Streaming Audio with OpenDrive
In just a few short years, digital audio technology has quickly gone from being the wave of the future to something that some people simply cannot live without. Certain audio formats such as MP3, although few had faith in them in the beginning, have become the most common and convenient means of enjoying our favorite music. What started out on the PC and Mac has graduated to MP3 players and now smart phone devices that include many different functions wrapped up in one, including the ability to store and play digital audio.
With digital audio libraries growing to several gigabytes and even into the terabyte range, it has become necessary to have a means to access those thousands of audio files without having to keep them on your device, where they can exceed the device’s onboard storage capabilities, causing you to either have to limit storage of other critical files or even limit the amount of music you can take with you.
OpenDrive offers streaming of several popular audio file formats, allowing you to keep all of your audio files in a central location, which can be accessed from anywhere and any device, allowing you to stream those files conveniently and effortlessly. Your entire music library is at your fingertips with OpenDrive.
Currently, the following file formats can be streamed with OpenDrive’s music player:
- MP3
- M4A
OpenDrive provides streaming links for each file, permitting you to play your audio file on any digital player or device that supports streaming technology. From the web interface, while logged into your account, clicking the down arrow on the file’s icon and selecting Links from the menu will give you access to the streaming link, as well as other options for downloading.
Both audio and video files can be played in a small preview player directly from the Links menu, as seen in the screenshot above, allowing you to preview the file to make sure it is the one you want before committing to streaming or downloading.
For streaming links to work, however, the file’s permissions must be set to Public or Hidden to override security settings. File permissions set to Private will prevent you from accessing the file unless you are logged into your OpenDrive account and are accessing the file directly from the web player.
If you wish to play your audio file in a streaming media player, you can either configure your browser to open the file in your player of choice or copy and paste the streaming link directly into your player. The file will then begin playing. With players such as VLC, as well as others, you can paste a list of links into a playlist that will play a selection of your audio files in a queue, providing hours of musical enjoyment.
OpenDrive makes streaming audio files quick and easy, anywhere, from any device. With their unlimited storage accounts, you can store tens of thousands of files on the cloud and access them at your convenience. Never go without a single part of your music library ever again.
Take a drive with OpenDrive today!
