How can I include music files on a web page?

Hi Lynette,

Thanks for attending our Dreamweaver 8 Introduction course. I hope it was a successful day for you.

My first advice would be to consider if you really do need sound on your web page. Personally I find it really annoying when web pages play music or sound, and I'm sure a lot of other people do too.

If you do have music or sound on your page, may I suggest letting your user have the control over when it starts playing (ie. let them click the 'play' button rather than it starting automatically).

You need to decide which audio format you are going to use. The following is taken from the Dreamweaver Help file. Search for 'audio file formats' in Dreamweaver help for more.

Audio file formats
Some factors to consider before deciding on a format and method for adding sound are its purpose, your audience, file size, sound quality, and differences in browsers.

Note: Sound files are handled very differently and inconsistently by different browsers. You may want to add a sound file to a Flash SWF file and then embed the SWF file to improve consistency.

The following are the more common audio file formats:
.midi or .mid
.wav
.aif
.mp3
.ra, .ram, .rpm, or Real Audio
.qt, .qtm, .mov or QuickTime

So, Lyn, there are a number of ways to put sound on your page. The quickest way to do it in Dreamweaver is to go to Insert -> Media -> ActiveX. Give it a title. Then right click the ActiveX object and choose Source File... Browse to your sound file and press OK.

Make sure you also upload the sound file to your web server. The path will need to match (eg. keep it in /asset/media or similar folder).

If you would like more information or an expansion, please reply to this post. Otherwise, please mark the post as resolved.

Good luck with your web development and we look forward to answering more of your questions soon.

Regards, Rich