Compressing Music Files for E-Mailing

[NeilHK]

I wonder if anyone could help with compression ideas.

I frequently need to send CDs of music to a family member. I burn the discs from iTunes in Roxio and then I post them.

I've been wondering of late, if there is a better way. He lives in the Middle East and postal service is slow and very unreliable. Sometimes my discs never arrive.

I thought that maybe I could create a disc image and email that, but a colleague says I would need to compress the disc image first before emailing.

I assumed that a disc image of my music (created in Roxio) would ALREADY be compressed. He says no.

OK, if this is correct, can anyone advise how to compress the files?

Also,

I noticed a new compression tool for download in Apple today when I googled this topic. A new piece of software called CompressFile (I think).
Is this a better option for emailing music cds?

Appreciate any advice. It could save me hours every week if it is possible to find a simple solution.

Cheers

Neil

 

[mkrishnan]

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and ask the dumb question.

Your family member has a computer, yes? One that can run things like iTunes?

Why not send the music as a set of MP3 or AAC files? Those files *are* compressed, and a set of 128kb AAC files is less than 10% the size of a CD, with reasonably good quality. They're small enough to e-mail.

If your family member desires, they can then just use iTunes to burn the disc themselves if they want it.

 

[NeilHK]

I suppose I should have said that the music I send is classical so each iTunes MP3 can be anything from 3-8 mins

I can just email mp3s to him and he listens via ITunes yes, but when wanting to send him the contents of a CD I've burned containing an hour of music I cannot send as an attachment of course.

Thus my question about emailing a disk image.

 

[WannaGoMac]

Convert to AAC or MP3 using itunes

Then zip them into a single file

Email OR upload to a file service like www.sendspace.com or www.yousendit.com

Good luck