Tip #1860 - Web Design Workshop: The Sounds of Music
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In a Previous tip,
I went on and on about the perils of having music play automatically
when you design your website. Now, of course, I'm being inundated with
questions about how to put music on your site. I should have seen that
coming. Okay. I'll tell you, as long as you promise to give the viewer
the choice to listen to it or not.
First,
let's talk about the different type of music files used on the web.
Midi
(Musical Instrument Digital Interface) - Midi files are very common, have
very small file sizes, and load quickly. However, they often sound like
the music is being played out of tin can. Their extension is “.mid”.
Audio
File - Audio Files are also very common files. They sound decent,
but the file sizes are typically large and cause slow page loading. Their
extension is “.au”.
Wave
- The wave file was created by Microsoft and has become a standard
PC audio file format. The sound is high quality, but the file sizes are
large. Their extension is “.wav”.
MP3
- (MPEG – 1 Audio Layer-3) The MP3 format compresses music into a very
small file without losing the quality (at most compression levels). Apparently
this type of compression gets rid of the redundant parts of the sound
signal, which the human ear isn't able to hear. So I guess only dogs will
be able to tell that the sound quality has been reduced ;-) Their extension
is “.mp3”.
The
first step is to get the music. If you've bought a CD, that purchase doesn't
usually include the right to re-publish the music on your website. Some
bands have free use clips on their websites. Otherwise, get permission
first!
If
you have music to use on your site that isn't in one of the above formats,
then you will need to convert it. There are a lot of free conversion programs
out there. Simply go to your favorite search engine and type in “free
music conversion program” and you'll get quite a few to choose from. Pick
one that strikes your fancy, make sure you read the user agreement policy
and be sure to check out the help menu for info on how to use it.
To include music
on your site, you need to upload the music file to your site's server
and then link to it. Your link can read something like “Listen to great
music”, “Listen Now”, “Cool Music” or anything like that. This clip is
also an example of the midi tin can sound:
Listen
to some Cool Music
The
above sentence is linked to the music which I put on a server where it
can be accessed. The actual link looks like this:
Listen
to some Cool Music
I'm
giving the viewer the choice to listen to the music or not. If they want
to listen, then they can click the link. Otherwise, the music won't play.
~ Kim
Ganues
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