Tagging

[zvi]

What kind of metadata/id4 tags do you guys wish podficcers would use? Are you retagging stuff after you download? If you podfic, what tagging scheme do you use?

The one thing I really wish people would do which I'm really not seeing is, if they record a series, I wish they would tag all of the parts as belonging to one album and set the track numbers so the series plays in order.

Some other stuff I long for: the reader to be set as the artist (I usually set the author as the composer). The genre to be set to speech, which makes my mp3 player more likely to recognize something as an audiobook. Something to be put in the URL field, either the amplificathon announcement, the audiofic archive listing, or a text version of the story.

What would make podfic work better on your listening device of choice?

Comments

[paraka]

I listen to podfic on my computer instead of a portable device so meta data doesn't really matter overly much to me. I tend to put all of the important (to me) info in the file name. What I consider important is fandom, fic title and author (I should feel bad that I don't consider the podficer important enough to note but really, I can get past a bad reader much more easily than I can get past a bad story).

Like you though, I really wish people would be clear when it comes to series and multi part stories, especially if the different parts have different names.

[zvi]

I sometimes add the fandom in the comments tag for an MP3, but I haven't been really consistent about that.

My file manager allows changing the icon one uses, or adding a subicon (emblem) to a file, and I'm thinking about using that to indicate the fandom. It also provides a notes property where it might be convenient to put that stuff. The weird thing is, I'm really consistent about using the notes property for my vids, but much more lackadaisical with podfic. I think I never expected to keep a lot of podfic, and now I have so much, going backward and being methodical seems like a big pane in the butt.

[jesse_the_k]

Consistently tagging reader = artist; writer = composer would be awesome.

Is there any possible drawback to this? Are these tags cross-platform?

(I'm old fashioned and use folders to store fandoms.)

[aethel]

Good question. I've never thought to check whether I could add a composer while creating metadata in Audacity, but in Windows XP, when I look at the properties of a file, "composer" doesn't show up as a field in the metadata. However, when my Sansa player is hooked up to my computer, I've noticed that the file system contains folders for artists who are not visible in the metadata. Spooky.

[zvi]

Yes, they're a cross-platform part of the mp3 file, but whether or not any particular player/file manager displays or uses the tag is up to the individual software.

[aethel]

I edit the metadata on everything I download, though an earlier podficmeta post convinced me that I needed to put the reader in a field somewhere, which I had not been doing. I've started adding the author's name to the title field a la "x by y" and putting "z (reader)" in the artist field if I have more than one podfic by the same reader. I generally put fandom information in the album field, unless I need to group files for a multi-part podfic/series together. So basically my metadata is totally inconsistent :)

I have been known to add the track numbers on multi-part podfic.

[dmarley]

I always re-tag things after I download them, because I sort all my podfic into a ginormous smart playlist and need it all to be in the "podfic" genre. I also like to sort by author and fandom, so I have to make sure that the author is in a consistent field and the fandom as well. (Usually the album field, since, as has been observed, few podficcers use it for other things. I may have to alter this strategy if more podficcers start using it for long stories, as well they should. :))

I've always done a bit of a reverse and put the author in the artist field and the reader in the composer field, but it always felt backwards and I think I started it only because the first few podfics I downloaded put the author in the artist field and it was easier to just keep sorting that way. I think it makes a great deal of sense to put the reader in the artist field and the author in the composer field, since the listener can sort by either, and I'd be thrilled if podficcers did that consistently.

When I tag podfics I've made, the artist/composer field isn't an issue because I've only ever recorded stories I've written myself, so both fields are always me.

One thing I do that I really, really wish more podficcers would do is use the notes to put a link to the story text or the author's website or the podficcer's archive (or include that information at the end of the story). Once you've downloaded a podfic, all the surrounding context vanishes, and if you want to find more stories by that author or podficcer you're at the mercy of your own memory (or Google). Granted, at the moment there aren't that many podfic sources, so it wouldn't be that hard to track down where you found a recording, but that might not always be the case and I've come to value having pointers built in.

[lunate8]

One thing I do that I really, really wish more podficcers would do is use the notes to put a link to the story text or the author's website or the podficcer's archive (or include that information at the end of the story).

