How do I convert a podcast to an audiobook / music track in iTunes?
So I've got a podcast I want to keep. Do not auto-delete doesn't seem to work properly as at least one episode has already been deleted.
My idea is that I want to turn the podcasts (the BBC Reith lectures) into regular tracks so they're managed that way rather than through the podcast section.
Any ideas how I do this? It doesn't seem to be meta data which can be edited via iTunes.
Solution 1:
OK, I think I've found a relatively easy way. @Ben's suggestion that you can change the type doesn't work for podcasts but set me thinking so thanks for the mental nudge.
The podcast files in question are MP3s. If you convert them to AAC (right click the podcast track in iTunes and select "Create AAC Version") then the new version appears in the regular library as a music track.
At that point you can do "Get Info" > "Options" and change the MediaKind to AudioBook and you're good. Note that you can only change MediaKind when editing tracks one at a time, you can't bulk change it.
Not sure what happens if they're already AACs. It's possible that you can change them anyway (though I don't think so) or you could convert them to MP3s (same method, then convert them back if you want AACs) and if could have the same effect. Might lose a bit of quality in the process but they're probably spoken word so it's probably not too much of an issue.
Depends whether this is intended behaviour or not I guess. If it's not then please Apple don't fix it!
(works on iTunes 8.2)
Solution 2:
If you want to convert the MP3 files to Audiobook files, you can use faac and madplay. There is a simple open-source gui frontend for Windows that makes the conversion easy.
EDIT: it looks like iTunes 8 now lets you convert MP3 files to audiobook files without requiring extra software:
- Right click on the MP3 in iTunes
- click Get Info
- go to the Options tab
- change Media Kind to Audiobook
- check the "Remember playback position" box
The iPod Audiobook format is great for things like lectures because it'll remember where you stopped listening last time, and you can adjust the reading speed if the speaker talks faster or slower than you prefer.