Question

I am currentyl developing a site for a client who requires artist to upload their music but only play samples of it, sorta like iTunes. The site has a php backend and is currently using a basic mp3 flash player to play mp3s.

My question is there a flash player that can be configured to play only samples or is there a way through php or another method to load only a portion of the song and have it play in a player?

Answer 1

You have a few options:

1. You could programatically interface with a tool like Silverlight or Flex to access a media player control and set properties.
2. You could use a tool like ffmpeg programatically to create a clipped version of the file, similar to what BitPim does for creating ringtones, then serve that up.

I would go with the second approach.