Streaming Audio Made Easy

February 1, 2004

Internet streaming audio is the most prevalent form of
multimedia on the Internet today according to Creative, one
of the leading companies in the sound hardware field. Over
the last few years, streaming audio has moved from being a
curiosity to a business strategy that is adopted by many
media organizations.

Streaming Audio has always been available to the big
corporate sites and techies. Now every one can use simple
software to produce their own streaming audio from a web
site.

Marketers and business people have always known that a
well-placed audio stream can increase sales and signups to
their products and services. The problem has always been
that the average person could not afford the high cost of
special servers or programmers to be able to use this
technology.

There have been a number of products around that provide
streaming audio however as they have grown and developed so
have the plugins required for listening to the streaming
files.

With the new software available today anyone can add audio
to their web sites without the need for any large plugins
and complicated software. Simply add your audio file and
choose a component to activate the stream and click go.
These programs output all the necessary files, which you
can then use to embed in your web pages with a quick copy
and paste.

The web visitor can simply click and listen, even over a
standard 56K modem.

So now that you're considering adding the sweet sound of
audio to your site, where might you want to use it?

Depending on your website's content and theme, there are a
variety of ways to incorporate your audio into it. For
example:

You might place a welcome message on your front page,
summarizing your site's highlights, informing visitors of
what they'll find, and thanking them for stopping by.

If you have an "about us" page on your site, you might want
to record a brief message to accompany your background
info. This will help people feel as if they're actually
meeting you.

Since testimonials are a great enhancement to any site
imagine if you actually added them in your customer's own
voice. If you use one of the phone recording services you
could give them the number and they could easily record how
they feel about your products/services.

If your site has been featured in an online interview or
radio show, imagine including this audio in your site. Just
think of it as your very own live press room.

Perhaps just adding some pleasant music for your visitors
to listen to as they view your web pages.

There are many features that these new programs provide the
user.

Produce as many files as you like.
No need for expensive programmers
Many allow you to host them on your own server - you're in
control.
Greatly reduce the size of your audio file.
Streams over most modem connections
Easy to use interface
Added components for more variety

So now that you're actually thinking of recording something
and adding it to your site, how do you do it? There are
many different ways, some more expensive then others. Let's
examine some of your choices a little more closely.

1) MP3 Sound Stream: http://mp3soundstream.com/
Creates streaming audio from MP3 or Wav files. Produces
high quality output for only $39.95.

2) Audio Player Pro: http://www.audioplayerpro.com/
Starting at only $47.00. This produces a code that you can
paste onto your website that will enable the viewers'
default player.

3) Audio Generator: http://www.audiogenerator.com/
Streaming audio using just your browser. Easy to use, you
can phone in your message or use MP3 files. Excellent sound
quality. After recording your message paste some code onto
your site and a button appears with your audio. $29.95
monthly.

4) Sonic Memo: http://www.sonicmemo.com/
Includes a step-by-step tutorial. You'll have to create
your own MP3 files and upload them to your server. If you
record WAV files, you'll have to first convert them to MP3
format. This software sells for $97.00.

5) Instant Audio: http://instantaudio.com/
Just record a message by phone and your website or e-mail
is instantly audio-enabled. To check their sound quality
call the phone number listed on the site, leave a message,
then hit the play button on the site to listen. This
service will cost you 29.95 a month.

Your site has been sending non-verbal messages for years;
now it's time to break free and let it send a message
everyone can hear. Adding audio to your website is not only
easy to do, it can help you gain the trust of your site's
visitors, thus increasing your conversion rate. So stop
wasting your time and money, and start getting the sales
you may be missing.

----------------------------------------------------
Quentin Brown
CEO MP3 Sound Stream
Streaming Audio Made Easy
http://www.mp3soundstream.com