Do you want to stream your audio files for others to access on your website? Is your goal is to become the next Napster or Yahoo Google Player? To achieve this you need to have your own equipment and learn how to stream audio.
What is streaming audio, anyway? Streaming audio is a format for playing audio files over the Internet. These files come to your computer or other device as MP3 files. Streaming audio arrives in real time making it difficult to copy.
Audio Streaming Services
Some online music websites who allow you to take full advantage of streaming audio include:
- Napster
- iTunes
- eMusic
- Rhapsody
- Walmart
- Yahoo
- Google Music Player
Types of electronic devices that receive these MP3 files include:
- iPod
- MP3 Players
- Cell Phones
- Computers
- Satellite radios
Equipment and Software for Streaming
Specifically you will also need quality recording computer equipment and software:
- A minimum of 275 MB free space on your hard drive
- Original recording of songs (CD, Tape, Live)
- Cable to connect CD/Tape/Microphone to computers computer sound card
- Server space with large bandwidth
Encoding software, such as:
- Cool Edit 96 Software or
- Cool Edit Pro Software or
- Goldwave Software or
- Any other equally good software
If you skimp on any of these three items you will have poor quality music products and few will want to listen. This is the most expensive investment you will make in having the ability do your own streaming audio.
5 Steps to Streaming Your Audio
There are 5 basic steps for streaming audio on the Internet. These are:
- Step 1: Record your music onto your computer from the music source through the computer’s sound card and record to an audio file. You need to be in a room free of extraneous sound, the quieter the better. The dog barking, cell phone ringing, or airplane flying low overhead will be recorded as noise in the music file.
- Step 2: Using encoding software, convert the music audio file to a WAV file. This is a standard file for music sharing.
- Step 3: Eliminate the noise that is embedded in your WAV file from the computers sound card. If you invested in one of the three recommended encoding software programs listed above you are lucky, because these programs automatically eliminate extraneous noise. If you did not, then you will need a program that presents the WAV file in video form for you to manually remove the noise. Recommend the easier version.
- Step 4: Compress the WAV file into a MP3 file using the encoding software.
- Step 5: Upload MP3 file to you website and make it available for others to listen or download.
Although these steps appear to be simplistic, they really are not for the beginner with no technical knowledge. However, like everything else practice makes perfect. After you work the kinks out of the system, you will be developing your own new Napster or Yahoo Google Player streaming audio service.
The ability to stream audio is useful for music groups or singers who want to develop their own website to sale their music over the Internet or try to be discovered by a recording label.
