Allow users to play mp3 files but don't expose them directly on the web

Question

I want to store some mp3s in a folder which is not public, can't be directly accessed through the web and allow users to hear/download the songs with a browser only if they are logged in.

How can I do that?

I do my web development with Django, but if I know how it works is enough.

Answer 1

You first need to setup authentication. The django tutorials thoroughly explore this.

You don't' link the mp3's directly, You link to a django script that checks the auth, then reads the mp3 and serves it to the client with a mp3 content type header.

http://yourserver.com/listen?file=Fat+Boys+Greatest+Hits

Answer 2

I assume you use django. Then you can try something like this:

from django.conf import settings
from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required
from django.http import HttpResponse


@login_required
def listen(request, file_name):
    # note that MP3_STORAGE should not be in MEDIA_ROOT
    file = open("%smp3/%s" % (settings.MP3_STORAGE, file_name))
    response = HttpResponse(file.read(), mimetype="audio/mpeg")
    return response

Note that you will get dramatic speed decrease. Using generator to read file in blocks may help to save memory.

Lazy Method for Reading Big File in Python?