If you are used to downloading mp3 files you won't need to read this.
The Music-Hall, Opera and 19th-century pages have now been revised to show buttons which will open a Quicktime Player embedded into a new pop-up window. Most modern browsers should play these: if you don't have QuickTime installed you may be advised how to download it. If you can't make these pop-up players work then you can download or possibly play from the list below: once downloaded any MP3-playing program should be able to play them.
The behaviour of the link depends on how you have configured your system. If you have nominated a program such as Winamp to handle .mp3 files it may play the file from a download to a temporary location. Internet Explorer will put up a dialog asking you whether you want to open the file from its current location or to download it: I recommend the latter choice - in either case you will download it but in the former it will go into the temporary items folder, whereas with the latter you can choose where to put it. Double-clicking on it will then launch your mp3 player. You could also right-click on the link and select 'Save Target as..').
You can get good mp3 players free: WinAmp is a free mp3 player with good facilities and a wide choice of 'skins' to change the appearance. On installation it will offer you the choice to set it to recognize all files with the .mp3 suffix.
If you have QuickTime (bundled with current systems) you can play mp3 files by using the 'Open' command or, if the file has the QuickTime icon, simply double-clicking it. My previous recommendation, 'Soundjam', has been withdrawn having been swallowed by Apple, who have replaced it with iTunes, which has fewer facilities: it will encode MP3 files and also plays audio CDs, and it's free.
Depending on configuration, you may find that your browser, instead of simply downloading the file to wherever you normally download files to, will instead hide it under an assumed name in its Temporary Files folder (in the case of IE this is in System Folder/Preferences/Explorer/) from which you might want to rescue it before quitting. The preferences in Internet Explorer allow you to choose whether downloads for all sorts of files including mp3s should be post-processed with a selected application or downloaded to disk: the latter is probably preferable.
Safari will download the file temporarily (not under any obvious name or location) and play it as it does so: to keep the file control-click on the link and choose 'Download linked file as...'.
RECORDINGS FROM THE 19th CENTURY Arthur Pryor (750kB) The 7th Ragtime Orchestra (1MB) The Dumont Minstrels (778 kB) Beatrice Hart (807 kB) MUSIC HALL PERFORMERS HARRY TATE Motoring (2.6 MB) Selling A Car (2.6MB) GEORGE FORMBY SENIOR John Willie - Come On! (1.5 MB) Playing The Game In The West (1.4 MB) THE POLUSKI BROTHERS Misunderstood (1MB) The Village Blacksmith (1.1MB) DAN LENO The Huntsman (1.35 MB) Going To The Races (2.3MB) FLORRIE FORDE I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside (2.2MB) THE TWO GILBERTS Do Shrimps Make Good Mothers? (1.4MB) BEN ALBERT What Is It Master Likes So Much? (1.6MB) Three Ages Of Women (1.2 MB) CHARLES COBORN The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo (1.5 MB) DEMONSTRATION TRANSFERS OF 78s Félia Litvinne (1.4MB) Enrico Caruso (1.9MB) Theodore Chaliapine (1.6MB) Artur Rubinstein (2.9MB) Conchita Supervia (2.4MB) Henry Wood (2.2MB) OPERATIC VOCALS ON 78s Pasquale Amato (2.3 MB) Enrico Caruso (1.9MB) (as in demos, above) Caruso - quintet (2MB) Theodore Chaliapine (1.6MB) (as in demos, above) Chaliapine (Song of the Flea)(1.6MB) Amelita Galli-Curci (2.5MB) Selma Kurz (2.3MB) Félia Litvinne (1.4MB) (as in demos, above) Nellie Melba (2MB) Conchita Supervia (2.4MB) (as in demos, above) Francesco Tamagno (2MB) Luisa Tetrazzini (2.3MB) Further sites, with download links, are at: Stars of 78s and Stars of the Wireless.
HARRY TATE
GEORGE FORMBY SENIOR
THE POLUSKI BROTHERS
DAN LENO
FLORRIE FORDE
THE TWO GILBERTS
BEN ALBERT
CHARLES COBORN
All the recordings on this site are more than 60 years old and are out of mechanical copyright: all the music performed is by composers who have been dead for more than 70 years and is out of copyright.
