Since I’m not quite sure what to ask, my Google searches have been fruitless. So let me describe what I’m looking for:
The other day, I downloaded a 30 second MP3 clip from a local, indie artist. Lovely tune.
Went to listen to it again today. Booted up the computer and double-clicked the MP3 icon on my desktop and got an error message. It seems that in order that said I was missing a file I needed to run the MP3. I’m guessing that, in order to help protect the IP rights of the copyright holder, the file requires some kind of TEMP file so that even if you save the file to disk, it won’t open without it.
“How fancy!” I thought. I want to know how to do this! I take care of a site that has 30 second sound samples (for which we do in fact have administrative control of the copyrights). And I like the idea of making it kind of inconvenient for people to store them for future use.
Is this some kind of “streaming” feature (about which I pressently know very little)? I’ve looked at some of the code on some of the sites that seem to have this and see nothing other than the usual links. If anyone knows, or knows where I can look, or at least what to use as a search criteria, I’d appreciate it. I’d really like to learn this.
How did the clip download? Did it download directly into a player like Real Media or Windows Media Player or did you save it to your hard drive?
If you did not save it to your hard drive, it generally downloads as a temporary file and then is sometimes deleted after you reboot.
To ensure you save these files in the future, right click on their links and select “save target as…” this will download the linked file and save it to your hard drive.
They were both saved to the hard drive (I’m fairly sure but not 100%)-- this is why I’m wondering how it works. If it downloaded to a player and not to the hard drive, then how come it only happens at some sites but not others. ie/ Wouldn’t our MP3 mini-clips download straight to the player as well? (They do not), netiher do our other musician buddies.
I tried it with both the Mac and the PC. One musician’s site did what ours do – downloads to hard drive and stays put. The “temporary ones” appear to do the same – download to the hard drive, but when it comes to actually playing the clip – if I’ve closed my browser, I get the error message that I must have such-and-such file to play the MP3 or WAV.
Whatever happened to supergreg
last I checked he was bought out by Levi’s (for any of you that dont know who supergreg is, you need to get the supergreg video!)
The trick with MP3’s is to have the file on your hard drive. I wouldnt worry about encryption, the record companies and Microsoft have been trying to figure out ways to control the proliferation of music and all they have been able to come up with so far are alternative file types with special players. Also check to make sure that youre not streaming off the internet, that can also cause problems
I don’t know about MP3s, but I do know how you can do this wil streaming Real media.
You need to get Real Producer and you can turn all the MP3s into .rm files (real media). Then you upload them to your site along with a ram file. You make the link to the music on your site point to the ram file, not the rm file, and the music can “never” be downloaded, but can be streamed.
So say you make and upload a file called song.rm
You then make a song.ram file that is just a text file (saved as song.ram) that would have just one line that isthe full path to your clip:
I’ll definitely look into it. It’s been a LONG while since we used Real products. At one time the site had Real Audio files that were either montrously huge in file size or small-but-horrible-sounding. We also had issues with site visitors complaining about not having the proper player – which may have sorted itself out by now with the player being more commonly available.
