How can I get variable playback rates for podcasts/audiobooks downloaded from iTunes?

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How can I get variable playback rates for podcasts/audiobooks downloaded from iTunes?

When I download a podcast from the iTunes Store, say Criminal or 99% Invisible, it shows up on my iPod Touch 4G just as a regular song as part of an album--it's not classified as a podcast episode and there's no way to speed it up. When downloading Serial episodes from the Serial site, however, it came with the 2x/.5x speed options, which is extremely useful for me. I tend to download the episodes directly to my computer and then add them to my iPod Touch via MediaMonkey, so I'm not sure what the difference is. With audiobooks, I have to manually change the genre to audiobook and then add to my iPod via iTunes to have the variable rates, so it's really quite a hassle. Is there any way to make this more efficient?

iPod touch (4th generation), iOS 6.1.6

Posted on Mar 5, 2015 5:25 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 5, 2015 5:48 AM in response to joshthenormal

Also, would converting the mp3 files to m4a or m4b format and then adding those to my iPod solve the issue?

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

272,743 points

Mar 5, 2015 9:13 AM in response to joshthenormal

If you want to access the variable playback rates then the media must be transferred such that its media kind is either podcast or audiobook. I've just tried moving an mp3 audiobook file over to my iPad using MediaMonkey and it has ended up in the right section of the device's library so it must be possible. My understanding is that media kind is a private iTunes property, not stored in the tag, so perhaps MediaMonkey has used Genre to decide which part of the iPad library it should add the file to.

tt2

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