Streaming Audio or Streaming Video, both also called as Streaming Media is multimedia that is continuously received by, and normally displayed to, the end-user while it is being delivered by the provider.


It is a method of transmitting files so that a part of the file starts playing in your Media Player while the rest of the file is being received. The file is not saved to your disk or PC. Part of the file is received into a 'buffer' from which it is played while the rest of the file arrives. Hence the viewer experience depends on the speed of your Internet connection. The file may freeze while playing if due to a dial-up connection enough of it has not arrived in the 'buffer'.


We have already seen how to put Streaming Video in your blog. Here is how to put Streaming Audio in your blog...........

CREATE THE AUDIO FILE

First you will have to create your Audio file. For this you can use your PC Multimedia and software such as Audacity which is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds in Linux, Mac OS X, and other operating systems. For this post I have taken a demo MP3 file which is a short music file.

UPLOAD THE MP3 FILE

After creating your MP3 file you have to upload file to a free host. This will enable viewer's to access it at any time. I have uploaded my demo MP3 file to my account at Googlepages where free hosting is provided upto 500 MB at present. After uploading the file copy down the link of the file (Link 1). My link to this file is :

http://ezeeblog.googlepages.com/Demo.mp3.

Do not attempt to access this link as the file will simply download to your machine without playing. To play the file we have to create a pointer file.....

CREATE THE POINTER FILE

This is the file which will point to your MP3 file. For this open Notepad and paste the link (Link 1)of your file at Googlepages in it. Then save the file with a M3U extension. That is call it MYDEMO.M3U. Upload this file to Googlepages. Copy down the link to this file (Link 2). This is the link of my pointer file :

http://ezeeblog.googlepages.com/audiodemo.m3u.

Notice that the file names are not the same.

CREATE LINK IN YOUR POST

In your blog post create a link to the pointer file. Type in "Click here to play Streaming Audio". Highlight the phrase and click the link icon in top frame of post editor. Paste the link of the pointer file (Link 2) in the popup window and OK it. You can also create it manually by pasting this code in Edit Html tab of Post Editor :

<a href="LINK 2">Click here to play Streaming Audio</a>

You can also paste the code above in a Html/Javascript Page Element in the sidebar. Here is what it will look like :


Click here to play Streaming Audio

If you click on the above link you will be prompted to save the file or play it in the default Media Player on your PC. Choose to play it instead of saving it and the Media Player will download and play the file while buffering it. The file will not be saved to your PC.


Advantages of this method is the file does not start playing automatically while loading the page. The viewer has the choice to view/play the file or save it. Many viewers are turned off by embedded music blaring from their speakers when a web page is loaded and may not return.


Enjoy!