[Fixed]-Django – MEDIA_ROOT and MEDIA_URL

The MEDIA_ROOT is the path on the filesystem to the directory containing your static media.

The MEDIA_URL is the URL that makes the static media accessible over HTTP.

The docs: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.2/ref/settings/#media-root

The main idea is that serving things through python+django is expensive. Since your media is static you don’t need to pay that cost, so you serve it differently (e.g. directly via nginx or through a CDN). However, you still need to know where the media is located in the file system (e.g. for file uploads) and what the URL is (e.g. to put in templates). The settings exist to tie all that together.