Create a Download Link for MP3

MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 Audio Layer III files (both of which are abbreviated as "MP3") are usually used for sharing audio files over the Internet because they are small in size compared to other audio formats such as Wave (WAV) and Windows Media Audio (WMA). It can be difficult to share MP3 files through email because of size limitations for the documents that you can attach, but if you create a download link for MP3 sharing you can let others download files of larger sizes.

Steps

  1. Rename the MP3 if necessary. Most MP3 files that are downloaded from the Internet already have appropriate names since they were being used for download links. However, you should still check the name to make sure it meets the following criteria.
    • Keep the name of the MP3 file short. To do this you can just keep the main keywords in the filename and remove common words such as "and," "it" and "the."
    • The filename should reflect the name of the song or audio in the MP3 file. In general, try to use the title of the song and perhaps the name of the artist when you are renaming the file.
    • The MP3 file's name should not have any capitalization, spaces or punctuation marks because they are not recognized in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). If you use any of these grammatical elements you will end up with a broken hyperlink code when you create a download link for MP3 sharing purposes, and people will not be able to download the MP3.
  2. Upload the MP3 on the Internet so others can access it. You should be able to upload MP3 files on your website server using the same method that you had used to upload HTML files (web pages) for your website. The MP3 should be uploaded as a public file so anybody can access it.
  3. Copy the URL of the uploaded MP3. This is known as the link URL or destination URL (the destination where the MP3 is located) and can be seen using 1 of the following methods.
    • Right-click on the preview link of the MP3 file and copy the link location.
    • Open your website homepage which should be located on your domain URL. Add the complete filename of the MP3 file including the file extension at the end of the domain URL and copy the complete URL (domain address with filename at the end).
  4. Create the hyperlink for the MP3 file. Use the following code "<a href="Link URL">Link Text</a>" and replace "Link URL" with the URL for the MP3 file and changing "Link Text" to the text that you want to appear for the link.
  5. Add the hyperlink code within the HTML of the webpage where you want others to see the download link.
  6. Open your website, browse to the download link and click on it to make sure that it is working correctly.

Tips

  • This method only OPENS the file inside the browser in Google Chrome version 49.0.2623.112 and does not initiate the download event.

Warnings

  • While it is convenient to share MP3 files over the Internet because they are usually smaller in size, the MP3 format can be highly compressed which makes its quality inferior compared to WAV and WMA formats. Decide which audio format you want to use for your download links depending on how much you are willing to sacrifice audio quality in exchange for smaller file size and faster download times.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Create_a_Download_Link_for_MP3&oldid=316417"