How to Listen to Music Online
Step by step instructions for people who have not listened to music on the internet before
NOTE: These instructions apply for listening to music files shown by a link like this: You need to remember
Most of our site contains inbuilt players for listening to our songs, and do not require the following instructions.
First - a few basics. Most music files on the internet are either Real player files or mp3 files. Real player files are specifically designed to be played by Real Player software which must first be downloaded before you can listen to the file. ( The player is free ) More commonly in use these days is the mp3 file which is easily played by a variety of free software programs including the default media player which was installed on your computer when you purchased it. ( This is most likely the Windows Media Player by microsoft. Go to the task bar at the bottom of your screen and click on START / Programs / Accessories / Entertainment / and you should see Media Player listed there.)
Both the Real and mp3 files are compressed audio files and depending on the rate at which they were compressed can play back at either Hi Fi or Lo Fi quality. Hi Fi files are quite large, (approx 1 megabyte per minute of music ) whereas Lo Fi files are much smaller. That means the music you listen to over the internet will sound really good, average, or less than desirable, depending on the type of internet connection you have. If you are fortunate enough to have high speed connection then you can easily listen to music in Hi Fi. If you have a low feed dial-up connection then you should listen in Lo Fi, otherwise the feed will just be too slow and the music will stop and start repeatedly while your computer struggles to keep up with the rate of flow required. ( whenever you see a "buffering" signal this is what is happening. )
OK so let's have a listen to something! Below is a short song clip ( not the whole song, just the first minute or so ) and it is a Lo Fi mp3 file. That means regardless of your internet connection you should easily be able to listen to it, assuming you have Media Player installed and configured correctly.
What to do
1. Point the mouse cursor to the blue link ( Most links on the internet are blue and underlined. A link means that when you click on it you will be linked to another page or file somewhere on the internet. )
2. Notice the cursor has now become a small hand-like icon. This means the link is live and if you click on it something will happen.
3. Click on it ( once )
4. Nothing will appear to have happened, but the media player will start up soon.
5. Wait.
6. Wait some more.
7. Eventually the windows Media Player will start up. ( It usually takes about 30 seconds, which seems an eternity when you're waiting! )
8. You need to wait just a bit longer while your computer connects to the source of the mp3 file and begins loading it to your computers temp directory for playing. You should see the "buffering" signal and a percentage approximation of how much of the file has been loaded. From this you can figure out roughly how long you'll be waiting till the file begins to play. When there is enough of the file loaded into your computers memory to give you an uninterrupted listening experience the Media Player begins playing the file while continuing to load whatever remains. Strictly speaking, while the computer is "downloading" the file to your temp directory in order for you to play it "live" over the internet, this is not actually called "downloading" a music file. We'll look into that in a minute.
9. If you've managed to get this far and still can't hear anything then go over the basics like turning on your monitors, making sure they are plugged into the correct input at the back of the computer etc. Hopefully all this sort of thing has already been taken care of.
Rebooting the computer is all it takes sometimes to correct a sound problem. This is something I always do first because it is such a simple procedure and you could spend hours trying to fix something that does not need to be fixed - and in fact CAN'T be fixed because the problem is with the computer's own messed up registry or whatever which it can only fix itself on a reboot. So start with rebooting your computer and see if that changes things. If you still can't hear sound then continue reading.
Check your computer's audio confiuration.
1. Volume Control
START / All programs / Accessories / Entertainment / Volume control
Check that nothing is muted and the volumes are up
2. Sound Card
START / Control Panel / Sound and audio devices ( or something similar )
Click on the audio tab, and under "Sound Playback" check the default sound card. You may want to experiment with some options given there. Click "apply" then OK. You can always revert back to the original settings.
3. Trouble shooting Media Player
If you still cannot hear anything I recommend you check the configuration of your Media Player.
If Media Player does not start, then you need to configure it correctly. ( If RealPlayer is muttering something about wanting to take over - don't let it.) Most windows based PC's should have Media Player installed. ( Media Player comes with the Microsoft Windows software installed on your computer. If you don't appear to have it the latest Media Player can be downloaded from Microsoft.) I recommend you use Media Player as your default player for audio and mp3 files simply because it's easy to configure. If you can't get your computer to play the files off the internet then configure your computer to use Media Player as the default player. ( You can still use RealPlayer, MusicMatch, Winamp or whatever program you have installed whenever you want to - you are just telling your computer that whenever you click on an audio or mp3 file you want Media Player to be the default player. )
To use Media Player - How to do it
1. Go to START at the bottom LHS of your screen
Click on Programs / Accessories / Entertainment / Windows Media Player /
2. Wait till the Media Player starts then click on Tools / Options / Formats ( or File types )
( If you can't see these features in the tool bar at the top of the Player move your cursor over the top of the Player and they should appear, or find a way of activating the tool bar because you need access to them )
3. Select "MP3 format sound" or "MP3 audio file" ( or whatever selects the MP3 format )
4. Click Apply / OK
You should now be able to listen to your internet audio and mp3 files.
If you still cannot hear anything ......... Houston, we have a problem. But not to worry, most of these things are not THAT difficult to solve, though computers do have a way of being pretty intimidating if you're not familiar with them. The important thing I think at this stage, is NOT TO GIVE UP, because you're missing out on something huge if you do. There is just so much good music to listen to out there if you persevere long enough to make it happen. And you usually only have to figure it out once, then you're OK for the rest of your listening life. So don't chuck the towel in. Find a way. There's a reason and an answer for everything. Find it, and fix it.
