Streaming Audio Tutorial Page 7 — Why MP3? Choosing MP3 for streaming is useful because, with so many MP3 players available, there's a good chance your listening audience will already have one installed. Plus, there's no overlooking the fact that MP3 will remain, in the foreseeable future, the most popular online audio format. Be clear about your purpose in streaming and adjust your bitrate accordingly. If you want dialup users to be able to browse while they listen then, sending a 56kbps feed will result in broken-up audio and slow-loading Web pages. Use 16kbps instead. It doesn't sound as good but it won't inconvenience dialup users. If you are planning on delivering a radio show to people listening on a DSL-connected computer while they do dishes or perform some other un-computer-related task, 128kbps would be appropriate. As always, keep in mind the copyrights involved with the music you choose to stream to avoid ASCAP, BMI and other collection groups burying you in lawsuits. To last page of Streaming Audio To next page of Streaming Audio Back to the HTML Home Page