I'm afraid the answer stated no longer works in iOS 7 and above. You will need to use the following code:
in the header file (.h)
In order to handle the delegate methods like when the playing of the audio has finished audioPlayerDidFinishPlaying:, inherit from AVAudioPlayerDelegate .
@property (nonatomic, strong) AVAudioPlayer *player;
in the implementation file (.m)
NSString *soundFilePath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource: resourceName
ofType: @"mp3"];
NSURL *fileURL = [[NSURL alloc] initFileURLWithPath: soundFilePath];
AVAudioPlayer *newPlayer = [[AVAudioPlayer alloc] initWithContentsOfURL: fileURL
error: nil];
_player = newPlayer;
[_player prepareToPlay];
[_player setDelegate: self];
[_player play];