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July 1, 2007

Listen to MP3 Files Online Using Google's Flash Player

I checked Microsoft's recently launched file storage service and I was surprised to see there's no way to view your files online. Not even to listen to your MP3s. And Microsoft's service is not a singular case: there are many sites that link to an MP3 and expect you to download the file and open it in your favorite player.

But there are also Flash players that let you listen to any MP3 file available online: one of these players was created by Google to use it for Gmail's MP3 attachments. A Greasemonkey script (you need Firefox + Greasemonkey to install it) can add the player next to each link to an MP3 file. Or at least to a file that has the .mp3 extension.


You could also add this code to your site to include the player (replace [MP3_file] with the proper URL of the MP3 file):



Now if only we could have a player for other file formats like Ogg Vorbis or Windows Media Audio...

39 comments:

  1. It would be even better if it could do playlists. I can't find anything to play mp3 playlists online.

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  2. xdrive.com allows you to build playlists and play them in a built-in player online.

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  3. I've been using this for awhile and I love it.

    I keep forgetting that it's nt normal for a player to pop up next to mp3 files. It's very disappointing when i use other people's computers.

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  4. box.net is a great storage service with file preview of music files and images.

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  5. > Now if only we could have a player for other file formats like Ogg Vorbis or Windows Media Audio...

    I think this is up to Macromedia/Adobe Flash developers.

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  6. Thank for the tip Ionut
    I tried on Google Pages and it works!

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  7. For those who cannot find online free players... here's one that can do mp3, flv, jpg, etc.

    http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_Media_Player

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  8. The link to the script is broken, please fix it.

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  9. It seems userscripts.org doesn't exist.

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  10. this swf file seems to support options called feed and another called mediaRSS. I thought perhaps either of them could be used to make playlists using an xml feed. but that didnt seem to be the case.

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  11. I am trying so hard to post music on my blog

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  12. It would be nice if it could do playlists. I can't find anything to play mp3 playlists online.... Unfortunatly

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  13. you should go on media-convert.com there you can convert wav to MP3

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  14. awesome.......and u can download any song(audio) in emp3.com

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  15. I have up load several MP3 files as attachment to my Google Site. I want to use the Flash player mentioned above:
    type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://mail.google.com/mail/html/audio.swf?audioUrl=[MP3_file]" height="27" width="320"><

    The instructions say to replace [MP3_file} with proper URL. I can't get it to work but I'm not sure what to put as the URL. Should I use http://sites.google.com/sites/redhoundmusic/RHmusic/xxxdddd.mp3 or
    do I use the real url that my users will be tracked to http://www.redhoundmusic.com/RHmusic/xxxdddd.mp3.
    Also do I need to remove the [ ]. and is there anything else I need to do to the code.
    I apologize for being a stupid non-web developer but I am trying to do a huge favor for my father and I'm really sucking at it right now.

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  16. that player was working before a year. Now google dont wants us to use it. I will update you if I could find an alternate.

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  17. I change the code and replaced Gmail's player with Google Reader's player.

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  18. Play list ??? I to look for a way to add one ? Also if anyones still looking for an mp3 or what ever file host just lookup,
    fileupyours

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  19. just remove one of the questionmarks (?) and the [] also delete those i dont know what theyre called and add (&play=true)without the quotes and after your mp3 file.
    this is my example:


    and it works!
    now somebody tell how the f-ck to make it autostart cause i've been at it for two fu--ing days and i cant figure it out.

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  20. Anon - your example didn't show up... I am trying to make this work and its not working for me... anyone have another embed code that works??

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  21. dosent work anymore sorry.

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  22. this script: ....embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=[MP3_file]" height="27" width="320"></embed...

    works on Blogger. I hosted my file to comcast. it wont auto start but it does work when you put in the link. thanks :)

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  23. This script still works. To clear up some questions on the audiourl, here is the exact script I used (just with file and domain name changed).


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  24. Bryan, you say "here is the exact script", but where is "here"? :-)

    The code in the article works like a charm in most browsers (I've tried FF, Safari, Chrome and Opera), but not in IE, which is a pity since most people use that one. Any ideas? I'd be very grateful for any help on this.

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  25. Same problem... Although works on Firefox not working on IE. So it's useful. I need to get my demos fast and easily for certain people to listen to. What is the easiest and most firmly working mp3-player that I can embed to my page?

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  26. Autoplay by adding &autoPlay=true after mp3 url

    Thank you for your

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  27. Thanks, worked great !!!

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  28. Not trying to backstab google but you guys should try using yahoo mediaplayer. I'm using it. It's awesome! http://mediaplayer.yahoo.com

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  29. @anonymous, that's a good idea and I got one of your examples working:
    http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://translate.google.com/translate_tts%3Ftl%3Den%26q%3Dbanana

    You had some extra quotes for some reason, but this one worked for me. I was able to replace banana with Hello+John+how+are+you to get it to read a sentense.

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  30. @Mirae.D

    Thanks, the Yahoo! player is great because it works for IE whereas the Google one doesn't! :)

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  31. Why can't you get it to work? I can get it to work fine on my sites.

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  32. It works great. Anyway to auto-replay or loop?

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  33. example
    embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/download/459690" height="27" width="320"></embed

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  34. the mp3 file has to be a URL address of the actual mp3 or otherwise a download link, if you find a download link right click it and click copy link address and then replace the [MP3_file] with that on mine just add the<> at the begging and the end like the orginal

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