I'm developing a music site which will stream audio files stored in a server to users, audio files will be played through flash player placed in a webpage..

1. As I heard I need to use a streaming media server for streaming audio files ( like 2mb to 3mb in size).. Do I need to use one?

   I found some streaming media server softwares like http://www.icecast.org - but as in their documentation, It is used for streaming radio stations and live streaming purposes, but I just need to stream audio files faster and in low size (low bandwidth) with good quality..

2. I heard I need to encode the audio files first and then send them to listeners and in their end audio files need to be decoded again. Is that true? How can I do that? if I need to use a special web server, where should I host my files? Any good hosting providers?

3. if I host audio files in a normal web server, they will use HTTP or TCP to deliver my audio files to users/ listners but I found that HTTP and TCP are not good ways to use for multi media purposes like streaming audio and video files, and they are used for delivering HTML and stuff. I found I should use RSTP or UDP for streaming audio files.. What should I use?

4. I know that .MP3 files has much better quality than the other formats but it also gives huge size to the audio files.. which format should I use for audio files?

5. Most of the best quality audio files are more than 7mb so I'm planning to convert them my self using a software so I could get low size files with some level of good quality. If I'm converting my audio files what is the good BITRATE I should use for my files?

6. Any known best softwares for converting audio files while keeping quality in a good level?

Note** - I know that I will not need complex requirements at the beginning of the site but I wanted to what are the best ways like they are using for soundcloud.com