Quick and acceptable MP3 streaming solution

Question

Hi, I have to do a job overnight to enable a very simple interface for users listening to a radio channel over the internet. I am wondering what is the best soluition for streaming. I thought of QuickTime, but it requires users to have it installed and I am not quite sure Quicktime is as spread as flash. So I tend to implement something in flash. Do you have any suggestions on a good tool (it may be really simple, the simpler, the better)?

I don't want playlists and nothing like that. The website is built with DotNetNuke and it manages all the interactions. I just want to insert in the page that little bar that allows users to play/pause and drag to another part of the show. I will pass a parameter with the file URL and the player should manage the rest.

It won't be a live streaming, but rather streaming of MP3 files hosted in the server.

By the way, I found this project (http://www.sean-o.com/jquery/jmp3/) which is a jQuery plugin and it seems interesting. Does any one know it?

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

Use a flash embedded mp3 player. it can play mp3 play list or individual files.

Using jw player (http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/) will let you create xml playlists easily. It's ready to go out of the box.

With JW Player you can specify a filename from the URL, meaning you could pass in the link as a url variable and not have to use an XML file. I recall XSPF player can do that too, but I use JW Player more.

Xspf player is another free mp3 player that is flash based.. http://musicplayer.sourceforge.net/

If you want something more you can check out a google search like this one. this should be enough to get you going.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=free+flash+mp3+player&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Answer 2

The XSPF player is exceptional. I used the slim player on a rush job and had it running in about 10 minutes.

The only thing is that you need to make an XSPF file that contains the MP3's details like track name. But the format is quite simple.

Answer 3

Thanks for the comments. But in this case I had to pass a file name directly to the player due to limitations of the module I selected to develop this tool in my DotNetNuke CMS. Its templating engine can put a link inside a piece of embed and object tags, but cannot update a XML file. Anyway, I used the solution I mentioned in my post. Thank you for all the help. I will keep your comments and hints for more advanced solutions.

Answer 4

SoundManager very similar to JWPlayer but does not require paying for a license:

http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/

Answer 5

Great tool! So flexible! Thanks for the advice.

Answer 6

niftyPlayer 1.7 is the smallest MP3 player available its based on flash n plays single files for now... Upsides Small (~4kb) Free, open-source No Flash knowledge required: file URL is specified in HTML JavaScript-ready! You may even bypass the Flash interface altogether! Autostart capability Draggable/Clickable seek bar Simple operation with Play/Pause and Stop buttons Buffering with progress bar Buffering is stoppable! (through Stop button) Volume control Very verbal Retries upon encountering errors Downsides No playlist capability (but can be done in JavaScript!) No photo-slideshow or video capability Sound must be MP3 (flash limitation)