Your Dropbox public folder is an amazing, often overlooked feature. Most people think it can only be used to share files with friends/family or host free photo galleries, but did you know, you can also use it for purposes like hosting a website or streaming music to your Facebook account wall. Here, let me show you how it works:
Step 1
Place an MP3 into your Dropbox public folder. (You can drag it right from iTunes, if you want.)
Step 2
Right-click the file and choose Copy public link.
Step 3
Paste the link into a new Status Update or Link on Facebook. Facebook will automatically detect that it’s an audio file and give you a field to enter the artist name and album, if you’d like.
Step 4
Post it. Now, the item will appear with the link, the artist/album info and handy dandy blue Play button. Stream away!
I use this method for sharing original / hard-to-find songs on Facebook one at a time. It works great, it’s free and simple. Plus, Facebook is a great place to promote your band using one of the bajillion Facebook Band page apps available.
Like I said, Dropbox is groovy if you know how to use it. Shortly I’ll be sharing other groovy ways to use Dropbox so stay tuned!
12 Comments
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Wolfgang
June 16, 2011 at 12:06 am
Great! The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Kai_it
June 16, 2011 at 7:19 am
It does’nt work, I can’t see Play button on facebook
Wolfgang
June 16, 2011 at 7:26 am
Same for me … until the mp3 file was totally synced to the dropbox public folder;)
MrGroove
June 16, 2011 at 10:10 am
I’m curious if it will work once your in SYNC like Wofgang mentioned. You good?
Johann
October 19, 2011 at 4:30 pm
I don’t get the blue play button either, and my file is fully synced. It does play if I click on the link, in a separate window. This is all on an iPad though, haven’t tried on a pc yet. I had to modify my public link for Facebook to recognise it as a song too, it has to end in .mp3
Great idea though, looks like I will be able to use dropbox + Facebook to deliver my podcasts.
Cal
December 27, 2011 at 3:28 am
How can I let others copy my mp3’s using dropbox without making them stream it? I could delete the mp3 extension and then have them put it back on on the other side, but I’m hoping there’s another way. Any ideas?
zomars
May 5, 2012 at 9:54 am
This doesn’t work anymore ):
Gerhard
June 1, 2012 at 7:33 pm
Does it work or doesn’t it? The “handy dandy blue Play button” does not show (unless I have done something wrong?). It would be great if somebody could come up with a clear answer.
Sunjo
August 21, 2012 at 8:50 am
It doesn’t work anymore !! :/
bhuwan
March 12, 2013 at 8:25 am
dhchattishga
korba
Tommy Boy
September 23, 2014 at 10:42 am
This no longer works. All the user gets is the ability to download it. You cannot stream the file.
nathan
March 16, 2016 at 7:05 am
I had trouble doing this recently, couldn’t get it to play the song.
After a lot of searching, I started using ez-converter.com to convert my audio into video, and posting it that way. ez-converter.com is a free online service that doesn’t require registration or any personal info.
hope this helps