You can if you have a Platinum, Gold, Silver, or Bronze hosting package. (Free and Domain accounts don't support recorded audio.)

There are three basic steps:

1. Create the audio file on your computer.
2. Transfer the audio file to your account on the server.
3. Update your website to link to the audio file.

Each of these steps will be covered below.

There are several types of audio files and its important to understand what they are so you can select the best format for the audio on your website. Before we get into each type, there's one term that should be understood: streaming. Streaming audio basically means listening to an audio file while it is being transferred to your computer. The alternative – non-streaming audio – means waiting to hear the file until the entire audio file is transferred.

Windows Audio (.WAV) files are very common; every computer can play them. They are are uncompressed, so the quality is perfect, but the files are extremely large. A five-minute CD quality stereo recording can be more than 50 MB! WAV files are not streaming unless the visitor has special software which few visitors have. Because of their size and non-streaming, WAV files are not good for the Web.

MP3 has become the most prominent audio format online, because of the growing use of broadband Internet connections, the popularity of MP3 players, and the fact that MP3 is an open audio standard (not held privately by one company). MP3 files offer near-CD quality but require only about 1/10th the space of a WAV file. Pseudo-streaming of an MP3 file can be done very easily by creating a .m3u file that points to the mp3 file. MP3 is the best and most popular format for high-quality music. Music groups often put MP3s of their songs on their websites to promote their music.

Real Audio (.RAM) files were designed specifically for streaming audio on the internet. Since the quality of streaming audio is directly related to the bandwidth, higher quality Real Audio files can be created for high-speed internet (DSL, cable modem) users and lower-quality Real Audio files can be created for low-speed (dial-up). Real Audio files don't have the sound quality of MP3s, but their upside is the streaming and their smaller size. A five-minute Real Audio file created for 56K modem users takes up about 1.25 MB (1/4 of an MP3). Recordings of speeches or sermons don't require the same kind of quality as music, making Real Audio ideal for them.

These are prorietary audio formats created by Microsoft to compete with MP3 and Real Audio. They are not as widely used, so while you are welcome to use them, we are not going to discuss them here at the present time.

Streaming audio enables a person to listen to audio at the same time it is downloading. True streaming technology adjusts the the bit rate of the audio to match the listeners connection speed. True streaming requires special streaming server software that is rather expensive. OurChurch.Com does not offer true streaming.

In most applications pseudo-streaming is adequate. Pseudo-streaming does not adjust the bit rate of the audio but does enable the listner to begin listening to the audio file immediately as the audio is downloading. In fact, when most people think of streaming audio, this is pseduo-streaming is what they are looking for.

Pseudo-streaming is accomlished by creating and linking to a little text file that points to the audio file. More information about setting up pseudo-streaming is included under the quesiton "How do I create an audio file from a CD?"

MP3 files can be "ripped" from a CD using Windows Media Player, which comes installed on every Windows-based PC. There are many other MP3 encoders available. To find them go to download.com and search for "MP3 encoder," or Google Free MP3 encoder.

To create Real Audio files, you need the Real Producer. They have a basic version which is free and a plus version which (at last check) is $200.

If you are using the Windows Media Player to rip songs from a CD, start the Windows Media Player. Right-click on the Rip tab, move your mouse down to “Tools” and then over to “Options.” On the window that pops up, click the “Rip Music” tab. Select “MP3” for the format, and move the Audio Quality to “Smallest Size” (128 Kbps). Put the CD into your CD player and click the “Rip” tab. MP3 files will be created in a sub-folder inside you’re My Music folder.

To do pseudo-streaming of MP3 files, you will also have to create a text .m3u file for each audio file. Use a text editor such as Notepad, enter a single line with the URL of the audio file, and save that file. For example, if I have an audio file at http://www.MySite.com/view/uploads/Track1.mp3 I simply put that address into Notepad and save it as Track1.m3u. You can also list more than one file in the m3u text file. They will be played sequentially as you have them listed in your m3u text file. This allows you to break up very large audio files into smaller files and then have them play as one file for your visitors or create compilations of songs. Just list the smaller files in order in the m3u file.

