Hiding an MP3 file inside a JPG picture allows you to transfer music safely and securely. If you need to send a secret audio message to a friend or lover, where it is undetectable to prying eyes, then this conversion technique is a great addition to your online privacy tools. This computer trick is possible because the JPG or JPEG format permits embedded files. It is simple and requires only a few steps.

  • Hiding an MP3 file inside a JPG picture allows you to transfer music safely and securely.
  • This computer trick is possible because the JPG or JPEG format permits embedded files.

Open your command prompt in Windows. On Windows XP, click "Start," then "Run." On the "Run" menu, type "cmd" and click "Enter." On Windows Vista or Windows 7, type "cmd" in the search field on the Start menu and click "Enter."

Type "copy /b [song].mp3 + [picture].jpg" in the command prompt. Replace [song] and [picture] with the appropriate file names and remove the brackets.

Open the resulting [picture].jpg file in any image viewer. By viewing the picture on any computer, you cannot tell there is a hidden song embedded inside. Retrieving the MP3 song is possible by changing the file extension from .jpg to .mp3, resulting in [picture].mp3.

TIP

MP3 files are not the only file type that can be embedded secretly inside a JPG image. PDF, DOC, PPT, AVI, WAV and SWF are a few other embeddable formats. JPG files with MP3 songs embedded inside them can be played in the WinAmp music player. To embed larger files, compress them first with a Zip or RAR program.

WARNING

QuickTime and Windows Media Player are unable to play MP3 files converted into JPG.