Tutorial: Podcast ID3 Tag Renaming

So… I wondered when complaints would arise about the properties of the podcast files themselves. I have gotten away with this beyond minimalist naming for so long now. And before I set about rectifying that; let me just explain to you why that is.
You see, the recording I make comes out as a .wav file – which is great for me to work with, but huge and not supported by a great deal of music players, so I have to convert it to .mp3 format – which I can’t work with once it’s converted. So all the converted ones get filed safely on my computer, and as they are all in the one clearly marked folder and not with any other music or files (especially on a music player where you might only see one track at a time) – I don’t bother to fill in anything about them. They only see the light of day when I upload them. Which is another story all together. Once they’re uploaded they become a web address, and if you have ever noticed any space is replaced by “%20”. So the whole thing becomes very messy looking and sometimes when you download it the “%20” doesn’t change back into a space. I wanted to avoid corrupt and cluttered files names – so I named all the files with one single word. And due to my habit of making four or five files and then converting and uploading them all at once, I have thrown out the order in which they were created.
And that is why we have the problem we have.
So since this had been bugging me for quite some time now, when Idril mentioned it I leapt into action. I turns out that unfortunately once the files are uploaded the only thing you can change about them is the file name. And if I wanted to change anything else I would have to change it on the ones on my computer and upload them all again, so you could download them all again. All 148 MB. So I thought I might find us an ID3 renaming program (ID3 is the name for the collection of fields of information relating to a music file, such as artist, album, and genre). That we could all use on our own files to make the process a lot easier and faster. And I did. Unfortunately the process is a little complicated and technical and requires a bit of guidance. And so here is that guide.


You will need:
All 37 podcast tracks unadulterated, and unmodified; all in the same folder, with no other files.
It is vital they should all have their original names, i.e. “Bugs.mp3”
It doesn’t matter if you have edited other fields such as year, album or title; as long as the file name is unchanged from how you downloaded it. This is because it is paramount that all the tracks are in their original order alphabetically by filename. The list should start with “78.mp3” and end with “Won.mp3.”
If this is not the case then rename them or download them afresh.
There should only be 37 files in the folder.
It doesn’t matter which version of “Bolt” you have, as long as you only have one version in this folder.

ID3renamer_setup.exe downloaded and installed.
You can download this by clicking the link above. It’s completely free and virus free, it’s from a reputable source and it hasn’t caused a single problem. It is a great and handy program, albeit a little confusing at first.

One or both of Podcast Title Text [numbered].txt and Podcast Title Text [unnumbered].txt.
You can download these from me by clicking the links above. The numbered version will fill in all the title fields with the full titles and track number prefixes for the appropriate files, i.e. “Orb.mp3” has “05. Glowing Orb Of Superlatives” added to its title field. The unnumbered version will fill in all the title fields with the full titles but not track number prefixes, i.e. “Orb.mp3” only has “Glowing Orb Of Superlatives” added to its title field.

You are now ready to begin.

Step 1: Locate the folder containing the podcasts. Make sure it meets all the requirements listed above, I cannot stress this enough.
Step 2: Launch ID3 Renamer.
Step 3: Click the Writing tab.
Step 4: Fill in the necessary fields, and make sure their boxes are checked. If you already have content in a particular field on your files, leave the box unchecked so it doesn’t get overwritten. An example is shown below. (click for full size):

If you like you can fill in the year as 2008, and then simply correct “Resolutions” and “Reply” to 2009 manually via file properties.
Step 5: Locate the folder with all the podcasts in it via the left hand menu.
Step 6: Click the right pointing arrow > next to Go ! and select Title(s) from text file.
Step 7: Via this menu select one of the files you downloaded earlier, either Podcast Title Text [numbered].txt or Podcast Title Text [unnumbered].txt.
Step 8: Click Open.
Step 9: Click Go !.
Step 10: Check your podcast folder files. Correct “Resolutions” and “Reply” to 2009 if you haven’t done so already. Your files should now look something like this (click for full size):

For future reference all upcoming podcast files will be named according to the above conventions.

Tip: If you mess up a field and want to start again or undo it; simply delete the contents of the box, make sure it is checked and click Go ! again. The field will be wiped (but make sure you check the files to make sure before entering other data).

If you have any problems with the process just leave it in a comment and I’ll comment back underneath as soon as I can.

I hope you enjoy your adequately and informatively named files!


☆