If you are using RealProducer to create RealMedia files or another MP3 encoder, use the instructions that come with that software.

First you'll have to connect a tape player to the "line in" input of your sound card. If you want to create a Real Player file, then follow the instructions and help provided with RealProducer or the MP3 encoder software after you've downloaded and installed it. See previous question, "What software to I need?"

If you would like to create a .wav or .mp3 file, any audio recording and editing software will do. We recommend the free software Audacity.

If you have a BEACON built website, we recommend using BEACON's "Upload Graphics and MIDIs" features for files under 5MB and BEACON's "Upload large files (FTP)" for files larger than 5MB. If you have an NE1 built website, the Asset Manager allows uploading of Media Files.

If you do not have a BEACON or NE1 built website, you can upload your files using the following method:

1. Open Internet Explorer and enter "ftp://www.YourDomainName.com/view/uploads/" in the address bar and click "Go". (replace "YourDomainName" with your websites actual domain name.)
2. Login with your cpanel username and password.
3. If you are using Internet Explorer 6 or earlier, go to the next step. If you are using Internet Explorer 7, click the "Page" button and select "Open FTP Site in Windows Explorer."
4. Leaving that FTP window open, in a different window find the file(s) you want to upload on your computer.
   (Example: If the file(s) you want to upload are in your "My Documents" folder on your computer, then open your "My Documents folder in another window.)
5. Then select the file(s) you want to upload and drag them into the FTP window. A progress window will appear and show you the progress of your upload.

You can also you use FTP software. Please refer to the menu item at left called "Using FTP to transfer files." Audio files are very large and you may not be able to use the file manager built into your Webmaster page or cPanel to upload them.

Note 1: If you are using the BEACON or NE1 web builder to create and update your website, it's important that you upload your audio files to the /public_html/view/uploads folder. That is the folder in which BEACON looks for audio files.

Note 2: When FTPing (transferring via separate FTP software) audio files to your account, you have the option to select the transfer mode: either binary or text/ASCII. Audio files must be transferred in binary mode.

Note 3: If you are pseudo-streaming the audio files, be sure to also upload the text file for the streaming - the .m3u (for MP3 files) or .ram (for RealMedia files).

OurChurch.Com has added a special "multimedia" page type in BEACON for Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze account users to easily incorporate audio, video, and other multimedia files into their websites. If you're using the BEACON web builder, from your Webmaster page add a "multimedia" page to your website. On the form used to edit your multimedia page, you'll see a button at the bottom of the page to "Add additional entries." If you click there, a form will appear for adding a multimedia file to that page. The form allows you to select any of the files in the "uploads" folder and enter a title and description for the file.

The NE1 web builder has a special "Asset Manager" that will assist in placing media files.

NOTE: If you are streaming MP3 files be sure to select the .m3u file rather than the .mp3 file. If you are streaming RealAudio files be sure to select the .ram file rather than the .rm on your multimedia page. See the next question for details.

If you are not using BEACON or NE1, then you should create a link to the URL of each audio file.

RealAudio (.rm) format requires two files. The first is the music file itself. We'll call it music.rm for this example. The second file is a simple text file. We'll call it music.ram. Let's also assume your domain name is mysite.com.

First, upload music.rm to your site. For BEACON sites it needs to go in the /view/uploads/ directory. Then create a text file in Notepad (START > Programs > Accessories > Notepad). On the first line of the text document, type the URL of the audio file, such as http://mysite.com/view/uploads/music.rm

Now save that file as music.ram and upload it to your account in ASCII mode. For BEACON, it also needs to go in the /view/uploads/ directory.

To make the music play in BEACON, please see previous question, paying particular attention to the "Note." For all other sites, you can simply create a link to the music.ram file.

You can find more information about creating audio files and putting them on your website in the following article from OurChurch.Com's Christian WebTrends Blog: Sounds from the Church: Sermon Audio Tips.