Combine/Concatenate MP3s on Server Using PHP

Question

I have a site that will be hosting small MP3 files.

I want to create a utility that will allow me to combine the mp3 files together to create a single MP3 file.

I'm somewhat new to PHP but not new to programming.

Ideally, I would have a function that let me specify the a starting file and then append the second file to the existing file.

function appendMP3(originalMP3, newChunk){
   originalMP3 = originalMP3 + newChunk;
   return newMP3
}

compilation = append(compilaton, "sound.mp3");

Where do I start? Are there any existing resources?

Answer 1

If you can access the shell from within PHP on your environment, I would just call out to the shell (with the backtick operator) and use SoX.

Answer 2

I would suggest taking a look at the PHP fopen function. If concatenating two MP3 files is as simple as stringing the bits together, then you should be able to use fopen (don't forget the "b" flag for binary) and fwrite to read in the data from one file and append it to the other.

Answer 3

Not sure how well it will work, but this blog on merging mp3 with php might help you.

Also, depending on the server it is on, you might have access to tools like sox using system() calls.