Designing Web Audio & CD-ROM

Creating a buzz: posting MP3 files to the Internet

Before we begin, here’s an observation: very few MP3 files on the Internet have a right to be there. Original compositions and music or audio streams to which the person doing the posting holds the copyright are the only files that can be legally shared with others. Nevertheless, some readers of this book are musical artists looking to use the Internet as a distribution mechanism. It is also possible that you’re creating an “Internet radio station” that will allow others to listen to your music without downloading it. This section is for those readers. It is not intended for people who simply want to encode their compact discs to MP3 and share their files with the world. Doing so is illegal and unethical (why would you want to rip off the artists you respect and like?), and we do not condone the practice. (See Copyright issues earlier in this chapter.)

After you have successfully encoded and auditioned your MP3 files and are pleased with the quality, the next step is to make them available to other Internet users. Unlike other complex streaming formats that require specific posting methods and server configurations, such as RealAudio, Flash, or Liquid Audio, posting MP3 files is easy. Simply post the MP3 files just as you would any basic file, taking into account any legal or copyright issues, of course. A simple HREF tag is all you need to allow users to download MP3 files:

<A HREF="music.mp3">Download!</A>

There may be one more step ...