How to import an .mp3 audiobook into iTunes
Problem:
Having bought an audiobook online ('A Game of Thrones' by George R.R. Martin, unabridged, read by Roy Dotrice - 33 hours, US$40 from audiobooks.borders.com) and downloaded it in .mp3 format, I find when I import it to iTunes that iTunes won't recognise it as an audiobook. Presumably had I bought it from the iTunes store (I would have, except that they don't sell it), iTunes would have known it was an audiobook and would have filed it appropriately.
This is typical of Apple. "HOW DARE YOU BUY SOMETHING FROM ANOTHER STORE, REGARDLESS OF THE FACT THAT OUR STORE DIDN'T STOCK WHAT YOU WANTED TO BUY! WE WILL MAKE IT AS HARD AS POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO DO SIMPLE THINGS BECAUSE WE ARE APPLE AND STEPHEN FRY LIKES US SO WE MUST BE GOOD BECAUSE OF COURSE HE'S ALWAYS RIGHT (AND WHILE WE'RE AT IT THERE IS NO WELSH WORD FOR BLUE AND THERE NEVER WERE EU REGULATIONS ABOUT BANANAS).
Anyway, it is actually possible to tell iTunes that an .mp3 file (or in this case, 28 .mp3 files) is an audiobook, not a music track. Obviously I didn't find this out from the application's helpfile or Apple itself, but from the internet. Using my PC. So nuuuur.
EDIT: Before you do the steps below, you may need to convert stitch a few hundred tiny mp3 files together into three or four mp3 files. MP3AlbumMaker by MakeItIne seems to do this well enough and it's a free download.
1. Make sure you're setup to Import Using: AAC Encoder. By default iTunes is set to import CDs using the AAC Encoder. However, many people (like me) change this to mp3 to increase the cross-compatibility of their library. You need to change this to make step 3 possible. If this is the case, you will have to change it back to mp3 when you're all done.
2. Show audiobooks in iTunes (on the general tab of your preferences).
3. Convert your track to AAC (.m4a file type) by right-clicking* on the file in iTunes and selecting "Create AAC copy"
4. Rename the actual file to .m4b by right-clicking* in Explorer and renaming the file. (You need to trick iTunes into thinking the file is an audiobook by renaming the file using Windows Explorer. Yes, really. If you don't do this, and leave the file as an .m4a, the iPod won't remember where you were when you next turn it on again, so this step is absolutely essential.)
5. Remove the old track from itunes by right-clicking* in iTunes and selecting delete.
6. Add the new m4b file back into itunes.
7. It should magically show up in your audiobooks section. (Make sure you're looking at audiobooks in iTunes, not Songs.)
8. In the audiobooks section, add the new audiobook files to your Audiobooks playlist. (You need to do this because while iTunes sort of knows what an audiobook is, iPods don't. So you have to have a Music playlist called 'Audiobooks' that works just like any other playlist, because that's what it is.)
9. Sync with your iPod in the usual way.
Why make it so damn hard and unintuitive? Why not, for example, allow you to simply drag-and-drop the tracks from the music library to the audiobooks library? Or for that matter allow you to right-click* on a file and tag it as an audiobook?
* Obviously this only works if you are using Windows. If you have a Mac, god knows what you do since they generally don't have a right mouse button. Possibly you ring up Steve Jobs and he performs a traditional northern Californian dance to bring up a context-sensitive menu.
Having bought an audiobook online ('A Game of Thrones' by George R.R. Martin, unabridged, read by Roy Dotrice - 33 hours, US$40 from audiobooks.borders.com) and downloaded it in .mp3 format, I find when I import it to iTunes that iTunes won't recognise it as an audiobook. Presumably had I bought it from the iTunes store (I would have, except that they don't sell it), iTunes would have known it was an audiobook and would have filed it appropriately.
This is typical of Apple. "HOW DARE YOU BUY SOMETHING FROM ANOTHER STORE, REGARDLESS OF THE FACT THAT OUR STORE DIDN'T STOCK WHAT YOU WANTED TO BUY! WE WILL MAKE IT AS HARD AS POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO DO SIMPLE THINGS BECAUSE WE ARE APPLE AND STEPHEN FRY LIKES US SO WE MUST BE GOOD BECAUSE OF COURSE HE'S ALWAYS RIGHT (AND WHILE WE'RE AT IT THERE IS NO WELSH WORD FOR BLUE AND THERE NEVER WERE EU REGULATIONS ABOUT BANANAS).
Anyway, it is actually possible to tell iTunes that an .mp3 file (or in this case, 28 .mp3 files) is an audiobook, not a music track. Obviously I didn't find this out from the application's helpfile or Apple itself, but from the internet. Using my PC. So nuuuur.
EDIT: Before you do the steps below, you may need to convert stitch a few hundred tiny mp3 files together into three or four mp3 files. MP3AlbumMaker by MakeItIne seems to do this well enough and it's a free download.
1. Make sure you're setup to Import Using: AAC Encoder. By default iTunes is set to import CDs using the AAC Encoder. However, many people (like me) change this to mp3 to increase the cross-compatibility of their library. You need to change this to make step 3 possible. If this is the case, you will have to change it back to mp3 when you're all done.
2. Show audiobooks in iTunes (on the general tab of your preferences).
3. Convert your track to AAC (.m4a file type) by right-clicking* on the file in iTunes and selecting "Create AAC copy"
4. Rename the actual file to .m4b by right-clicking* in Explorer and renaming the file. (You need to trick iTunes into thinking the file is an audiobook by renaming the file using Windows Explorer. Yes, really. If you don't do this, and leave the file as an .m4a, the iPod won't remember where you were when you next turn it on again, so this step is absolutely essential.)
5. Remove the old track from itunes by right-clicking* in iTunes and selecting delete.
6. Add the new m4b file back into itunes.
7. It should magically show up in your audiobooks section. (Make sure you're looking at audiobooks in iTunes, not Songs.)
8. In the audiobooks section, add the new audiobook files to your Audiobooks playlist. (You need to do this because while iTunes sort of knows what an audiobook is, iPods don't. So you have to have a Music playlist called 'Audiobooks' that works just like any other playlist, because that's what it is.)
9. Sync with your iPod in the usual way.
Why make it so damn hard and unintuitive? Why not, for example, allow you to simply drag-and-drop the tracks from the music library to the audiobooks library? Or for that matter allow you to right-click* on a file and tag it as an audiobook?
* Obviously this only works if you are using Windows. If you have a Mac, god knows what you do since they generally don't have a right mouse button. Possibly you ring up Steve Jobs and he performs a traditional northern Californian dance to bring up a context-sensitive menu.