[Dewittian]

Streaming audio while the goal post keeps moving


I'm just trying to learn how to put up links to start streaming audio
clips so people can listen to sections of the music before they buy
it.

As far as streaming from my web site which is better?

1. Having a standard media player like real player or windows media
player open and play the clip when people click on the link,?

or

2. Just have custom HTML code play the file from inside a browser?
If I use this method I'd at least like to give people the ability to
pause, play, rewind, and change volume from inside their browser.

Either way I'd like to make the streaming clips stream for as long as
possible since I know that in the near future all the streaming media
players, the browsers, and even the operating systems will change and
all my files will stream no longer.

In today's' world it's like trying to kick a goal in a Soccer game
while they keep moving the goal posts all the time.

What's the best way to do this with the least amount of future
tweaking?

As a minimum I'd like to make the web site give people mute, pause,
play, rewind, and volume when they click on the link to listen?

Is this the right newsgroup to get some help from on this?

If this isn't where should I post at?

[Ben Bradley]

On Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:43:46 -0800 (PST), Dewittian
wrote:

Streaming audio while the goal post keeps moving


I'm just trying to learn how to put up links to start streaming audio
clips so people can listen to sections of the music before they buy
it.

As far as streaming from my web site which is better?

1. Having a standard media player like real player or windows media
player open and play the clip when people click on the link,?

I just googled streaming mp3 and found this page describing how to
make a .m3u file which will stream an mp3 into the default mp3 playing
software. I know it's worked for many years and I'd expect it to work
for many more. I wouldn't use the silly mp3.gif graphic, I might use
the word 'listen' for the active link instead.

http://www.developingwebs.net/html/mp3.php

And if you ever use the EMBED thing (which looks like an answer to
your question 2), PLEASE have autostart=false. It's annoying to go to
a webpage that has music start up by itself (yes, most myspace pages
are automatically annoying).

There's likely some web development newsgroup where they can show
you 41 ways to stream audio files, probably half of them
browser-specific and/or os-specific.


or

2. Just have custom HTML code play the file from inside a browser?
If I use this method I'd at least like to give people the ability to
pause, play, rewind, and change volume from inside their browser.

Either way I'd like to make the streaming clips stream for as long as
possible since I know that in the near future all the streaming media
players, the browsers, and even the operating systems will change and
all my files will stream no longer.

In today's' world it's like trying to kick a goal in a Soccer game
while they keep moving the goal posts all the time.

What's the best way to do this with the least amount of future
tweaking?

As a minimum I'd like to make the web site give people mute, pause,
play, rewind, and volume when they click on the link to listen?

Is this the right newsgroup to get some help from on this?

If this isn't where should I post at?

[Richard Crowley]

"Dewittian" wrote ...
Streaming audio while the goal post keeps moving

You may be obsessing on this way more than it deserves.

I'm just trying to learn how to put up links to start streaming audio
clips so people can listen to sections of the music before they buy
it.

Why "streaming"? WHY?

As far as streaming from my web site which is better?

What does your web server support? You can dream all you wish,
but if your server platform doesn't support it, you're just dreaming.

1. Having a standard media player like real player or windows media
player open and play the clip when people click on the link,?

or

2. Just have custom HTML code play the file from inside a browser?
If I use this method I'd at least like to give people the ability to
pause, play, rewind, and change volume from inside their browser.

What difference does it make to you? Why not let the listener
use whatever is most convienent/familiar to THEM?

Either way I'd like to make the streaming clips stream for as long as
possible since I know that in the near future all the streaming media
players, the browsers, and even the operating systems will change and
all my files will stream no longer.

Huh? You will need to provide some evidence if you want anyone
to believe a word of that paragraph. MP3 files (for example) have
been used for many years through several generations of computers,
operating systems, players, etc. etc.

In today's' world it's like trying to kick a goal in a Soccer game
while they keep moving the goal posts all the time.

What's the best way to do this with the least amount of future
tweaking?

As a minimum I'd like to make the web site give people mute, pause,
play, rewind, and volume when they click on the link to listen?

Just post MP3 files on a website and let the listener do whatever
they want with them. You are making this WAY too complex
for yourself.

There are plenty of websites where they already have everything
set up for you. Not to mention that customers go there already
to buy music (online and/or CD), etc.

[Sean Conolly]

"Ben Bradley" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:43:46 -0800 (PST), Dewittian
wrote:

Streaming audio while the goal post keeps moving


I'm just trying to learn how to put up links to start streaming audio
clips so people can listen to sections of the music before they buy
it.

As far as streaming from my web site which is better?

1. Having a standard media player like real player or windows media
player open and play the clip when people click on the link,?

I just googled streaming mp3 and found this page describing how to
make a .m3u file which will stream an mp3 into the default mp3 playing
software. I know it's worked for many years and I'd expect it to work
for many more. I wouldn't use the silly mp3.gif graphic, I might use
the word 'listen' for the active link instead.

Be aware that newer versions Windows don't have the m3u extension registered
for Media Player, even though MP still supports it. Over half the people
using my pages were complaining that they couldn't play the songs, so I
switched to a flash player.


