How to put your own music on your page

Everything on this page is self explanatory. This page is not for the totally computer illiterate. I don`t have the time to walk you through it personally. So please don`t blow up my notes asking a million SIMPLE questions. I don`t have the time to answer. READ and FOLLOW the instructions like I`ve written them and it WILL work. Check the guestbook for satisfied customers. LOL

There are 5 relatively easy steps to putting real music on your Black Planet web page.

Have a music file saved as a WAV on your hard drive.
Compress the WAV file so it can be uploaded.
Open a free web page at a site that allows file sharing because you cannot upload music files to BlackPlanet`s server (you can only link them here).
Upload your compressed music WAV file to your new personal web page.
Add the music code in your BlackPlanet personal message to link the music here.

First you will need to have the song you want on your hard drive. You can record your personal cd`s onto your hard drive with programs like MusicMatch, RealOne (formerly Real Jukebox) or Media Jukebox. If you need to download a free jukebox go to Media Jukebox. If you are recording from your own CD make sure you record the song to your hard drive as a .WAV file or you will need to convert it later.

Or you can download almost ANY song off the internet with the file sharingprogram winMX. All ofthe songs you download from here will be in .MP3 format. You will still need a jukebox to convert the songs to a .WAV file. Also, make sure any song you download has a "44100" frequency. And try to download songs that are 4-5 million bytes or less.

Now once you have your song on your hard drive saved as a .WAV you will need to compress the file. This is the most important step because music files are much too large to upload to free web pages. You can do this by downloading dBpowerAMP Music Converter or by using software that`s probably already on your computer, called the "Sound Recorder". This is the method I will break down for you step-by-step:

If you do can`t hear sound on your pc, you may need to install the mpeg.exe so your sound card can play. You can download the mpeg.exe here. If you had to download the mpeg.exe file (it`s a very small file and its free) you need to go to that file and execute it. Restart your computer. NOW youre ready to go.

Click on START
Choose RUN

A run program box will appear. In the Open field, type in:
c:\windows\sndrec32.exe as shown below

If the sndrec32.exe file is located somewhere besides in c:\windows do a search for it. However, it should be there.

Now click the OK button and you will see the sound recorder program box.

Click on the FILE menu and then choose OPEN

Now theopen dialogue box will appear. Find the directory where you have the WAV file you wish to convert. Click on that WAV and then click OPEN

Now you should have a Sound Recorder Box with the name of your file at the top.

Click on FILE then pick PROPERTIES

The Properties window should pop up. It tells you in the highlighted area that this file is currently 321 kilobytes and its format is PCM 22,050 8 bit mono or something to that effect. You are about to convert it to MPEG 3-Layer, 32 kBit mono, 22,050 hz and you will be able to see the difference in the size of the new file. Now Click on CONVERT NOW.
The Sound Selection box will come up. Click on the little down arrow on the FORMAT field. Scroll down to choose the MPEG Layer-3 format.

Now you want to choose the ATTRIBUTES box.

Choose the 32kBit/s 22,050 Hz, Mono, 4KB/s

Click on SAVE AS and save this format as MPEG. You will not have to perform this step again because you saved it as MPEG.

Then click on OK. Now your sound selection box will look like this.

Click OK again. Now you will see your WAV file being compressed.

The dialogue properties box will pop up when your WAV is finished. Compare the properties of your new WAV to the original. It has been reduced from 321 Kilobytes to 58 Kilobytes.

Click on OK. Finally your home free. The sound recorder will appear and you can listen to your WAV by clicking on the PLAY button or you can go ahead and save your new compressed WAV file by choosing SAVE or SAVE AS if you want to rename the file.

I suggest you create a folder for your compressed WAVs in the same directory that your original WAVs are in. It saves time when selecting and saving so you don`t have to jump all over the place.

Now that you have your new compressed wave, you need to create a separate webpage off BlackPlanet because you can not upload music (WAV, MP3, WMA) files directly onto BlackPlanet`s server. Open a free web page at a site that allows files sharing and the ability to upload WAV files. Angelfire won`t allow you to link files from its site. I`m not sure about Geocities or other free sites. Upload your newly compressed WAV. You may want to create a new directory for your music files. It may take 2-5 minutes for the WAV to upload, so be patient. Although the file has been compressed it is still rather large. Of course, if you have webspace that you are paying for you can upload your WAVS there. There are usually no restrictions on file sharing for web space that is payed for. Just remember that if your BP page getsalot of hits the music file may eat up your daily alotted bandwidth.

Now insert the following code into your BlackPlanet personal message to link the music here:

<BGSOUND SRC="http://www.name_of_website.com/directory_where_you_saved_file/
filename.WAV" LOOP="infinite">

VOILA - YOU NOW HAVE MUSIC!!!

PAGE TIPS:

It takes time for music to download on your page. If you do not have enough text on your page to keep your visitor there until the music finishes downloading no one will ever know you have music! You may also want to make mention of the name of the song playing at the top of your page.
I advise you NOT to have a bunch of pictures/animations on your page along with music. YOUR PAGE WILL TAKE FOREVER TO LOAD. Some of you really overdo it with the pics of celebrities, cartoon dolls, animated banners. A cardinal rule in web design is "LESS is MORE!" Most people will get angry and just leave your page if it takes too long to load. I know I will!