How To Create A Download Link For Mp3

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Years ago, when a visitor to your website clicked a link that pointed to a non-HTML document like a PDF file, an MP3 music file, or even an image, those files would download to that person's computer. Today, that is not the case for many common file types.

Instead of forcing a download on these files, today's web browsers simply display them inline, directly in the browser viewport. PDF files will be displayed in the browsers, as will images. MP3 files will be played directly in the browser window rather than saved as a download file. In many cases, this behavior may be perfectly fine. In fact, it may be preferable to a user having to download the file and then find it on their machine in order to open it. Other times, however, you may actually want a file to be downloaded rather than displayed by the browser.

The most common solution most web designers take when they try to force a file to download rather than be displayed by the browser is to add explanatory text next to the link suggesting that the customer use their browser options to right-click or CTRL-click and choose Save File to download the link. This is really not the best solution. Yes, it works, but since many people don’t see those messages, this isn’t an effective approach and it can result in some annoyed customers.

How To Create A Download Link For Mp3

Instead of forcing customers to follow specific directions that may not be intuitive to them, this tutorial shows you how to set up both the above methods and ask your readers to request the download. It also shows you a trick for creating files that will be downloaded by nearly all web browsers, but that can still be used on the customer’s computer.

How to Create an MP3 File Download Link. By Arn Goldman. The Internet has been both a blessing and a burden to music artists. Websites such as YouTube. Download high quality MP3 files with our YouTube to MP3 Converter. Copy and paste the video link that you want to convert. Select '.mp3' in the. Years ago, when a visitor to your website clicked a link that pointed to a non-HTML document like a PDF file, an MP3 music file, or even an image, those files. Mar 19, 2015 - There are three ways to decide who can download mp3s. Each mp3 you upload has its own setting for whether or not it can be downloaded. Click the 'Services Settings' link on the Plan Dashboard page. If they are set to Stream Only, and who can actually change a file and make it downloadable.

How to Have Visitors Download a File

  1. Upload the file you want your website visitors to download to your web server. Make sure you know where it is by testing the full URL in your browser. If you have the correct URL the file should open in the browser window.

    1. Edit the page where you want the link and add a standard anchor link to the document.

  3. Add text next to the link telling your readers they need to right-click or ctrl-click the link in order to download it.

Change the File to a Zip File

If your readers ignore the instructions to right-click or CTRL-click, you can adjust the file to something that will be automatically downloaded by most browsers, as opposed to that PDF which is read inline by the browser. A zip file or other compressed file type is a good option to use for this method.

  1. Use your operating system compression program to turn your download file into a zip file.

  2. Upload the zip file to your web server. Make sure you know where it is by testing the full URL in your browser window.

  3. Edit the page where you want the link and add a standard anchor link to the zip file.

Tips

  • Most operating systems have some compression software built in. If yours doesn’t, you can look up “zip files” in a search engine to find a program to build them for you.
  • You can use this technique for images, movies, music, and documents, as well as PDF files. Anything you can compress as a zip file you can post to your site for download.
  • You can also compress multiple files into one zip file, to let your customers download a collection of files with one click.
  • If none of the above methods is appealing, you can also force a download with PHP.

Do you have some music in an MP3 file that you think your readers would like to hear? Did you get permission to add a link to an MP3 file on your website? This is how you add the MP3 file to your website so your readers can open it or download it.

Make Sure MP3 Files Are Allowed

Some hosting services don't allow files over a certain size and some don't allow you to have certain types of files on your website, this includes MP3 files. Make sure that what you are about to add to your website is allowed by your Web hosting service first. You don't want to get your website shut down for not following the rules or do a lot of work getting ready to add the MP3 file to your website to find out you can't. Don't use copyrighted music, it could get you in trouble.

Free

If your hosting service does not allow you to have MP3 files on your website you can get your own domain name for your website or switch to another hosting service that does allow MP3 files or large files on websites.

Upload MP3 File To Your Website

Upload your MP3 files to your website using the easy file upload program that your Web hosting service provides. If they don't provide one then you need to use an FTP program to upload your MP3 file to your website.

Find Your MP3 File's Address (URL)

Where did you upload the MP3 file to? Did you add the MP3 file to the main folder on your website or to another folder? Or, did you create a new folder on your website just for MP3 files? Find the address of the MP3 file on your website so you can link to it.

Choose a Location For Your MP3 File

Which page on your Web site, and where on the page, do you want the link to your MP3 file to be? You could make the MP3 file open when the Web page opens, but a lot of people find this annoying and some find it to be bad form. So you should decide where you want the link to the MP3 file to show on the Web page.

Find The Location of the MP3 File in Your HTML

Mp3

Look through the code on your Web page until you find the spot where you want to add the link to your MP3 file. You may want to add <p> before you enter the code, for the link to your MP3 file, to add a space.

Add The Link to the MP3 File

Add the code to the place where you want the link to the MP3 file to show up in your HTML code. It's actually the same link code that you would use for a normal Web page link. You can make the text for the MP3 file link say anything you want it too. For example:

  • Your website is hosted at Freeservers
  • The username for your website is 'sunny'
  • Your website is located at http://sunny.freeservers.com
  • You uploaded the MP3 file to the main directory in your file manager on your website
  • The MP3 file is called 'flowers.MP3'
  • The text you want the reader to click on to download the MP3 file is 'Click here for the MP3 file called flowers.'
  • Your code will look like this:<a href='http://sunny.freeservers.com/flowers.MP3'>Click here for the MP3 file called flowers.</a>
  • If you had uploaded the MP3 file to a folder called 'fun', the code for the link to the MP3 file would look like this instead:<a href ='http://sunny.freeservers.com/fun/flowers.MP3'>Click here for the MP3 file called flowers.</a>

Testing The MP3 File Link

If you are creating your website on your computer, before downloading the MP3 file to your server, test the link to the MP3 file to make sure it works right by linking to the MP3 file on your hard drive like this:

  • The MP3 file is located in the 'My Documents' folder
  • It is called 'flowers.MP3'
  • The text for the MP3 file says 'Click here for the MP3 file called flowers.'
  • Code is: <a href ='file:///C|/My Documentsflowers.MP3'>Click here for the MP3 file called flowers.</a>