site is too heavy/slow. how to cut it down right?

[sambkk]

Hi everyone.
I have a little problem with a site I built. The site is too slow, or rather loads too much stuff all at once.
I built a site for a musician, and the site has an mp3 player that plays his songs.

Now some background on the project first; I was passed on this project by a friend who I guess didnt know how to build it and the site was waaay past deadline or something. Also he had agreed on a low price which meant it was supposed to be a simple site.

My friend told me he had designed a flash movie that rotates some images and all I need was to add an mp3 player that plays the songs and build 1-2 pages that load in such a way that the flash player keeps playing continuously.

When I contacted the actual client he told me he also wanted a online shop, a contact form and a guest book. I said ok, (and didnt want any extra money ), and just added some more pages to accomodate the needs as the project was still looking very small.

The site was built using jquery that allows users to view content from the pages without reloading the page. as a result i ended up with a flash contact form and a flash based guestbook (I normally stay away from flash) + the flash mp3 player and the original flash that rotates the images of the artist. I used flash because it was a easy way to make it all work with the jquery system in place.

The resulting site is too slow. or rather, it takes TOO LONG FOR THE MP3's TO KICK IN AND START PLAYING.

can anyone suggest me a technique to use so that I could maintain the effect that once the mp3 songs start playing the songs wont cut out when user decides to navigate from about me to contact form etc..

here is a link to the project: http://www.samda.org/doron/index.html

I just only decided the current system is unacceptable, and will be looking for a new solution over the weekend. I would really appreciate advice, tips or comments. had I not had this project passed on in this way my solution would have been different from start, I am sure, but now I am wondering whats the best way to go ahead since I'd like to keep the mp3 play continuous but obviously right now its all self defeating as the songs really take a long time to start.

thanks in advance,
Sami

[sambkk]

Hi

I solved it (the site is live at doronkaravani.com)
I cut down the size of the mp3's by basically reducing their quality, the visitor wont be able to tell the difference and they are samples only
secondly I split the content into iframes that are loaded on request. so to start off with only the mp3 player and the rotating images flash (which I also redid, since it was passed on to me) load along with the "regular content", the contact form and guestbook are loaded once you click the link.

Just incase anyone else is wondering anything similar
there is also a flash component for sale at flash den for 8usd, a really cool looking mp3 player that allows you to navigate from page to page and it buffers the music so that it continues (near- or maybe even completely) instantly when you navigate to the next page. I found it slow initially as it was loading stuff into its buffer I guess, but for anyone else wrestling with a similar issue it may be a solution.

Sami

[jelba]

Good work. Thanks for sharing Sami!