streaming MP3's

hiya need help on how to stream MP3's, i dont have any cash, so no fancy software!! using apache/php. the easiest way is the best way! any suggestions or pointers, thanks

Hi,

You need to have a host that provides this kind of service, not many free / cheap ones do - uses lots of bandwidth.

If you have found a host that provides streaming, then you need to embed your MP3 into your pages -> search these forums, there was a thread within the last couple of weeks with the actual code to do that.. The code below kind of works, but needs tweaked to wrok in all browsers:HTH

I saw some php scripts on hotscripts.com that do that.

Jabba 29 / executive - dont be dumb! what are you on? paying for hosting and scripts????

ivan447 - dont listen to all these people, they dont know what they are on about. you can stream mp3s no problem quickly and easily.

1. Upload you MP3 to your server

2. Open notepad. write the entire url of the mp3: ie: http://www.myserver.com/mp3s/mysong.mp3 (obviously the full real url of your mp3)

3. Do a 'save as' and call it something but add .m3u on the end of it. eg: mysong.m3u

4. Upload this .m3u file to your server too.

5. This acts as a pointer to your mp3 file and the m3u extension tells it to stream. So in your page you just link to the .m3u file. When people click your link it goes to the m3u which auto redirects and streams the MP3 you pointed it to, in the default player of the users operating system. In my case, realplayer.

The beauty of this is that as the URL is contained in the notepad document no-one can see where the MP3s are to download them.

you can use the exact same technique to stream video and audio in realplayer. Your realplayer file is a .rm - so you create a notepad document with the extension .ram and it functions exactly the same. no need for embedding. just pops up in realplayer.

Wow... cool!

So does that work for AVI files too? I want something to point to my AVI files instead of download then listen...

Thanks...

What? You say "paying for hosting?" like you get free hosting with a lot of bandwidth. Looks like the only one "on" something is you.

I've gotten a site I am working on to work this way on our test server and our actual servers, but does this work for any windows server as long as the client machine has something to play the file with?

My next question is does anyone know any place out there that provides plenty of storage and bandwidth at around $50 a month for this?

That is great, i really didnt know it would stream automatically...nice work. Lets not insult people though.

@ braalewi: i've emailed you with a hosting suggestion!

Guitarmonkey's suggestion was really helpful. I created a link to an mpu file and it works great. Then I tried putting the link to the mpu file in a "goto link" action command (I'm using Adobe GoLive) in the head and the mp3 automatically plays when the page loads in IE but not in Netscape.

Any suggestions how I can get it to play when the page is loaded in Netscape?

Thanks.

ok... is there by any chance a way to hide the file's source so no one can download the file from my website?

sjh6 - have you checked in your Netscape preferences what it thinks it should open .m3u files with?

Moonshield - not really. But why would you try to stop people downloading a file that you're creating a link to? If you don't want people to download it, don't put it on the interweb.