November 24, 2004

On zipping MP3s

Quick note to the world: putting MP3s into a zip file is a waste of time. You only save a little space and take up a lot of time because MP3s are already compressed. So the next time you have to send a bunch of MP3s somewhere, your best bet is the tar format, which has no compression, or a zip file with compression turned off (look at the compression level settings in your favorite zip program).

Sorry, that's just a pet peeve of mine.

[Update: WinZip and most other Windows archive programs support tar files, but since most people are probably using XP's built-in zip support, I think the comments are right and uncompressed zips are probably the better way to go.]

Posted by george at November 24, 2004 08:39 AM
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Oddly enough, I just got through zipping some mp3s and putting it on a private web page when I saw your post. I zipped them because it's more convenient for people to download one file rather than six (in this case), and none of the target audience uses tar or even knows what it is. Your point about turning compression off is correct.

Posted by: tom at November 24, 2004 10:18 AM

Funny, I just got done doing the same thing tom. If I used tar most of the people I'm sending stuff to would have a fatal aneurysm trying to figure out how to open it. I could really mess with their heads and use cpio, but luckily the 8th amendment prohibits me from taking such action

Posted by: Jessica Breckenridge at November 25, 2004 01:00 AM

Those of us that work for the man may find that *.mp3 files are blocked through the coporate network, but most *.zip files are not.

I find it easier to zip mp3 files than rename them from *.mp3 to *.zip and then explain to users how/why to do such a thing.

Posted by: Duane at November 26, 2004 10:48 PM

Duane, I'm not suggesting that people rename .mp3 files as .zip. I'm just saying in the compression settings of whatever .zip file you're creating, set it to "no compression."

Posted by: George Hotelling at November 28, 2004 01:23 PM

Sorry, comments are closed.