Prohibiting Downloads

[Ghantana]

I have an unusual problem on my hands. I am developing a site for a band and they have requested a way to put music up on there site (this is not a problem), allow people to listen to it but not download it. This is a problem. The standard right click disabled doesn't apply here. Is there a way to run the music, server side perhaps, but not allow a user to download it for personal use?

[requestcode]

Not that I have heard of. The way a browser works is it has to download the music file to the PC to play it. Most sites will put clips of the music instead of the whole song.

[BestZest]

You could put the music in flash (http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/).
It can't download it this way, but people could still use a sound recorder program to record it. I would also recomend requestcode 's suggestion of only putting a clip up, or add some distortion to the sound.

BestZest

[AdamGundry]

If you use a streaming format such as Flash (as BestZest suggested), Real Audio or similar it will make it slightly more difficult to record, but anything you play out of the speakers can be routed back into the sound card by someone with a bit of knowledge (and cabling), so don't rely on it.

Adam