Adding music files to a site
There are a number of different ways to add music files to a site. Which method you choose depends on how you want visitors to listen to them.
Downloads
If you wish for visitors to simply download the music file, you need to create a File Download and link to that.
- Click the "New" item in the toolbar and select "Choose…"
- Navigate to the file that you want to add in the Finder window
- Click the "Insert" button to select the music file
- On another page, create a link to the File Download you just added
By adding the music as a File Download, it will either download to a visitor's computer, or play using the media player of their choice.
Within a Page
A music file can also be placed on a page, allowing visitors to listen to the audio while reading the rest of the page. To do so:
- Locate the audio in the Media Browser, Finder or other application
- Drag and drop it into the portion of the page you want
or:
- From the "Objects" toolbar item, insert a Media Placeholder
- Drag and drop an audio file onto the newly inserted placeholder, or use the Object Inspector to choose a file
or:
- Make a new "Photo/Video" page
- Drag and drop an audio file onto the page's placeholder image, or use the Object Inspector to choose a file
Note that if you place the object in the Sidebar, it can appear on multiple pages, giving them all access to the same music.
Background Music
You can easily add background music to a single page or a whole collection of pages in your site.
To make an audio object play in the background:
- Select an audio object that you've already to your site, as outlined above
- Open the Object Inspector
- Check the "Automatically Play" box
- If you may wish to have the background music play continuously, also check the "Loop" box
Note: Many of your visitors may well prefer your website not start playing music at them automatically, so use this feature wisely!
File Types
The best format for audio is to provide a .wav or .mp3 file.
iOS does have some restrictions on the specific encoding in an .mp3 file, so it is important to test the audio on an iPhone/iPad.
Other formats like .m4a, .aiff, .au, .mov (QuickTime audio-only), etc. may be playable, and show up in Sandvox - but many browsers are not going to be able to play them.
The inspector will show a warning when these partially-supported file formats have been chosen.
Protected audio and video files (such as videos purchased from the iTunes store, and music purchased a long time ago) are not going to work either; they are licensed only for the purchaser.
Keywords: music, sound, sounds, musical, file, files, document, documents, track, tracks, song, songs, audio, mp3, mp3s, mp4, mp4s, aac, aacs, aiff, aiffs, aids, wav, wavs, aif, apple, lossless, movie, movies, quicktime, object, callout, sidebar, download, downloads, downloading
