The Best Services for Large Media File Transfers

For most voice-over projects, file sizes aren’t a big issue. Audio files are relatively small, and inside Voicemachine, everything stays organized within your project for easy access.

But what if you need to move something much bigger—like a master video or even a full video editing project? That’s when things get more complicated.

Where Standard File Sharing Tools Fall Short

Popular cloud services like Google Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer, and Box often advertise that they can handle files of 100GB or more.

In reality, once you go past about 30–40GB, they become much less reliable. Even with a gigabit fiber connection and an up-to-date browser, uploads often stall, fail, or need multiple attempts.

For small-to-medium files, these tools are fine. But if you’re dealing with large, high-resolution video, you’ll quickly run into their limits.

Better Options for Very Large Transfers

There are specialized services designed for large media file transfers. Many of them, however, are built for big studios and can be extremely expensive.

Two options worth highlighting are:

• IBM Aspera – A professional-grade solution that uses a dedicated app instead of a browser. It includes advanced features like checksum validation, logging, and the ability to resume transfers after a crash. The downside: it’s costly, and usually only practical for enterprise-level use.

• Frame.io – A much more affordable alternative that delivers Aspera-level performance at a fraction of the cost. Frame.io can reliably transfer files as large as a terabyte, with transfer speeds up to 700Gbps on fiber connections. It’s designed for media professionals and integrates well into video production workflows.

For most production teams, Frame.io offers the best balance of affordability and performance.

Why Not Just Use Your Own Server?

Some companies set up their own servers for distributing large files. While this gives control, it rarely matches the speed, stability, and reliability of services like Frame.io. Unless you have serious technical expertise, maintaining your own server isn’t recommended.

The Old-School Alternative: Hard Drives

Sometimes, the fastest solution is also the simplest: if your client or collaborator is in the same city, sending a hard drive by courier may still beat any online transfer when working with multi-terabyte projects.

A Quick Tip for Voice-Over Work

When working with voice actors, keep in mind that they don’t need your full master files or high-resolution renders. For review and reference, a low-resolution export (even 360p) is usually more than enough. This makes sharing quick, easy, and stress-free—without eating up unnecessary bandwidth.

Final Thoughts

• Google Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer or Box work well for most media tasks under ~30GB.

• For bigger transfers (30GB+), Frame.io is the most practical and cost-effective choice.

• IBM Aspera is excellent but designed (and priced) for enterprise use.

• For urgent, local projects, sometimes couriering a hard drive is still the best option.
  

At the end of the day, the right tool depends on your project size and your workflow. For everyday voice-over work, the built-in Voicemachine project file system has you covered. But if you step into large-scale video, it’s worth exploring dedicated transfer solutions like Frame.io. Do you have experience with any other services? Feel free to comment below.