Tech Specs

There are lots of right ways to format audio files. And as of right now, none of them matter except for ours. Please don’t ask us to make exceptions. We won’t. The specs below are set to ensure that your .mp3 files are as compatible as possible. If you’re doing something slightly different for other distribution services, fine. But you’ll need to go back to your master files and encode, tag and name your files to our specifications before submitting episodes to Podiobooks.com.

And if you don’t understand what we’re asking for below, then you may be jumping ahead. Grab a book on how to create MP3 files. Any podcasting book will cover it in detail.

Encoding

  • Bit Rate: 128 kbps
  • Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz
  • Stereo Mode/Channel: Joint Stereo (not Mono or just plain old stereo)

ID3 Tagging

It’s easiest if we provide an example of completed tags. 

NAME: (also called TITLE) Nocturnal 09
ARTIST: Scott Sigler
ALBUM: Nocturnal
GROUPING: Podiobooks.com
TRACK: 9
YEAR: 2014
GENRE: Podcast
ARTWORK: [embed in every episode]
  • NAME (also called TITLE): You can choose whatever name you want for a specific media file. But so that it doesn’t get confusing, I suggest using a short name for your book (one word or and abbreviation) and then a double-digit sequential order of the episode in question. This helps people find your episode(s) inside their larger list of episodes from multiple sources.
  • ARTIST: The name of the author or person who gets the main credit for the book. Do not change this from episode to episode. Make sure your capitalization and punctuation stay consistent across episodes. If you are submitting a compilation, use the name of the compiler, not the individual episode author. Media libraries on your computer or mobile device often will use this field to group files, so be consistent.
  • ALBUM: The full title of your book. Note that this may be different than the shortened or abbreviated version you are using in the NAME field. Make sure you keep the same capitalization and punctuation across all episodes. Not doing so looks sloppy.
  • GROUPING: You will always enter “Podiobooks.com” in this field. It’s a special tag utilized (as far as I can tell) by iTunes. Setting this field allows people to isolate episodes received from Podiobooks.com away from other music or podcast content so that they can be enjoyed more like “traditional” audio books. If your ID3 tagging program does not allow you to set this field, then use iTunes to set this tag. It is required, and often missed.
  • TRACK: The sequential number of an episode, starting at 1. This should match the number used in the NAME field, if you took my suggestion. You should also enter the total number of episodes in the “of” field that accompanies track number, assuming your ID3 tagging program supports it. If that’s confusing, it won’t be when you’re ready to tag episodes.
  • YEAR: Set this to the current year that the serialized audio book version was released. It’s likely the same calendar year in which you upload the file.
  • GENRE: Always set this field to “Podcast”, as the episodes are primarily delivered via the podcasting mechanism. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s where we live today.
  • ARTWORK: Every episode of your book should contain embedded artwork. That artwork is likely going to be the cover of your book, but you may chose something else. Should you deviate from your cover, please use images no larger than 300x300. Going larger simply increases the file size of the media for no good reason.

I again stress the importance of filling out the above-mentioned ID3 tags exactly as we have outlined. Failure to do so will result in the rejection your initial episode, delaying your continued production and eventual launch on Podiobooks.com. Not good.

Note: Any other tags you see that are not mentioned above are optional. Fill them out or leave them blank if you like. It your choice.

Naming

Now that you have your file properly encoded to our settings, assigned and edited the ID3 tags, and embedded artwork for your episode, it’s time to name your files the proper way. We use this format:

PB-[ShortTitleOfYourBook]-[##].mp3

Here’s how to decipher that:

  • PB: This signifies the file is a part of Podiobook.com and helps keep our files together in playlists or portable media players.
  • -: The dash is used as a separator of the elements making up the name. No spaces, please.
  • [ShortTitleofYourBook]: If your book has a short name, use the whole thing. But if it gets large, shorten it. You may opt to use the shortened version you used when filling out the NAME ID3 tag. Capitalize the first letter of each word, and run them together. Spaces cause all sorts of problems with filenames, so don’t even think about it. Also, don’t use any “funny” characters. Stick with A-Z and 1-9.
  • [##]: This is the sequential number of your series of episodes. It starts with “01” and it increases in whole number increments until you reach the final episode of your title. Even if you have chapters 1, 2 and 3 all included in one file, you’ll still call the first one “01”. If your first complete episode is a prologue or introduction, you will still name the very first file “01”. It’s an episode number, not a chapter number (though they can be and often are the same).

Following this naming convention, your mp3 files’ names will look like one of these:

PB-NoggleStones-01.mp3
PB-NoggleStones-02.mp3
PB-NoggleStones-03.mp3
...

...
PB-AmerIndian2192-08.mp3
PB-AmerIndian2192-09.mp3
PB-AmerIndian2192-10.mp3
...

...
PB-7thSon-25.mp3
PB-7thSon-26.mp3
PB-7thSon-27.mp3

Remember, start at 01 and increment. Always.

Up next

Submitting your first episode