Posting MP3s?

[Destaāna]

Hello.

I notice that alot of people in the music cafe, post alot of songs, but with a direct MP3 link, so that when one clicks on it, it starts to play in windows media, or whatever your default music player is.

I'm wondering how i can do this, i'm not sure how. If maybe someone could quickly guide me, that would be great.

Thank you.

[chest]

Unless you go for one of the sites specifically orientated around the presentation of people's music and the details of the composer, you'll need to find a place that "hosts" files. There are free ones (with a lot of advertising), though one that I once used seems to have closed down without any warning. They let you store your files (not only audio files) and download them from anywhere on the internet, but, for music some offer a "streaming" player, which means that the file doesn't have to be fully downloaded before it starts playing.

One thing to check is whether a site provides statistics about the number of plays/downloads - if you post music in Music Cafe, you'll probably want to know that; there are (or, at least, there have been) sites that don't provide that info. Also, find out whether, for instance, a file will be deleted if it hasn't been downloaded for two months, four months, etc - longer is better, of course; if you wanted something to stay beyond the normal cut-off period, even though there hadn't been any downloads for a while, you could just download it yourself.

If you do go for one of the musicians' sites be sure to check the Terms and Conditions - eg whether you're agreeing that the owners of the site can make any use they want of the music you put there.

[Destaāna]

Unless you go for one of the sites specifically orientated around the presentation of people's music and the details of the composer, you'll need to find a place that "hosts" files. There are free ones (with a lot of advertising), though one that I once used seems to have closed down without any warning. They let you store your files (not only audio files) and download them from anywhere on the internet, but, for music some offer a "streaming" player, which means that the file doesn't have to be fully downloaded before it starts playing.

One thing to check is whether a site provides statistics about the number of plays/downloads - if you post music in Music Cafe, you'll probably want to know that; there are (or, at least, there have been) sites that don't provide that info. Also, find out whether, for instance, a file will be deleted if it hasn't been downloaded for two months, four months, etc - longer is better, of course; if you wanted something to stay beyond the normal cut-off period, even though there hadn't been any downloads for a while, you could just download it yourself.

If you do go for one of the musicians' sites be sure to check the Terms and Conditions - eg whether you're agreeing that the owners of the site can make any use they want of the music you put there.

Thank you, Chest.