M3U FILES AND STREAMING |
by Gnomie Matt Gruett
If you've ever dealt with trying to setup a Web site to stream media files, you know what a tedious task it can be. Further, you're probably familiar with the huge cost of buying the software serving packages that are necessary to stream these files. So would you believe me if I told you that you don't have to buy any expensive software in order to stream MP3s and that you only have to add two settings to your web server's configuration files? Since the MP3 format was developed as a group effort, instead of by just one company, there was no interest in creating a streaming software package to go with it. Instead, it was decided that an M3U file would be all that was needed to stream an MP3, and that the rest would be handled by the web server software and the client's MP3 player.
An M3U file (M3U stands for MPEG Version 3.0 URL), is one line of text containing the URL of the MP3 file you want to stream. For example, if I had a file located at http://www.mymp3serversite.com/multimedia/song.mp3, all I would need to do is create an M3U file containing the above-mentioned URL in order to stream it. When you click on a link to an M3U file, your web browser receives some information from the web server (known as MIME data) and then launches your MP3 player. Be sure to include that full URL to the MP3 inside of your M3U file, since your MP3 player can't handle relative links the way your browser can.
You'll need to add two lines to the MIME config file on your web server. Details about setting up web servers are better left for discussion in the Lockergnome Tech Specialist newsletter. For now, just remember that the web server passes along the corresponding MIME data (determined by the file's extension) to your browser when you request a file. For MP3 files, add the text "audio/mpeg" to your MIME config file. Add "audio/x-mpegurl" for an M3U file type as well. Now when someone tries to retrieve an M3U or MP3 file from your web server, the server will first send the correct MIME data to your browser, which will tell it to open up this file in your MP3 player.
Just because you can stream MP3 files for free though doesn't mean that there is no need for MP3 streaming software. You'll need some sort of software package if you want to create an MP3 stream that is based on live material since M3U only works for files that already exist. This is what a radio station would need if they wanted to broadcast on the Internet in MP3 format. Secondly, if you are running a large site and want to be able to audit your MP3 streaming, you'll need to use an MP3 serving software package.
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