streaming a full song or play half?

Dear all,

i am trying to have a site built that will help the unsigned music artist to sell their songs.the problem is the programmers i am using don't really know much about music streaming,if i do the wrong choice it could cost the life of my future business,i hope someone can help me please,here are my questions:

1)i dont really understand what streaming is about,if i have an mp3 track of 3 mb,the programmers will create a javascript code that will play only half of the file,this mean i am using only 1,5 mb bandwith for that song...can stremaing do better than that?could i play the full music of 3mb for 1 mb bandwith?
please explain because i am lost:!}, thank you.

2)how does streaming works,do i have to encrypt the file first or can a streaming player just stream a music from the original file without heaving load on the processor?

3)could you explain to me how this process of uploading a song on a website as an mp3 and then when you press play on that site you can hear the same song on a streaming format?

thank you very much all,i cannot have any help from the programmers ,you are my last chance.


bambinou

Please read the following FAQ: General streaming media FAQ

Streaming allows to play content almost instantaneously so you don't have to download the whole clip before starting playing it. That's the main difference between streaming and downloading.

Obviously multicast technology can save your bandwidth, but equipment supporting it is not wide spread.

If you don't know how to develop your web-site, you can outsource web development.