1. Ensure that you have, or install, a low-overhead mp3 player
2. Configure your browser to recognize the file type and send it to the player
1. Installing an mp3 player
If the test sound on the front page did not play, either (a) your browser does not support HTML tag "embed" or (b) you do not have a player installed. If (b), go to the following site for a good listing of windows MP3 players (I recommend foobar, winAmp and freeAmp):
Good listing of windows mp3 players: http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/MPEG-audio-player.html
If you are using Quicktime from Apple, considering installing one of the above, as Quicktime can barely handle its own format, much less MP3s.
2. Configuring browser to play mp3s with player
IE 5.5/6.0:
Select menu item Tools -> Internet options -> Advanced -> Multimedia: check "play sounds in web pages."
Click "Media" on toolbar -> Options -> Media Settings -> Reset preferred types
Now, try downloading this mp3 - it will ask for what plugin to use; select your player.
If not, the default windows media player should work
Quicktime will take over mp3s and fail to play them; to fix this, drag an mp3 into your browser, and right-click the broken Quicktime option, then select file types and un-click MPEG3.
Firefox
Go to menu option Tools -> Options -> Downloads -> Plug-Ins.
If you do not see your item listed here, install one of the players above and associate it with MP3 files using the "Downloads" window as described above.
Additional MP3 download options are found here:
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/plugins.jsp