Looking for a flash programmer!

[Jono]

Hi,

I run YoPo Music. We sell library music CDs on line, but also over the past year have been moving more and more towards selling individual tracks as digital downloads with Actinic. This works great. What I'm looking for is someone who could help me the audio preview side.

Obviously a customer needs to hear a track (I think in full) before they are going to part with the readies - so we use Flash to do this. Firstly it streams very quickly even on dial up - and also it's a little harder to steal the audio i.e you can't just right click the link etc. The quality is a little grainy but more and more people understand that this is a low quality preview etc. (The download is top quality 320Kbps MP3 file)

So my question is...! To do the Flash encoding we us a programme called "MP3 Sound Stream". A neat product that produces the two Flash files and code you need to make it work. Problem with it, is that when you click to preview a track - you tend to listen and start scolling down the page to more tracks - now when you start another track it doesn't stop the previous one - so you then have to go back to the first one you started and hit the stop button. Sounds petty but it is a little annoying.

So...are there any programmers out there who would be interested in pitching to improve this part of our site. I have to say - I do quite like the Flash audio as it seems to be immediately playable on so many computers.

Also - I think the homepage of our site looks a bit untidy - not slick and pro enough - would be interested in hearing from anyone with some ideas to improve that side too.

Many thanks.


Jono

www.yopo.co.uk

[garyhay]

Jono

Does the MP3 Sound Stream program just create a swf file or does it create a .fla or is thier a .fla in the program files folder that is used.

It does look good on your site and easy to use.

[Jono]

Hi Gary,

Just the swf files (2)
Here's the code I paste in - and then change the link to the relevant file.
!!<
<object classid="clsid27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=4,0,0,0" width=70 height=30 align="absmiddle">
<param name=movie value="http://www.yopo.co.uk/Flash/WellKnown/WaltzingUpbeatd.swf">
<param name=quality value=best>
<param name=wmode value=transparent>
<param name=bgcolor value=#FFFFFF>
<param name=loop value=true>
<embed src="http://www.yopo.co.uk/Flash/WellKnown/WaltzingUpbeatd.swf" quality=best wmode=transparent bgcolor=#FFFFFF loop=true width=70 height=30 type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" align="absmiddle">
</embed>
</object>
</p> Low Quality Evaluation Audio. Download Audio will be crisp full bandwith Broadcast Standard. Please do not copy. Copyright 2004
</
>!!

I think i did ask the guys at MP3 Soundstream if there was anyway of making
a currently playing track stop by starting a new one - but they said no because they're two different files.

Jono

[SusanF]

Quick Site Review

Hi Jono

A really interesting site. I create photo slideshows (for the school I work in) and this would be a great way of getting the right background music for each show - so I'll most likely be a future customer!

I have to say that the home page does look a little dull - maybe a few images would brighten it up. You also need to add links from some of the text. For instance "Music to Voice Over Take 5 - just £4.99" is one of your highlights - yet I cannot just click on this to get to the appropriate product. Instead I have to find the appropriate section and then trawl through this. Similarly, for someone who doesn't have Flash, why not provide the direct link to get it, rather than the non-clickable text to the Macromedia homepage.

I agree with you about the preview soundtracks. If you are browsing through a section and find a track that looks interesting, you would expect to click on it and have the other track stop immediately. Sometimes I couldn't remember which track I had playing, so didn't know which to turn off to hear the next!

Regards,
Susan.

[garyhay]

Jono

I will have a look at the Software you are using.

1 thought did occur to me. If you used a preview button you could fire Javascript popup to play the sounds in a tiny (start/stop) size window.

If you chose another file to play this would load in the same tiny window stopping the original.

[Jono]

Thanks Gary - that sounds interesting.

One thing I have done is start using one button for the preview - so it changes to a "stop" sign when you hit play - at least that way you can see which track is playing!

Jono