Using Audio on the Web
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Adding music or video streams to your website is a definite
plus for revenue generation. Audio-video streams serve two
purposes. Primarily, audio and video streaming is used
for entertainment. A more practical use of audio-video
streaming is for revenue generation by using this technology
to promote and demonstrate your products.
Normally, professional website designers are leery of adding
multi-media streams to a website. However, the spread of high-speed
internet connection throughout the world has finally removed
the barrier for the use of multi-media streams. In this
article, let us deal exclusively with audio streams.
Audio files have different formats. The most popular among
these audio formats are the MP3 and MIDI sound format. The
question is, “what exactly is a MIDI and an MP3 and what are
the differences?” Below is a collection of sound file formats
together with their descriptions to help you decide which
one to use in your website.
MIDI is a music file type that is considerably lightweight
when it comes to the size of the file. The reason for this
is that MIDI utilizes the built-in devices in the sound card
of your computer. Of course, sound cards don’t sound the same
so playing one MIDI file on two computers simultaneously may
produce slightly different results. Another problem of MIDI
files is that they sound mostly like ring tones of older model
cellular phones. Having this installed in your website may
give it an amateurish feel. You definitely don’t want to be
labeled as an amateur especially when you’re selling something.
On the plus side, because of their small size in terms of
kilobytes, people who use 56kbps modems to connect to the
internet will be able to appreciate the speed at which your
website loads into their browsers.
MP3 is an audio file that is highly compressed to achieve
a smaller file size. For people using DSL internet connections,
downloading a 5MB MP3 file will most probably take less than
a minute. For the slower 56 kbps modems, it takes approximately
3 to 5 minutes to download a single song with average playing
time. Because of its compressed nature, the sounds produced
by MP3 files are not as good as those you hear from your CD.
Furthermore, you will have to “loop” a music file if you want
it to play continuously in the background while people surf
your website. MP3 files are very difficult to loop. The biggest
disadvantage of using MP3 files is that they require MP3 player
programs. Once you enter a website with MP3 background music,
your Windows Media player or Real Player might open automatically
to play the file.
The best sound file format in terms of quality is the WAV
file format. Using WAV format to record your audio will give
you recording studio quality audio. The BIG PROBLEM of WAV
is its file size. Even with a DSL or cable internet connection,
your browser will have a hard time loading a web page using
WAV for its audio stream.
Familiarity with flash files is an advantage when trying
to incorporate audio streams into your website. To make the
music play continuously, you will have to perform the process
of looping. Flash files can be used with either MP3 or WAV
but, only WAV files go through the looping process without
any difficulty.
As you can see there are many different ways to add background
music to your web pages and you don’t have to worry about
slow loading pages if you choose the right file format.
About the Author
Terry Detty, 42 and genuinely happy individual, enjoys all
aspects on internet marketing, and occasionally enjoys getting
out for a walk. email
marketing, time and attendance software, internet marketing
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