Problem streaming an audio (mp3) file from a Word created ..

I maintain a jazz informational website ( http://www.honolulujazzscene.net )
and have an mp3 file that users can elect to play while browsing the site. I
use a plain-text m3u file for a hyperlink to call the mp3 file. The mp3 file
loads into the user's default media player and begins streaming (or it least
it does on broadband). The user can then hide the media player and continue
browsing. This has worked well for several years but recently I've
encountered a problem with it.

I upgraded my browser to IE7, then noticed that rather than behaving as
previously outlined, it instead loads the m3u text file into the browser,
abandons the webpage it was called from, and the mp3 file doesn't
automatically play.

I thought perhaps it was a bug in the new IE7 (or an improper configuration
of it on my part) but find this is not necessarily the case.

I was browsing the Internet Jukebox website (
http://home.earthlink.net/~charles.sanzone/ ) and see they use the same
technique. (I viewed the HTML source of that page to ascertain this.) The
Internet Jukebox website works precisely as mind did (in IE7 w/ no changes in
configuration) and I'm hard-pressed to understand why this.

Can anyone offer me any help here?

TIA
--
Every dog has its day but the nights are reserved for us cats.