7 Questions You Need To Ask Before Buying Flash Streaming Audio Software

If you are looking to add audio to your web site there is plenty of choice regarding easy to use flash streaming audio software. I have reviewed over 20 products and they are all fairly easy to use and all cost less than $100. But there are some small differences to these programs which could cause you problems if you make the wrong choice. After reading this report you will be able to buy your streaming audio software knowing you have made the right decision.

So hear are a few questions to ask yourself before you buy your flash streaming audio software.

1. What is your audio going to consist of, voice, music?
2. How long is your audio going to be? 30 seconds? 30 hours?
3. How many visitors are you expecting on your web site per month?
4. Do you want your visitors to be able to download your mp3s?
5. What type of controls/buttons do you want?
6. Do you want to automatically add background music tracks?
7. can you edit the html on your web site?

I will go though each question to explain why this should affect your decision.

1. Do you require HiFi sound, or you go to simply put your voice on your site? The higher the quality the larger the file is going to be. Only one product provides a HiFi option and that is MP3 Sound Stream HiFi Audio Stream. Most other programs allow you to select the quality of the audio.

2. Will you be using short voice tracks of a few minutes? If your track is longer you will need a program that does not embed the mp3 file into the Flash file (swf). Large swf files will take a long time to load but if the mp3 is separate the button will load quickly and the mp3 will start to stream almost instantaneously.

3. If you are using long audio tracks and have a high number of visitors your hosting company may charge you for extra band width or even cut off your web site. For example, if you have one audio track of 30mb in size and you have 10,000 visitors listening to it this would take 300gb of bandwidth. So if you are considering putting large audio files on your site check with your hosting company first. You may wish to consider using a subscription service like Audio Generator as this could work out cheaper than extra bandwidth charges.

4. If you want your visitors to be able to download your mp3 files so they can listen to them later, on their computer or mp3 player, then using a program that has the mp3 embedding in the flash file means you will need to upload an extra copy of the mp3. Programs with embedded mp3 files are useful if you DON'T what your visitors to download your audio file.

5. Some programs supply a wide choice of button styles and colours, other just give one button style. Make sure you are happy with the styles available.

6. If you want to easily add background music some programs have this built in. Other programs you will need to use audio editing software to mix in the background music.

7. If you are using an online website builder or free blogging service you may not be able to add audio to your web site. Check with your provider to see if you can edit the html code and upload swf and mp3 files

Once you have considered all these questions take a look at the comparison chart at WebsiteAudioReviews.com and you will find the right streaming audio software for you.