Best way to create mp3 library with metadata

[Ssanchez02]

I have thousands of mp3 radio shows and speeches that are NOT listed in any podcast directory. I have added artist/speaker, title metadata to most of the files but could use some guidance on the best way to add these libraries to my Plex server, which also has music, podcasts, TV shows and movies.

In a few cases, I also have custom video files, but the overwhelming majority are mp3s. I have the files in the current folder structure, with all mp3s/speeches/radio shows by one speaker in a subdirectory

/Speakers
/Speakers/UCLA
/Speakers/UCLA/Jim Smith
/Speakers/UCLA/John Doe
/Speakers/KUSC/Barbara Bane
/Speakers/KUSC/Jane Doe

The mp3s are also labeled/named by date/year, although this can be changed:
/Speakers/KUSC/Jane Doe/20200123 - Fan Group
/Speakers/KUSC/Jane Doe/20200212 - User Group Mtg.

I’ve tried setting up different libraries in my Plex system, but either I’m using the wrong type (e.g. TV Shows, Music), or need to use a different local media agent to get the metatag info to present the libraries in a meaningful way.

Since they are generally identified either by the location or the speaker name, I’d like to add a photo of either the speaker or the radio show for all files in the collection.

I’d appreciate any help on the best way to create and manage this. Should I just create one massive ‘Speakers’ library and have the different locations beneath, then further subdivide by speaker, or should I create a different library for each location, and have speakers in subdirectories beneath that?

Also, is there a better library type for these type of custom mp3s (and sometimes mp4s)?

Thanks for your suggestions and guidance.

P.S.
I’ve gotten the best results by creating a Music library type, and used Embedded Tags and the Local Media Agent, but this just creates one massive library with no further subdivisions of Location or Album. Ideally, I’d like to be able to ‘drill down,’ either by Artist/Speaker, then Location or Album, then a list of titles within that Location or Album.

Any suggestions? Thank you!

[Forkboy]

Maybe try to set them up like Audiobooks (using the Audiobook Metadata Agent, but using the Local Media Agent they suggest not doing)? Might work.

[pandas]

Here is how I handle ad-hoc audio series. Most of them are instructional and/or books on tape. I prefer using SHOWS type libraries because it’s very straightforward.

1. Convert all audio files to MP4 containers, with an audio-only stream. If they are books on tape I turn each chapter into a single episode/file.
2. Deploy them in standard plex TITLE - s99e99 - EPISODE_NAME format
3. Run a python API script that updates the episode name in plex using the EPISODE_NAME text from the filename

About half of my stuff are ad-hoc compilations of one sort or another that are not dependent on external metadata sources. It works well.