What do I Need to Get Started Streaming?
Only two items: an MP3 encoder (almost any ‘ripper’ will do — anything to turn WAV files into MP3’s) and a text editor (Windows Notepad will do nicely). If you don’t know what I’m typing about here, I cannot help you. This was written for people who have the basic knowlege about web design and computers in general.
Prepare You Folders:
Create the folders on your web-server: one entitled ‘music’ with two folders in that one labeled ‘lofi’ and ‘hifi’. Create another separate folder for the M3U’s labeled ‘playlists’.
Prepare your music:
Open the raw wave file into a music editing program (Sound-Forge, Pro-Tools, Adobe Audition, etc…). I apply compression to the file like they do for radio broadcasts. Save that file with a slightly different name so as to not write over the original. Then open that new file, normalize it to 96%, then save it again to use as the file for the conversion to MP3.
Encode your MP3’s:
To make your music accessible to dial-up users — even through a 28.8 KPS modem, you’ll want to offer your streams at no more than 16 KPS. If that doesn’t sound appealing to you, you may discount those users if you wish and encode in mono at 32 KPS
If you want to stream better quality audio to those on a DSL or Cable, a 96 KPS stream is desirable. An MP3 encoded at 128 KPS may not play properly on many high speed connections. You should know that two MP3’s of a song (one encoded at 16 KPS and the other at 96 KPS) is smaller in size than that same MP3 encoded once at 128 KPS!
Open your ‘ripper’ and make two separate MP3’s for each song, one at 16 KPS (in mono) and the other at 96 KPS (stereo), placing the 16 KPS — or ‘lofi’ as I call it — MP3 into the ‘lofi’ folder, and the 96 KPS MP3 into the ‘hifi’ folder.
Server Interlude, Part Two:
Upload the MP3’s to your server, making sure they’re placed in the appropriate folders.
pages: 1 2 3 4