In my previous post on Protecting Your Social Media Assets I failed to mention one important element of stating your intentions for content with respect to podcasting.

The aspect I’m speaking of is Metadata. Medadata is the data behind the data. It’s the data that tells you what a media file is all about.

For example, the image to the left of this paragraph shows you possible the metadata for an mp3 file. It’s pretty interesting as it contains very technical information like the compression ratio, bitrate and frequency as well as important information about the file like the artist and title.

A file that includes the appropriate metadata can serve you well. Many music players use the metadata to display title, artist, album and track number on the screen of the portable media device. Besides being a good way to help the listener know what they’re listening to, properly completed meta data can help someone get more information, including your copyright intentions.

All metadata for MP3 files (called ID3 Tags) includes a comment field. You can put anything you want in the comment field. I always put a link back to the website related to the podcast. But you could also place copyright information in the comment field as well. So by stating your intentions inside the media file as well as on your website you are adding an added layer or protection against those who might claim that they misunderstood your copyright intentions.

This is by no means a foolproof method of protecting your media, but it is the first line of defense.

To get to your metadata in MP3 files you will need to use a software tool like iTunes or dBPowerAMP Music Converter. While iTunes is a free download, dBPowerAMP is free to try and $14.95 to buy.

If you’re on a Windows machine I highly recommend dBPowerAmp as a tool for editing the metadata on both audio and video files. The app also includes a suite of tools to help you convert and edit mp3 files in a nice variety of ways.

[tags]Social Media, Podcasting, Legal, Copyright, ID3, Metadata[/tags]