When uploading audio files you quickly realize that these files can take up a lot of space on your site. While churches primarily upload sermon audio files to their websites, file compression can work on any audio file.
File compression helps in a couple of ways. One is to save space on your website. A second, user-friendly reason to do this is that a smaller file is easier and faster for the user to load, listen and share.
The best audio format to use is mp3. It is the standard audio format that most computers, smart phones, and other media players and devices can read. We recommend that you record your audio files in the mp3 format.
In order to compress audio files, you need an appropriate software program. We recommend Audacity (available for Windows or Mac).
Here’s how to compress mp3 audio files before uploading the file to your website.
- Open the mp3 file in Audacity
- Go to File –> Export Audio
- Click Options
- Set the Quality to 32kbs and press OK
- Press Save and then OK
We have reduced 28mb files to 7mb by using this procedure!
You can download Audacity here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/