Put Streaming Audio In Blog.

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!

Music in your Blog.

Background music in blogs and websites is not appreciated by many viewers since it disturbs attention, gathers unwanted attention and wastes bandwidth. However there are many methods to do this and many websites catering to this demand......

The first requirement is to have your music file ready and upload it to a freehost like Googlepages. If you can't create an account at Googlepages create a group at Google Groups and this gives you 100 MB free space for files. Next upload your file to the freehost and copy down its link or URL.


The simplest solution is to use the embed tag to put the file in your page. Login to Dashboard and go to Layouts. This opens the Page Elements tab in which click on Add Page Element in the sidebar. Choose the Html/Javascript option and paste this code under contents :

<EMBED src="LINK OF SOUND FILE AT FREE HOST" autostart=true loop=false volume=100 hidden=true><NOEMBED><BGSOUND src="NAME OF FILE"></NOEMBED>

Replace the CAPS in above code and Save. When you put autostart=true then the file will start playing as soon as the page is loaded. You can put "FALSE" instead of "TRUE" so the person visiting your page will have to click on the play button for it to start. Loop=true makes the file to play again and again. Use this for small files like birdsongs which can continuously play in the background.

MP3 FILES

Upload your MP3 file in the same way as above. Then open Notepad and type in :

http://www.googlepages.com/file.mp3

This is the link to your uploaded MP3 file at Googlepages. Save this file as Mysong.m3u and upload this file as well to Googlepages. Login to your Dashboard and select Layouts which opens the Page Elements tab. Click Add Page Element in sidebar and select Html/Javascript option and paste the following code under contents :

<EMBED src="Mysong.m3u" autostart=true hidden=true>

Save. You can also use Google Gadgets to put a MP3 player in your blog as shown in Add Google gadgets to blog.

MP3 PLAYLISTS

For playing MP3 Playlists you require Flash MP3 Players. You can find these by Googling for them. Some are available at sites like loudfusion, playpause or jeroenwijering
Download one of these and upload them to your Googlepages account. Copy down the link to the flash player file.


Next upload all your songs to a freehost like Googlepages and copy down their URLs. After that open Notepad and paste their links as shown below :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<player showDisplay="yes" showPlaylist="yes" autoStart="random">
<song path="LINK TO MP3 FILE 1" title="FILE1 TITLE" />
<song path="LINK TO MP3 FILE 2" title="FILE2 TITLE" />
<song path="LINK TO MP3 FILE 3" title="FILE3 TITLE" />
<song path="LINK TO MP3 FILE 4" title="FILE4 TITLE" />
<song path="LINK TO MP3 FILE 5" title="FILE5 TITLE" />
<song path="LINK TO MP3 FILE 6" title="FILE6 TITLE" />
<song path="LINK TO MP3 FILE 7" title="FILE7 TITLE" />
</player>

Save this file as MyPlaylist.xml and upload it to your Googlepages account. Copy down the link to the file. Login to dashboard and click on Layouts. This will open the Page Elements tab in which click on Add Page Element and choose Html/Javascript option. Paste the following code under contents and save :

<embed pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width="230" src="LINK TO FLASH PLAYER FILE" height="280"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
flashvars="playlist=LINK OF YOUR MYPLAYLIST.XML AT GOOGLEPAGES&autostart=true"/></embed>

Save the changes. Refresh cache and view blog.

Technorati Tags:music, mp3, flash, audio

Google Gadgets for Blogs.

Google Gadgets are mini-applications that work with the Google homepage, Google Desktop, or any page on the web. In the real world a gadget or gizmo is a device that has a useful specific purpose and function. Gadgets tend to be more unusual or cleverly designed than normal technology.

Google Gadgets range from simple HTML to complex applications, and can be a calendar, a weather globe, a media player, or anything else you can dream up.

A Widget on the other hand can be defined as the code representing a Page Element in the New Blogger.

You can add a Google Gadget to your blog to entertain your visitors or provide extra tools or functionality. Currently there are many Google Gadgets available in categories like News, Tools Communication, Fun & Games, Finance, Sports, Lifestyle and Technology. Do you want to provide a music player on your blog?


To do this go to : http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open and type Music in the search box and hit Enter. You will get a list of Google Gadgets that provide a Jukebox, a Playlist Player, a MP3 Player etc. Click on Add to Webpage button at the bottom of the gadget you wish to add to your blog. Modify the dimensions of the gadget and customize it so it will fit in your webpage preview and click on Get Code. Code is generated which you copy and paste into a Html/Javascript Page Element in the sidebar. For example this is a MP3 Player (Click on image for bigger view)


Similarly you can provide other functions like a free file upload directly from your blog. Just add a Free file upload gadget in your sidebar. In my blog's right column at the bottom I have a picture uploading gadget. This will keep visitors on your blog for a longer time.



You can add Google Gadgets to your personalized search page as well as to your site at Googlepages and to your Desktop. If you wish to experiment you can make your own gadgets at http://www.google.com/apis/gadgets/index.html. After making your Gadget you can submit it to Google who will include it in their gadgets directory at http://www.google.com/ig/directory so that it reaches millions of viewers.


Other examples of Gadgets you can add to your sidebar include weather reports, horoscopes, quote of the day, current temperature etc. Get them all at http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open&source=gghp.

Technorati Tags:google, google gadgets, mp3 player