2. Just have custom HTML code play the file from inside a browser?
If I use this method I'd at least like to give people the ability to
pause, play, rewind, and change volume from inside their browser.

The embedded flash player allows all of this, but it doesn't support all of
the MP3 options like VBR.

Either way I'd like to make the streaming clips stream for as long as
possible since I know that in the near future all the streaming media
players, the browsers, and even the operating systems will change and
all my files will stream no longer.

The audio format will still be useable, it's the streaming method that will
change over time.

Sean

[Dewittian]

On Nov 28, 1:29*pm, "Sean Conolly" wrote:
"Ben Bradley" wrote in message

...



On Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:43:46 -0800 (PST), Dewittian
wrote:

Streaming audio while the goal post keeps moving

I'm just trying to learn how to put up links to start streaming audio
clips so people can listen to sections of the music before they buy
it.

As far as streaming from my web site which is better?

1. Having a standard media player like real player or windows media
player open and play the clip when people click on the link,?

* I just googled streaming mp3 and found this page describing how to
make a .m3u file which will stream an mp3 into the default mp3 playing
software. I know it's worked for many years and I'd expect it to work
for many more. I wouldn't use the silly mp3.gif graphic, I might use
the word 'listen' for the active link instead.

Be aware that newer versions Windows don't have the m3u extension registered
for Media Player, even though MP still supports it. Over half the people
using my pages were complaining that they couldn't play the songs, so I
switched to a flash player.

2. Just have custom HTML code play the file from inside a browser?
If I use this method I'd at least like to give people the ability to
pause, play, rewind, and change volume from inside their browser.

The embedded flash player allows all of this, but it doesn't support all of
the MP3 options like VBR.

Either way I'd like to make the streaming clips stream for as long as
possible since I know that in the near future all the streaming media
players, the browsers, and even the operating systems will change and
all my files will stream no longer.

The audio format will still be useable, it's the streaming method that will
change over time.

Sean


Bens' link to making a m3u sounds good because the player and controls
are what ever the listener is used to using and will sound like it
usually sounds to them. But Sean has a really good point about
missing some people who might have older systems.

Sean could you please send me a link where i can copy a Flash player
like you talked about? If not then what do you think would be the
best key search words to find instructions on making a Flash player?
I'll check with our web hosting provider about streaming .M3U or
Flashplayer.

[Sean Conolly]

"Dewittian" wrote in message
...
On Nov 28, 1:29 pm, "Sean Conolly" wrote:
"Ben Bradley" wrote in message

...



On Fri, 28 Nov 2008 04:43:46 -0800 (PST), Dewittian
wrote:

Streaming audio while the goal post keeps moving

I'm just trying to learn how to put up links to start streaming audio
clips so people can listen to sections of the music before they buy
it.

As far as streaming from my web site which is better?

1. Having a standard media player like real player or windows media
player open and play the clip when people click on the link,?

I just googled streaming mp3 and found this page describing how to
make a .m3u file which will stream an mp3 into the default mp3 playing
software. I know it's worked for many years and I'd expect it to work
for many more. I wouldn't use the silly mp3.gif graphic, I might use
the word 'listen' for the active link instead.

Be aware that newer versions Windows don't have the m3u extension
registered
for Media Player, even though MP still supports it. Over half the people
using my pages were complaining that they couldn't play the songs, so I
switched to a flash player.

2. Just have custom HTML code play the file from inside a browser?
If I use this method I'd at least like to give people the ability to
pause, play, rewind, and change volume from inside their browser.

The embedded flash player allows all of this, but it doesn't support all
of
the MP3 options like VBR.

Either way I'd like to make the streaming clips stream for as long as
possible since I know that in the near future all the streaming media
players, the browsers, and even the operating systems will change and
all my files will stream no longer.

The audio format will still be useable, it's the streaming method that
will
change over time.

Sean


Bens' link to making a m3u sounds good because the player and controls
are what ever the listener is used to using and will sound like it
usually sounds to them. But Sean has a really good point about
missing some people who might have older systems.

Sean could you please send me a link where i can copy a Flash player
like you talked about?


Here's what I used:
http://www.createblog.com/forums/lof...hp/t79264.html
Ignore the stuff about making it work inside a mySpace page.

You upload the player.swf to your host, and then include it in an embed tag
like so:

embed src="http://www.mydomain.com/player.swf"
menu="false"
quality="high"
width="300"
height="320"
name="index"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"
flashvars="playList=http://www.mydomain.com/playlist.xml&ShowPlaylist=1&ShowEQ=1&firstTrack=1& initVol=50" wmode="transparent" border="0" /The long string after 'flashvars' are the attributes passed to the flashplayer, which are descibed in the post.The playlist file is an XML file with the path and the title to bedisplayed:?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?songs song path="Rebel%20Yell.mp3" title="Rebel Yell" / song path="Better%20Life.mp3" title="Better Life" / song path="CrackerMan.mp3" title="Cracker Man" //songsJust like any http links, the path is relative to where the page was loadedfrom, so you can use a full http:// URL or just the direct path. In myexample I have the songs in the same directory as the page so I just needthe filenames. Note that the %20 indicates a space in the filename: "MySong.mp3" on disk is "My%20Song.mp3" in the path.Hope this helps,Sean