Adding Streaming media to website

I run my church's website and we want to add audio to the site, albeit sermons, clips from the worship band, etc...

But, I don't want to have to have each individual person download a mp3, and if by some chance they are still living in the 90's with the high-speed 56k, they might have to wait a while to download an entire 30 minute sermon.

So, I was talking to one of the guys in church and he suggested streaming the sermons/music from the site. Now, I googled "streaming music" and "stream music from/for website" and was returned with a lot of different radio stations that advertise their streaming media....so my next option is to inquiry the ingenius minds at AO. (yes, that is blatant sucking up, but hey, our egos need a healthy boost every once in a while)

So, what can I do to add streaming media to my website? Do I need to get a service that costs $? Is there a free alternative....can anyone help me? I'd appreciate it greatly if anyone could offer any wisdom on this matter.

If you don't want to reply, you can email me at routedemotions at yahoo dot com.
Thanks again.

For music, a cheap way of streaming music in mp3 form is by using Flash. Even on a 56K modem you can instantly stream long music sets. I prefer it over other methods. You can also stream with quicktime, real aduio, and MS Media player, although I'm not sure exactly how to go about it. Never needed it yet.

Thank you for your quick reponse. I guess I should have finished reading your post all the way through before I decided to reply, because my next question was going to be "how" and you answered that one already.

So, I guess I'll just keep googling to see what I can find. I'm not much of a coder, I'm more of a designer, so with Flash and stuff, I'm going to need some help, but I'll keep looking.

Feel free to continue replying, in case you might be able to answer the "how" part of my question, as it seems, xmaddness has answered my "what."

thank you again.

For help with flash visit http://www.flashkit.com It is the best resource for flash tutorials etc on the web.

Thank you very much! I will most definitely check out flashkit and see what I can find.

Thanks once again!

Also, if you're looking for a non-flash solution, I've used TinyPlayer before on one of my sites, and have had nothing but good results, not to mention it's free and skinable. You can also use the extended version of it, or the mini-version:

http://www.javazoom.net/applets/tiny...inyplayer.html

There are so many free solutions out there, the only cost problem I could come up with is dealing with hosting, since this sucks up a good deal of bandwidth and it can become expensive unless you're hosting it yourself.

My only prob with your player GG was it crashed Opera (not fluck - did it 3 times :()
but this article mght be of some use - i aint read it but it looks like something that could help -> http://www.sonify.org/tutorials/link...ble_streaming/

v_Ln

hmmm maybe not that useful now read through it a bit tho does provide some hints - this might be better for someone who is not used to flash that much -> http://www.sonify.org/tutorials/link...nced/swiffPEG/

you might also want to check out my tut on preloaders -> http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=244052

at least that way if you do want to preload the sound in without streaming it you can let the user know how much time is left etc