bytea or blobs?

Hi,
what I am trying to do is to be able to store images in my database. 
What I wanted to know is this:

1. Would it be better to have the image field type as a bytea or a 
blob? I have heard it mentioned that bytea would be better as doing 
data dumps would also insure that the image was saved as well!

2. Would it be better to make reference to mp3 files (i.e. storing the 
address of the image /images/*.jpg)  or is it feasible to store the mp3 
in the database as bytea or blobs as well?

many thanks in adavance