What's your preferred method of getting files to clients?

Sync? Dropbox? Google Drive? . . .?

Anyone still snail mail thumbdrives / SD cards?

For the scale of work that I’m doing, Dropbox (and to a lesser extent Gdrive) has been great for sharing mostly WAVs and MP4s. My internet speeds are pretty good and so I don’t usually mind sharing larger files and projects that way too, though if a client or collaborator wants I’m obliged to mail or hand off physical media as needed. I Definitely prefer SSDs these days, but for things like project archives or big video projects hdd’s can help keep costs down, at the penalty of potentially long transfer times.

I really don’t like the way Gdrive handles large files, ownership, downloads, and compression, and try to avoid using it, but it is very popular and difficult to avoid completely. Probably just a familiarity thing, I’ve been using Dropbox for years and it seems easy now, biggest issue being when clients use browser playback for critical review and want to know why the quality seems inferior or why sync is bad.

Box.com on the other hand I find to be completely asinine, but it seems like they locked every higher educational institution in a decade ago and nobody in that world wants to migrate. So I use that too, but don’t recommend it.

I like FTP services too, some mastering or physical plants use those and they are very easy to work with. Sometimes I’ll set up a file request in Dropbox if a client is less familiar with the cloud services and workflow, which functions more or less the same way.

Same for me. Being in LA, I'll drop off a drive if it makes sense. These days, that's my substitute for a social life.

I use google drive. Easy for me, easy for the clients, everybody has it.

I use Dropbox and WeTransfer for full-res file exchange, plus Soundcloud for quick mix auditions.

I currently use Sync.com to share my softsynths, but I've maxed it out, and they want $100 a year for more storage; seems a bit steep to me.

I've got a couple of 2G Zip files of WAVs up on Google Drive for a client; waiting to see if they can retrieve OK (client is on the older side; don't know how 'savy' they are). Never used it before - it looks very unintuitive and needlessly complex for a recipient to download from; Sync is much simpler/clearer.

For day-job (radio spots and such) clients, I also have FilesAnywhere, which is cool because you can upload to their server and send unique links to each "voter." It'll send you an email whenever someone hits the link, and it'll tell you who it was and when. It's amazing how often people say they've listened to something before they actually have.

Interesting - hadn't heard of that.

Wetransfer mostly. Sometimes dropbox but for some reason dropbox has been hanging in the last 2 seconds of uploading.

The Los Angeles area jazz musicians I deal with seem to prefer WeTransfer. It is a little more straightforward than Dropbox.

i still mostly work with the musicians/conductor/producer present in my studio and i almost exclusively mix what i have recorded myself so i rarely need to rely on data transfer much - if so, i'm sending listening copies as mp3's (sic!) via mail or then i use dropbox, wetransfer and whatnot...

Clients retrieved the files from Google Drive OK, so that's a relief.

I usually use dropbox and share a link to the file or folder rather than inviting them to the file or folder. The link works great regardless of if the client has a dropbox account.

WeTransfer Free permits exchange of a couple of GB per send, and both parties can send/receive without 'joining' or needing to create accounts there etc. For proofs of mixes, edits etc it's ideal.

The 7 day-only limit on transfer links remaining active gives a helpful boost of 'artificial urgency' to the proof/approval process too !

Was using WeTransfer, recently using MASV more - faster, handles much bigger files when necessary. It's a paid-per-download-GB service, but so cheap it's not an issue and easy to bill to the client on a project-by-project basis for the really big jobs. I still get a lot of incoming stuff on Dropbox, often have issues not being able to un-zip folders on a Mac automatically zipped by Dropbox. Very frustrating.

Did you mean 'pay-per-upload'?

I use Sendthisfile.

https://www.sendthisfile.com/

Works well for me.

D.

Glad I started this thread - I'm learning a lot; thanks folks.

We Transfer. Dropbox not welcome @ my studio. Google too hard for my clients, they like We Transfer. (WT also tells me when and who has downloaded what.) Vimeo seems to be liked by clients for video demos of mixes.

Google drive is “too hard” for your clients?? You upload a file, you get the link, you email client the link, they download the file. What are you talking about?

I always have big problems getting anything downloaded from Google drive, because Google demands that you allow numerous tracking and spying connections with your computer that have nothing to do with the download itself, but which they have made mandatory to get to the file. Most of these connections are blocked on my network, so it is tedious to unblock and re-block those connections for every download you want to do. Also, Google needs scripting functionality that not all browsers and OS'es support, so even after you have ublocked all the tracking it still may be impossible to get your files. Google is definitely and evil company. WT, as an alternative example, has similar tracking technology (although much more limited) but you can block it without adverse effects to your download ability.

Its important to remember that "there's no such thing as a 'free' lunch". All these companies are making money from their 'free' file-sharing services and Google's lunch is particularly pricey in privacy currency, as noted above. WeTransfer is my go-to and the fact that the files don't live on the interweb in perpetuity is a plus.

On the video side, consider adding Frame.io to your kit. . .a nice tool.

no, I mean what I wrote - they charge by download traffic - ie if you send a file to one person it's $x, if you send it to four people (and they all actually download it) it's $4x. If no-one downloads it, it's free! This is quite reasonable to me - especially for the over 200GB deliveries I have to do a few times a year that sometimes go to two Countries.

Thanks for the clarification.

Here’s a promising new contender entering this field:

FileDuck a free, unlimited File Transfer website for creatives

I always wonder about the business model of 'free' services:
"FileDuck may show you ads from advertisers and artists selected by FileDuck (such as full-page wallpaper ads) when you use the Services."
"FileDuck is in beta and the basic functionality of FileDuck file sharing is (currently) free from registration and charge."
So, it looks benign at the moment but I wonder if it will remain free for 'unlimited size' file transfers? I'll give it a whirl in any case...

“FileDuck uses WebRTC to create a direct connection between your device and the device you are sending to.”

That is to say, WebRTC offers a peer-to-peer protocol and communication capabilities.

So FileDuck needn’t be burning server cpu cycles nor durable storage—generally think that large and small files represent the same very low overhead costs to them.

Assuming they are sufficiently funded [don’t know], can leverage and monetize usage analytics [likely], and/or up-sale a sufficient number of users into subscriptions [also likely]. . .they are at least in the fight.

Ray H.

WeTransfer
Dropbox
Google Drive (zip that session into one file!)
FTP
OneDrive (almost everyone has a problem or two with it)
USPS, FedEx, UPS carrying the SSD or hard drive. Hand delivery works too!
Heck I even used Digidelivery couple of times!

Torrent if needs to be.

Never found this. I have PiHole running and use Brave and Firefox with uBlock Origin. Still no problems with any file uploads or downloads from Google drive.