Podfic Metadata (Headers) in Audio

[bluedreaming]

There are several questions of the "ask ten podficcers, get ten answers" variety that get asked at least once a week, and one of them is what kinds of metadata are included in the audio of a podfic. Quite neatly, this topic was also the subject of a 2010 post in this community: Tell me something good -- Audible headers. (I also checked Fanlore, but there’s only a single line in the Podfic Metadata article, from what I could tell at least.) So, out of curiosity, I created an informal and very amateur survey about how podfic creators and listeners feel about metadata in podfic audio.

This survey isn't about the metadata in the file properties of a podfic file, or about the metadata included on podfic cover art, or even about the metadata and tags used on a podfic post, though those are also interesting questions!

Eventually, I'll gather up the submissions to create a (very un)official summary and report and share it here, not to provide any kind of guidance, instruction, or suggestion about best practices, but rather just out of curiosity.

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Note about the survey: the linked form is not intended to collect any private or personally-identifying information. Please keep any write-in details non-specific. Results will be assembled and shared publicly for curiosity's sake only. In addition, the form is not intended to be comprehensive or conclusive; I'm sure I'm still missing something very obvious! (And have already had to go back to add things.) Any omitted questions are not intentionally excluded.

Update (2-Dec-2023): After very brief consultation, I’ll keep the survey open until the end of the year to perhaps also get some thoughts from voiceteam players and other listeners/podficcers.
Update (14-Mar-2024): The form is now closed. Thanks to everyone who participated! I received 96 responses! (A few of these were repeats, due to initial form testing.) I'll update this post again when the results are gathered!
Update (15-Oct-2024): I requested some FTH help with displaying the results, but if that doesn’t end up happening, I’ll definitely have to budge up and do it myself 😅
Update (30-Nov-2024): It looks like I'll have to do it myself 😅

Comments

[msilverstar]

Interesting -- I'm late to podfic and am mostly deeply grateful that people create them

[bluedreaming]

Thanks for your interest! I think that we’re mostly all late to podfic in that we usually wish we’d found it sooner :D

[lattice_frames]

I did not realize I had so many feelings about the read-aloud metadata! I also have so many feelings about the file metadata, but I was aware of that. 😅

[bluedreaming]

It’s funny how it works out sometimes! It’s a topic that often gets glossed over in light of file metadata and other things, but when the question comes up there are always lots of thoughts!