What is MP3 Tag for Podcast?

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John2398 Author

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What is MP3 Tag for Podcast?

For iTunes 10.6, what is the MP3 tag which treats a MP3 file as a Podcast?

In iTunes 10.6, my MP3 file shows Options | MediaKind is "Music".

On Windows 7, I use the mp3tag program to view the MP3 tags for my MP3 file.

I change Options | MediaKind to "Podcast".

The mp3tag program sees no changes to the MP3 tags.

So how does iTunes know it is a Podcast?

Why am I doing this?

Ultimately, I am constructing a RSS iTunes podcast feed (Making a Podcast). This requires one to make a RSS file. However, I noticed that a few iTunes Store NPR Podcast feeds would download to the iTunes Music folder instead of the Podcast folder. To correct this, I would use Get Information on the MP3 file and change Options | MediaKind from "Music" to "Podcast". Why some NPR Podcast files were "Music" instead of "Podcast" is unclear. Was there something wrong with the RSS file the provider authored or was a MP3 tag missing in the MP3 file. Since I am constructing my own RSS iTunes podcast feed, I need to know how iTunes determines whether a MP3 file is a Music or Podcast file.

Thanks in advance.

Windows 7

Posted on Jul 17, 2012 1:59 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 17, 2012 2:07 PM in response to John2398

A podcast is defined by the 'feed' file - a text file in a special format (XML) which lists the episodes and gives details of the media file, and descriptions, for each one. An episode file is only recognized as a podcast episode because its location is described in the feed. (The tags in the media file aren't relevant.)

If you go to the web page associated with a podcast and download the MP3 file from there, because it's not been called by the feed it is seen as a 'song' and placed in the music library. You can change the 'kind' in iTunes toe 'podcast' but this will list it as a podcast with no title which has just that file as a single episode.

If you have discovered a podcast whose episodes are downloading to the wrong library when subscribed to (as opposed to downloaded from the site) then something odd is going on - are you in fact talking about episodes downloaded from the site?

In order to create a podcast (the term 'podcast' defines the overall collection of episodes, not any individual episode). This page explains the basics of how to make a podcast, including a sample basic feed so you can see what one should look like:

http://rfwilmut.net/pc

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