You need to tell Apple.

"iPod supports MP3 16-320kbps and VBR)".

What problem do your customers have with audio for iPod?

Video content problems?

Nope,
just cannot copy an mp3 file from a CD / HDD into an iPod using iTunes.
Apple know this, they designed it that way. They only permit iPods to be used with their content providing service. Yes I know there are ways around this however I can hardly tell my clients to tell their clients to use 'unauthorised' hacks, Apple would eat them alive if they found out, they have a contract to also supply content for iTunes so the whole situation could get very touchy.
My advice to anyone having this problem is to go buy any player other than one made by Apple. With those players you just drag and drop the files into the appropriate folder on the player.

Bob.

I'm not ipod savvy, but my daughter has one.
She puts all her CDs onto it via iTunes, so it must be possible, if a bit convoluted - rather than creating an mp3, first create an audio CD then let the ipod software convert it.

They only permit iPods to be used with their content providing service.

You are waaaay behind the times. The iTunes music store is valuable as a distribution method, but the VAST majority of iPod content doesn't come from Apple's "content providing service."

The benefit of producing for the iPod is the huge size of the market. Apple has sold far more iPods than all other models of WMA etc. players.

To play in this market, you need to learn how to do it. There are even courses available online for how to do it, covering both audio and video programs.

It is not hard to do and it can be very profitable, way more so than if you focus on other players.

I was pleasantly shocked myself over how many adults there are, especially 20-30 year olds, who greatly PREFER to get bought content in iPod format.

70% of new American cars next year will be iPod ready, after Apple has signed up them too (after BMW and Japanese auto makers), and there is a huge aftermarket to retrofit any car for it, in addition to tiny attached FM transmitters that pass on the audio to you car FM radio.

Think market, not technology!

Or hide in the basement, with the knowledge that everybody else is wrong and you're the only one who knows "how it should be done properly!"

:O)

She puts all her CDs onto it via iTunes

...and any music purchased from the iTunes store can also be burned onto a standard CD from within the free iTunes software (I think up to 7 times).

I bought a 30GB Video iPod from Overstock.com for not much more than the recent $211 after coupons (no rebates) and $2.99 shipping.

Bought it for checking my iPod content, but I really love it for my own use too.

No manual needed, no on/off buton (that's automatic), great picture too to my surprise, and I have used it to watch tutorials on After Effects SFX and many other things when I was waiting somewhere and couldn't bring a computer. It rocks.

Sorry guys but you don't get it!

We produce upto 22 hours of audio on one or two CD sets, the whole point of the exercise is so we don't have to sell it as a set of 18 CDs, this content was sold that way at around $350 / set in the past. Now thanks to the development of mp3 and the ready availability of mp3 players, (even a $50 DVD player will play this content) we can supply the content at a more affordable price.

Offering it via download from iTunes would be pointless, probably over 50% of the target market doesn't own a PC plus it'd be a pretty hefty download (some titles run to over 1GB of mp3).

Offering it on CD has already been done, this is mostly rerelease material. If someone absolutely has to get it into an iPod via iTunes then yes they could buy the content as a set of CDs and rip it via iTunes into their iPod. Would not make any sense, the money they saved buying it already ripped would pay for a decent mp3 player from Creative etc.

Thirdly and also far from lastly, these titles may include significant amounts of literature, no problemo including that with a 2 CD set, bit hard with a download although I guess the client could printout a PDF but not quite the same as a glossy booklette.

So we have a good business model, you buy the product and it'll play very nicely on anything that'll play mp3, in-car CD players, portable CD players, DVD players, portable mp3 players from anybody except Apple (unless you know how).

As I said before even mp3 has a major problem for us, no seemless tracks, you simply cannot emulate a CD using mp3 but you can with WMA and WMA can be distributed for free if you don't want the DRM which we don't. The number of devices capable of playing WMA though is a problem, otherwise I think we'd switch to WMA rather than mp3. Even MS's WMA DRM model would work better for this kind of content than Apple's if we did need DRM.

Bob.

There are gapless (current terminology) MP3 encoders that add the correct metadata, just Google it, this was solved a long time ago (although not all MP3 players support it...).

Only the most recent in-car CD players can play MP3.

And of course if the clients don't have iPods already, the market is a different one.

Nobody of sane mind would buy an iPod just to play back one purchased program, for that an El Cheapo MP3 player would be more suitable, perhaps in a bundle deal even.

And for the iPod customers, you could include 2 lines telling them how to transfer the MP3 files to their iPod without any hacks.