Quickie: Turn MP3’s Into Audiobooks

May 6th, 2009 by Scott

I keep forgetting all the steps on how to do this. Here’s a post so I can look it up again without drowning in the noise on the Googles.

  • Tell iTunes about the MP3’s using File | Add File/Folder To Library.

  • Go to those MP3’s in iTunes by clicking on “Recently Added” playlist.

  • Select all the MP3’s in the audiobook set.

  • Right-click and choose Create AAC Version.

  • Put in background and check back in an hour.

  • Right-click any of the new AAC’s and choose “Show in Windows Explorer” to go to the newly encoded files.

  • In Explorer or a command line or whatever, rename them all from their .m4a extension to .m4b.

    • That’s all that you need to have iTunes think it’s an audiobook, just being AAC and having .m4b.
    • (It would be nice to also attach the book’s cover image to the .m4b, but whatev…)
    • I use the 12noon Rename Regular Expression tool from the context menu in Explorer to make the renaming easier.

  • Move the .m4b files where you want them. I usually put them back where the MP3’s were originally. iTunes will have placed them in some screwy folder structure based on author name or voice actor name or something.

  • Delete the MP3’s and (nonexistent but still linked) M4A’s from iTunes, sending files to the recycle bin (don’t need them any more). Have to do this from the Music selection in Library instead of the Recently Added playlist btw.

  • Add the folder again to pick up the M4B’s.

    • They will show up in the Audiobooks pane now. Yay!

    I do this when I download MP3 audio books from the amazing and totally free Seattle Public Library. MP3’s are great in that they aren’t protected, so I don’t have to deal with goofy software (like my Audible account requires) to play them wherever I want. When I’m picking out my monthly Audible book to get, I’ll always check SPL first to see if they have it too. They often do! So my Audible account is more for the exclusive stuff, whereas Jules Verne and Michael Pollan can come from SPL.

    Optional Pre-Step 1: join all the MP3’s together into a single file using a lossless MP3-splicing utility. SPL audio books are apparently ripped from CD’s, as each MP3 is about an hour long. Doesn’t bother me to have a bunch of one hour sections, though. Especially given that the stupid iPod software still has a bug that forgets and resets my place in audiobooks sometimes.

    I probably ought to automate this all with a script but I don’t do it often enough (~once a month) to want to bother.

    Posted in audiobooks, ipod |

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    2 comments on this post.

    1. Alderete:

      May 6th, 2009 at 9:05 pm

      If you’re using iTunes 8, there’s now a much easier way to accomplish this:

      http://aldoblog.com/2008/09/itunes-8-is-great-for-audiobook-lovers/

      This can be accomplished entirely within iTunes, and doesn’t require the time-consuming transcoding step. Again, iTunes 8-only.

    2. Scott:

      May 7th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

      OMG. Thank you!!

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