined' && options.media instanceof HTMLAudioElement
+      ? true
+      : isAudioKind(choice.kind));
   // A transport stream has no end and no seekable range; HLS tells us later,
   // from the playlist, and flips this if it turns out to be a live edge.
   let live = options.live ?? choice.kind === 'mpegts';
diff --git a/test/player.test.ts b/test/player.test.ts
index bb0259e..356a940 100644
--- a/test/player.test.ts
+++ b/test/player.test.ts
@@ -216,6 +216,36 @@ describe('createPlayer', () => {
       expect(control(root, 'play')?.hasAttribute('hidden')).toBe(false);
       expect(control(root, 'rate')?.hasAttribute('hidden')).toBe(false);
     });
+
+    it('takes the compact bar for an HLS source when the host says it is audio', () => {
+      // A radio station: the URL is a playlist, the engine is hls.js, and there
+      // is no picture. Inference alone would build a video stage for it.
+      const { root, media } = mount({
+        src: 'https://example.test/radio.m3u8',
+        audio: true,
+        capabilities: { mediaSource: true, nativeHls: false },
+      });
+      expect(media.tagName).toBe('AUDIO');
+      expect(root.classList.contains('pux-player--audio')).toBe(true);
+      expect(control(root, 'fullscreen')?.hasAttribute('hidden')).toBe(true);
+      expect(control(root, 'pip')?.hasAttribute('hidden')).toBe(true);
+    });
+
+    it('infers audio from an <audio> element it was handed', () => {
+      const root = document.createElement('div');
+      const existing = document.createElement('audio');
+      root.append(existing);
+      document.body.append(root);
+      const handle = createPlayer(root, {
+        src: 'https://example.test/radio.m3u8',
+        media: existing,
+        capabilities: { mediaSource: true, nativeHls: false },
+        engines: { native: fakeEngine(), hls: fakeEngine(), mpegts: fakeEngine() },
+      });
+      expect(handle.media).toBe(existing);
+      expect(root.classList.contains('pux-player--audio')).toBe(true);
+      handle.destroy();
+    });
   });
 
   describe('quality', () => {