This, totally. Most of the audiobooks I initially downloaded were compiled by Cybel who puts a link to the story text in the Comments field, and I've adopted that myself. Looking up-thread, I didn't even realize there was the URL field that Zvi mentioned, since I can't seem to find it in iTunes. I did just find it in the ID3 tag editor in Audion, though.

Based on how iTunes sorts audiobooks on my iPod, I've started retagging the "Album by Artist" field on the files on my player to make the more, um, explicit podfics a little less obvious/accessible. (This after loaning my iPod to my parents for some time-passing solitaire and praying they didn't decide to explore my audio collection.)

[anatsuno]

Oh! Sorry, I said I'd post this one and then I sucked at it. I(m like Jay smooth in that; whenever I say I'll do something I end up not doing it. sigh.

So! answering. I need metadata to be consistent because I use it not only to know what things are and find what I want when searching (extensive libraries really benefit from being searchable!), but also because I rely on them to create smart aka automatic playlists.

I use iTunes, and I listen to podfic on my desktop computer as well as on two different ipods (a 6yo 40gb one and a new 4gb shuffle). The playlists are a big part of the iPod experience for me.

I re-tag everything I download:

Artist: Reader's name only - no (reader) mention in brackets. The reader counts for me as much as if not more than the story.

Name: Title of the story

Composer: Author's name - no (author) mention.

Album Artist: iTunes has this field, not sure if it's a set ID3 tag or not - I put the name of the cover artist for m4b files there, when I have it. Again, with no (cover artist) mention to explain; I know what goes there, so.

Album:
* If the story is part of a series, the name of the series goes there to allow their grouping/ordering. For example I have an 'In the city of the Seven Walls' album because jinjurly recorded at least three files belonging under that same umbrella, or 'a Farm in Iowa' album or 'Crack AUs and the People who love them' etc.
* If the story is not part of anything like an 'album', the name of the fandom goes there, like 'SG:A Fiction', 'Holmes Fiction', 'Merlin Fiction' etc. Or the name of the challenge! I have an Amplificathon 2009 album, for example. :)

Grouping: iTunes has this tag, which is also probably part of the normal set of ID3 tags but I'm not exactly certain about that. This is where I put the fandom in a systematic way (which means I have that info redundantly for most files who do not also belong to an album, yes) - I write it differently there, to help myself remember which field is which, and use both to create filters/playlists. So here you'll find 'SGA Fic' and 'Merlin Fic' and 'Holmes Fic'. :)

Genre: I tag all podfic as 'podfic'. All of it. It's important for my filters.

Notes/Comments: I expect the URL of the story to be there - I don't hunt it down to find it and put it there when it's not, though, on files I have downloaded but not recorded. :)

I religiously use the fields that allow to order tracks that belong together in the same album, numbering every track that needs it.

Newer versions of iTunes allow you to mark as Audiobook a file that is not an m4b file - in the options, you can 'set' that this file is/should be counted as an Audiobook, AND also check a little box to make iTunes (and assorted iPods) remember your position in the file when you pause/stop.

This solved the main problem I had, which was that a part of my podfic collection was listed as Audiobooks (m4b files only) and the other belonged in Music (mp3, mp4, whatever other formats).

Since I have over 400 podfic files (~13 GB), which iTunes tells me it would take over 13 days to listen to *g*, playlists are really the only livable way to use them on the iPods.

I use iTunes' rating field (0 to 5 stars given to any track) to mark my favorites, and sometimes filter on the Playcount, too. Thus I can make playlists with only podfic I haven't listened to before, podfic I haven't rated yet, only SGA podfic with 4 starts or above; only podfic that doesn't belong to a particular album (stand-alone tracks with only the fandom info in the Album field); podfic coming out of the Amplificathon, etc. The possibilities are endless, and really handy. :)

Wow

[jesse_the_k]

Are you a librarian?

This system is exceptionally pleasing.

Re: Wow

[anatsuno]

I am not! But I have, let's say, librarian inclinations. *g* I like systematic things - although FAR from all my stuff is organised; IRL my things are somewhat organised but also all over the place, and a lot of my digital data is actually badly put away. I try though!

[were_duck]

Oh this is wonderful! I might have to adapt your system for my purposes.