Music in Flash/Games

[piratefish]

So I imported the song "Ice Ice Baby" into my flash game and this is an MP3 format file which is 4MB. Now 4MB is massive to me. Is there any way I can reduce the size even further or have it not within the actual game itself?

Is there a way to import it from a server and have it play on the game? Just spitballing here but would getURL work if I have it just as the sound file and then make that into a new sound?

[Dylan Marvin]

You could get it to stream or something but one thing you have to consider is that the majority of games out there, web, handheld, and video games (up until a few years ago) use loops. If you want to cut the size/loading down, create a 30-45 second sound file that loops seemlessly. Ignoring copyright infringement for a second, if you use something catchy like Ice... the need to use the entire song is even less since it's only the "catchy" parts that are key in creating the effect.
But, if you still insist... I created an pro bono educational game online that used music that played completely independent of the game environment, so an easy (and lazy) but HIGHLY effective way for me to do this was to have the game element (including short sound effects) in one swf, and another very very tiny (1x1 pixel) swf that housed the music. In this instance there was a need for the game to be played with little or no loading, while the music loaded and streamed on its own.

[oldnewbie]

You can also re-compress it within Flash, lowering the quality settings down to 8 or 16kbps... That would drastically reduce it's size in the outputed movie, although the lower the bit rate, the lower the quality of the output...

Lower it to the lowest acceptable quality for you!

[piratefish]

Thanks guys. I can always count on the forums to get some great answers.