mp3 encoding on the server side

Question

1. My project requires me to transcode AIFF and WAV files to low bitrate MP3 files. Looking around it seems like my best option is to go with the Java Media Framework. So I am planning on building a play! application that would be called when the encoding is required (with a list of S3 urls) and would notify my node.js app when the encoding is done and uploaded on to S3. Anyone experience with doing something similar?

2. My other option is to go with a service like transloadit.com, gridvid.me, zencoder.com or encoding.com. Encoding.com seems to have a pretty decent free plan and is in general cheaper. Anyone has experience those? Any other service provider I should look at?

Answer 1

Have you looked at ffmpeg project? The simplest command to convert any audio file to MP3 is:

ffmpeg -i file file.mp3

Please refer to ffmpeg manual for advanced options.