About how big are the files that artists send authors and how are they sent?

[Ralphy2009]

Let's say for a typical 4-minute song. I understand that it can vary greatly depending on how it was recorded, but if you add up all of the files sent for a 4-minute song, what's the ballpark MB size that you're generally looking at?

Also, how do authors typically receive the files? Burned on a disc (CD? DVD?) and sent through the mail or sent via a file transfer protocol (FTP) to be stored on a website? I imagine e-mail attachment is not a practical method.

[GeneralGilliam]

Usually around 500MB. Typically they are sent in a .rar or .zip package via email attachment (if it can fit that big of files), or through a file transfer site such as Mediafire, Rapidshare, Megaupload ect...

[FairwoodStudios]

We have an FTP server set up through our web host, so we just use that for bands. But if a band wants to send a CD they can.

We've only had one band send via MegaUpload or anything of that sort. It's a touch less secure, but they couldn't get the FTP to work... so it goes.

[GeneralGilliam]

We have an FTP server set up through our web host, so we just use that for bands. But if a band wants to send a CD they can.

We've only had one band send via MegaUpload or anything of that sort. It's a touch less secure, but they couldn't get the FTP to work... so it goes.

Yeah, stuff like megaupload is less secure because other people can access the files (if they try really hard), but it's good to get a lot of files over quickly. Also, you can delete them after your done.

[davidshek]

Let's say for a typical 4-minute song. I understand that it can vary greatly depending on how it was recorded, but if you add up all of the files sent for a 4-minute song, what's the ballpark MB size that you're generally looking at?

Also, how do authors typically receive the files? Burned on a disc (CD? DVD?) and sent through the mail or sent via a file transfer protocol (FTP) to be stored on a website? I imagine e-mail attachment is not a practical method.

The masters that we sent to Rhythm Authors for "Rx", which is exactly 4 minutes long, were in a ZIP file that was 716 MB in size. They had an FTP site set up for us, so we uploaded them there. But if they had not, I would have used our own webserver to host the files for them to download.

I would NEVER trust a site like Megaupload or Rapidshare for something like this.