Right place for putting mp3 files in an android project

Question

Is there any folder like res/drawable for mp3 or generally audio files? If yes, what is it and how can I get access to it from the app?

Raw resources are not compressed or manipulated in any way when packaged into your application, making them an ideal way to store precompressed files such as audio files. — Prateek Joshi, Jul 09 '15 at 19:07
you can use either raw folder or asset folder........ for raw refer this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7499605/how-to-play-the-audio-files-directly-from-res-raw-folder for asset refer this code https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9493983/save-audio-file-in-raw-or-assets-folder-to-sdcard-android also refer difference between Asset & Raw https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5583608/android-difference-between-res-and-assets-directory — Dheeresh Singh, Jun 09 '12 at 08:39

score 35 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 12 '17 at 06:35

35

The best place to put such .mp3 or any other files would be in the assets folder.

These files once stored will become a part of your android app itself and can be read easily. This tutorial describes it well.

 AssetFileDescriptor afd = getAssets().openFd("AudioFile.mp3");
 MediaPlayer player = new MediaPlayer();
 player.setDataSource(afd.getFileDescriptor(),afd.getStartOffset(),afd.getLength());
 player.prepare();
 player.start();

Alternatively you can also store it in the raw folder and read it directly by specifying the path as the raw folder. this can be played as:

int resID=getResources().getIdentifier(fname, "raw", getPackageName());
MediaPlayer mediaPlayer=MediaPlayer.create(this,resID);

edited Jul 12 '17 at 06:35

Community

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answered Jun 09 '12 at 08:40

Anurag Ramdasan

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Assets or RAW ? just let me know a specific answer – Ashish Dwivedi Feb 05 '14 at 07:07
I followed the asset option with some luck. I added a flag to this code to keep from replaying the mp3 every time a play button was clicked. – Benjamin Castor May 14 '16 at 20:41
I place files in RAW folder. – Rahul Bali Oct 19 '18 at 18:41
I was wondering if we can initially make a database and store the files in the database itself? – juztcode Nov 12 '19 at 13:21
@juztcode No, It's not recommended to put files in database (For example it will cause increasing db size and as a result will slow down loading db). – Masoud Maleki Jul 08 '21 at 06:06
Difference between the raw folder and the assets folder: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9563373/when-should-i-use-the-assets-as-opposed-to-raw-resources-in-android – Masoud Maleki Jul 08 '21 at 06:06

score 12 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 17 '20 at 14:33

Here are some steps you can easily follow.

Open the android studio with the project in which you want to add-on audio clip/media file.
Create a raw folder in the resources folder.
Add media file to the raw folder by simply copy and paste that to the raw folder.
Here we added a media file “ring.mp3”. Now open the Java File of the desired activity, here we are adding the audio in the MainActivity.
Further add this code.

MediaPlayer ring = MediaPlayer.create(MainActivity.this, R.raw.ring); ring.start();
Now run the App and your music will play when App starts

okay i follow your tips here. – gumuruh Dec 30 '21 at 10:43 — gumuruh, Dec 30 '21 at 10:43

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 07 '17 at 02:19

You should save the .mp3 into res/raw. AndroidStudio recognizes the raw folder. (By contrast, it does not automatically recognize a res/assets folder).

To play music.mp3:

mediaPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(ctx, R.raw.cat_meow); mediaPlayer.start();

Note the convenient use of R. syntax.

Zaid Daghestani · Answer 4 · 2012-06-25T17:13:24.003

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Place it into your assets folder. Preferably under assets/raw/myfile.mp3 You can access it using:

String mp3File = "raw/music.mp3";
AssetManager assetMan = getAssets();
MediaPlayer media = new MediaPlayer();
FileInputStream mp3Stream = assetMan.openFd(mp3File).createInputStream();
media.setDataSource(mp3Stream.getFD());
media.prepare();
media.start();

edited Jun 25 '12 at 17:13

answered Jun 09 '12 at 08:41

Zaid Daghestani

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This is not working. Perhaps assets/ should be removed from the path. – Mohammad Moghimi Jun 24 '12 at 18:25

Right place for putting mp3 files in an android project

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