Many
studies have proven that
radio is a
good medium for product advertisements.
People listen to the radio for entertainment, usually to
listen to the
latest music or to their favorite radio program.
In between the program, advertisements on products and
services
are being played.
For many
years, this has been the trend in
advertising. But
now that the radio
medium is almost behind the audio-visual medium, the TV, and the
Internet,
other marketing strategies have to be employed to continue the benefits
of
advertising through audio.
It is then
that the benefits of using
music on websites were discovered.
Before, music on the Internet was just available in
downloadable forms
as mp3. Even
through hosting downloadable
music on their servers, companies were able to get much traffic on
their
sites. And everyone
engaged in Internet
marketing knows that website traffic plays a big role in boosting
product and
service sales.
However, there
had been a problem with illegal
music download in which artists, musicians and record companies have
lost
millions of revenues.
Then, came the
popularity of Internet
music streaming. Unlike
the former,
radio streaming does not allow download of the music files.
Thus, the copyrights of
the artists and
record label owners are protected.
So, how can
this be done? There
are several ways to stream audio from
your site. First,
is to stream a radio
program from your site or blog. You
can
find free affiliate programs that allow you to stream their radio
content from
your site.
What will this
mean to you? This
means that your site will have new
audio content every time it is visited.
What's even great is that the content is being updated
even without much
effort from you.
In this case,
what you needed to do is to
signup with an Internet radio station and have the link embedded on
your blog
or website.
Another way is
to stream mp3s. To
do this, you just need to upload your
mp3files on a server and add the files' links to the page.
When the link is clicked,
the browser opens
a media player window and plays a file.
However, since the file is in mp3 format, it may also be
downloaded. Downloading
music files without the
authorization of the copyright owner is illegal.
Therefore, if you will be using this type of streaming,
make sure
that you have the appropriate permit to do so.
A third way to
add audio to you blog or
website is to stream music through organizing playlists.
Playlists are m3u files,
which if
downloaded, will not play music if offline.
Using this process, however, can be complex. Here is a short
instruction on how to do it.
Save
your mp3 or wma file on the
server. You may
skip this step if you
know that the file exists on another server and know the link to that
file. Make sure
that the link has a
.mp3 or .wma extension.
Open your text editor and type
the path
to the file. Include
the http:// and
the file extension. Repeat
this step
until you have included all the links to the files that you would like
to be
included in the playlist.
Save the playlist with a .m3u
extension.
Upload the m3u file on the
directory
where the music files are hosted or to your server.
Open your html editor and embed
the
link to the m3u file. Through
this, you
can also set if you want to have the playlist to autoplay if someone
visits
your site of if you want your visitor to control playing the
music. You can also set the
volume level.
After the code
is embedded on the html
file, and whenever your site is visited, the songs in the playlist will
be
buffered, streamed and played one after another.
If your playlist has several songs, the user can skip
forward or
go back a song in the playlist using the media player controls.
Doing this
setup works for many website
owners. Through
this you can customize
the type of music being played on your site.
You can even play recordings related to your product to
boost product
awareness.
It requires
knowledge of html to be
done. But if it
will be the best way to
increase traffic to your site, why not request assistance from
programmers. After
all, having audio on
a website is a proven way to increase sales.
Copyright ©
Ferdinand Martinez
About
the Author
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ferdinand
Martinez is the owner of the HomeBiz-Resources
Website. To
find the best home based business
ideas and
opportunities so you can work at home
visit:
http://www.HomeBiz-Resources.com
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