How to make sure your MP3's are right for internet radio

In today's highly competitive independent music industry you need to do everything you can to stand out.  One thing you can do is make sure the meta data on your MP3s has all the pertinent information.  Here is a except from the submission requirements from Soma FM.

Make sure your MP3 files are high bitrate (256kb or "v0"/Highest Quality VBR). No WAV files please; no m4a files. Check your Metadata! Make sure your artist name and track names are correct. Include the album name where available, otherwise leave blank. Put your website and email address in the comments field. Use the "Grouping" ID field to put the name of the channel you think will best fit. Set the Genre to be something that best describes your music. 


So how does one do that?  Well if you have a I tunes it is a snap.  First go to I tunes and locate the tune.

Then once you highlight the tune go to File and select Get Info.

Here you can enter all the relevant information, including adding the artwork for the track.
Next go to the summary to make sure the information is correct.

You'll be able to look at the bit rate here.  The normal encoder will do that at 128 kbs.  As you can see in the example above a higher bit rate is required.  For this in I tunes go to preferences and chose Import settings.

Import using MP3 encoder, setting custom.

Click on Custom and from there choose 256 kbps.

And there you have it.  Happy sharing.