MP3 Streaming How-to

December 13, 2006 10:25 AM

Best way to stream mp3s in a standard LAMP environment without getting tricksy?

I need to stream an mp3 without making it available for download (record label's restriction) in a typical LAMP setup. I've identified 3 possible solutions:

1) Inline object + embed. Probably the "good enough" solution, although as far as I can tell I need to keep the mp3 in a public dir; might be a problem if the label is finicky.
2) Having my users download a .m3u playlist pointing to the file. My base isn't technical, this is one step too many. Also, same file access problem as #1.
3) Apache::MP3. Only gave this a cursory glance; definitely overkill for what will probably be a one-time thing.

The ideal solution is user-friendly (read: dead simple) and F/OSS. Have I overlooked anything? Is "good enough" generally good enough, given that nothing I can do will be totally bulletproof?

posted by sonofslim to computers & internet (7 comments total)

You would need Flash 9 on the client side but I just used xspf on a recent site. Works a treat.
posted by twistedonion at 10:31 AM on December 13, 2006

You could try Icecast, which is an OSS version of SHOUTcast. I'm pretty sure they won't let people download mp3s.

I don't really remember if this is well-suited to your purpose, but some additional research would probably be able to tell.
posted by kdar at 10:31 AM on December 13, 2006

Andromeda is dead simple but not foss.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:35 AM on December 13, 2006

Winamp is easily configured to write any shoutcast stream to file. If you're going to stream an unencrypted file, the only difference between stream and download is how trustable your client is. Forcing a specific player, ala flash, is going to help some, but any tech inclined end-user is going to be able to get around anything you use.
posted by nomisxid at 10:47 AM on December 13, 2006

This is impossible. Anyone can save a stream and it's not that hard. Aside from the numerous stream ripping programs available, anyone with a standard audio cable can circumvent this. Your best bet is to make the music available in an easy way and stop worrying about people downloading it.

That said, there are many good ways to put streams on your website. The flash players seem to be all the rage these days (and you'll find an example of these on Music MeFi). My band uses the xspf player mentioned by twistedonion, and it works pretty well.

disclaimer: i am one of the original author's of icecast, and part of xiph.org which maintains the xspf format, as well as a musician with music on the web
posted by metajack at 12:28 PM on December 13, 2006

> any tech inclined end-user is going to be able to get around anything you use.

> This is impossible. Anyone can save a stream

i know, i know... but the legal dept. is going to want to see some effort. to rephrase my question, have i overlooked a solution that meets the following two criteria?

A) simple enough that your mom could listen to this clip;
B) provides a reasonable impediment to downloading.

oh snap, i dissed your mom!
posted by sonofslim at 1:20 PM on December 13, 2006

Second Andromeda. It just works, though you'll have to pay.
posted by ewagoner at 1:59 PM on December 13, 2006