How do I change part of a title across several episodes of the same podcast in iTunes?

July 27, 2009 11:27 AM

How do I change part of a title across several episodes of the same podcast in iTunes?

[rant]I can't believe I even have to use a question on this, because it seems like it should be dead stupid simple, but there ya go. Either I'm missing something, my Google-fu sucks, or iTunes really is that annoying.[/rant]

So I've got a bunch of TEDTalks in my podcasts, and everyone of them begins with "TEDTalks : " - i.e. TEDTalks : Joe Blow talks about technology. I'd like to remove all those leading TEDTalks (I know what podcast I'm listening to) because it takes up space on the screen when I'm trying to figure out which is which. I do NOT want to have to edit 70+ files by hand. Nor is TEDTalks the only podcast that demonstrates naming convention.

I run iTunes in Windows XP, so DougScripts are not an option. Nor is getting a Mac or running something in place of iTunes. I've tried doing a search and replace with a file renamer, and a different program that edits mp3 file tags. All that happens is iTunes refuses to recognize the files anymore, I have to reimport the folder where they live, and the names are back to what they were before.

There's got to be an easier way. I can't believe that something as basic as search and replace is impossible with iTunes or a script.

Methods that are free are preferred, but I'll consider paying if the software is that fabulous and time saving.

posted by booksherpa to Technology (2 answers total)

Best answer: As a podcaster I can tell you this: when you subscribe to a podcast in iTunes the data for the show comes from the XML FEED of the show. iTunes actually REPLACES any metadata in the MP3 or M4A files with whatever the XML feed has, apparently assuming that podcasters are too dumb to actually embed ID3 tags.

Your first trick might be to try MP3Tag which is a free application for Windows. This will let you change the ID3 tags on the podcasts themselves, though that may not propogate to iTunes without a manual form of refresh.

Now you can, of course, take the MP3s, change the ID3 tags with MP3Tag, and then add them to your library as SONGS, but then they won't be in the handy-dandy PODCAST menu on your iPod/iPhone/etc.

Third, and this is a LOT of work, would be to find the XML file to which you subscribe. Create a NEW XML file which still points to the remote MP3s but has the shorter title. Subscribe to your new XML file, redownload all the shows, and you'll have the new tags automatically.
posted by arniec at 12:45 PM on July 27, 2009

Response by poster: Yeehah!! arniec, you have saved my sanity. I was able to change both filename and title with MP3Tag (which doesn't have the world's most intuitive interface, but I was able to find the search and replace feature under the Quick Actions button, so yay!) and then reimport the whole folder with iTunes. I had to delete the old and misnamed dupes, but that was the work of seconds rather than hours.

Problem solved!

Oh, and as an aside, the TEDTalks podcast looks to be some good listening.
posted by booksherpa at 1:43 PM on July 27, 2009