On the subject of Real, i use Real Helix for streaming audio and video, which will quite happily stream .mp3, .mpg, etc either directly or as part of a .ram playlist, however you really dont want to be encoding audio as a Real format, or your client will have to subscribe to the Real family too, which has grown up to be quite an expencive lock in format! If you search around, you may still be able to find a "Lame" mp3 encoder, or try this lil app
http://my.execpc.com/~sfritz/rc-mp3/
found the below script in my collections, which preloads embeds in netscape and uses bgsound in IE, i also believe flash to be a last resort, due to the expence and potential non install of the plugin or firewall restrictions.
3 parts to this script
===============================================
part 1
===============================================
<!-- -->
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!--
// Preload and play audio files with event handler (MouseOver sound)
// designed by JavaScript Archive, (c)1999
// Get more free javascripts at
http://jsarchive.8m.com
var aySound = new Array();
// Below: source for sound files to be preloaded
aySound[0] = "Chimes.wav";
aySound[1] = "Ding.wav";
// DO NOT edit below this line
IE = (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE")!=-1 && document.all)? 1:0;
NS = (navigator.appName=="Netscape" && navigator.plugins["LiveAudio"])? 1:0;
ver4 = IE||NS? 1:0;
onload=auPreload;
function auPreload() {
if (!ver4) return;
if (NS) auEmb = new Layer(0,window);
else {
Str = "<DIV ID='auEmb' STYLE='position:absolute;'></DIV>";
document.body.insertAdjacentHTML("BeforeEnd",Str);
}
var Str = '';
for (i=0;i<aySound.length;i++)
Str += "<EMBED SRC='"+aySound[i]+"' AUTOSTART='FALSE' HIDDEN='TRUE'>"
if (IE) auEmb.innerHTML = Str;
else {
auEmb.document.open();
auEmb.document.write(Str);
auEmb.document.close();
}
auCon = IE? document.all.auIEContainer:auEmb;
auCon.control = auCtrl;
}
function auCtrl(whSound,play) {
if (IE) this.src = play? aySound[whSound]:'';
else eval("this.document.embeds[whSound]." + (play? "play()":"stop()"))
}
function playSound(whSound) { if (window.auCon) auCon.control(whSound,true); }
function stopSound(whSound) { if (window.auCon) auCon.control(whSound,false); }
//--></SCRIPT><!-- -->
==============================================
part 2 ----- after body tag
<BGSOUND ID="auIEContainer">
==============================================
part 3
place withen your link: onMouseOver="playSound(0)" onMouseOut="stopSound(0)"
EXAMPLE
------------
<A HREF="YourPage.html" onMouseOver="playSound(0)"
onMouseOut="stopSound(0)"></A>
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