Compress Music Files

[Wayne]

I'd like a free program which will compress the size of my MP3s and not affect the quality of the MP3 that much/at all. +rep to all solutions.

[Jordy]

It's very difficult to compress MP3s as MP3 is a compressed format (They lose a lot of the quality from their pure form in a vinyl or CD, this usually isn't noticeable though for home use). You could in future import things in a lower bit-rate or you could compress them into .zip's or .rar's using something like winzip or winrar, but as they're already compressed, you're only going to save 1-2% of the original file size so there is little point.

In iTunes you could convert them to AAC Format which would help, however they would then be incompatible elsewhere.

[Wayne]

OK thanks for the help. +rep :)

[Christian]

I'm not quite sure how effective this is but if you go on the folder with the music in you want to shrink right-click on it then go properties then advanced then tick compress contents to save disk space then go ok and ok then that might work. Try it, if it doesn't work it's easy enough to reverse.

[Wayne]

Thanks Chris but that didn't reduce the size of the file at all. :(

[Christian]

Thanks Chris but that didn't reduce the size of the file at all. :(

Hmm. The only way I can think is to reduce the bitrate as Jordy said then.

[Wayne]

Yeah, cheers lads.

[Decode]

MP3 is allready a compressed format :P

[Rapidshare]

MP3 is allready a compressed format :P

wait? what the format that not compressed/

[scottish]

wav isnt compressed.