So you want to stream your mp3s? No problem! What follows is a brief tutorial about streaming your mp3s online.

There are two major parts to play in streaming mp3 files: serving up the files correctly and configuring your computer to receive them. If you are running your own website, you only need to worry about serving the files, but you should know how to receive them too. How else will you be able to test that the streaming works? Serving up the Mp3s:

There are several different ways to serve up streaming mp3s. This technique is the most straightforward and simple. First, you must encode your mp3s at a low bit rate, so that listeners will be able to hear the music without having to stop and download. A good compression setting for most listeners is 32kbps Mono. The audio quality at this setting is fairly low, since we are trying to accommodate listeners with slow Internet connections. You may wish to make two different versions of your music - one at 32kbps mono (for modem users) and another at 128kbps for broadband.

Name the mp3 files appropriately (ending with ?.mp3?) and upload the files to your web server. Figure out what the address of the files is. For example, http://yourserver.com/mymusic.mp3, where ?yourserver.com? is the name of your server and ?mymusic.mp3? is the name of the mp3 file.

Now create a plain text ?.m3u? playlist file containing the address of the mp3 file you wish to stream. This file should be a plain text document that contains only one line. (Use a program like Notepad to create this file). Using the example above, the file would only say http://yourserver.com/mymusic.mp3 .
Save this text file as ?mymusic.m3u?, where ?mymusic? is the name of the song. Upload this file to your server. Now just create a link to this file from somewhere on your web site. This sample HTML link would display ?click here to stream? and would link directly to the .m3u file above:

click here to stream If the listener?s computer is configured correctly, all they need to do is click on this link and their mp3 player should pop up and begin to stream. How does a person set themselves up to hear streaming mp3s? Receiving and listening to an mp3 stream:

If your computer is not set up for mp3 streaming, it will not know what to do with the .m3u playlist file. To solve this problem, install a streaming-capable Mp3 player. Here are some good ones: Windows: Winamp, Kjofol, Sonique, Windows Media Player, or Real Player. Mac: Soundjam, Macamp, or Audion. To sum things up: Create an .m3u playlist that contains the address of the mp3 you want to stream. Create a link to this file. That?s it - Have fun streaming!

Oh yes - keep in mind that there are many online resources to help you. Lycos? Webmonkey website (webmonkey.com) contains many great tutorials about all aspects of web development (including streaming). Into Internet radio? Check out shoutcast.com, a free technology that makes it easy to run an Mp3 radio station. If you just want something easy, go to live365.com - you have to pay, but they do all the work.

Luke Sales is a trumpet player/programmer/web dude who works for GlassWing Media in Portland, OR. His advice to anyone getting set up doing web sites or Internet? ?I feel your pain. The learning curve never stops; just keep going.? GlassWing Media is available to help you get established as a musician, no matter how big or small your project. CD-ROMs, DVDs, web sites, guitar tuning - you name it, they do it. Check out the GlassWing web site at www.glasswing.com

This entry was posted by Will Dayble on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 10:02 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.