MP3 files usually contain track data embedded within the file in addition to the audio data. This additional data is contained in ID3 tags and typically include the track’s title, artist and album details. However, these tags are much more versatile and can also contain a lot of extra information about the file in question.
A plain MP3 file just contains audio data with no further information about the artist or type of audio contained within it. To be able to include such additional data in an MP3, tag data is usually added to either the beginning or end of the audio file in an ID3 format.
While the original ID3 specification was quite limited with regards to the information that it could store about a file, later versions allow for great flexibility in the type and amount of data that can be stored.
Metadata
ID3 tag data contained within MP3 files is sometimes referred to as metadata. While this sounds a bit scary and complex, it’s really not. Metadata is just data describing other data. In this case, the ID3 tag data within an MP3 is the metadata, and it describes the audio data of the MP3, e.g. the track title, artist name etc..
A Brief History
When the MP3 audio file format was formally defined in 1991, the specification didn’t cater for the storage of any additional information (metadata) about the audio data within the file itself.
It wasn’t until 1996, when the initial specification for ID3v1 was proposed, that metadata could be added to an MP3 file in a defined format. The ID3v1 specification defined the addition of metadata to the end of an MP3 file, and by doing so enabled older MP3 players to still play the files without too many problems.
However, as is often the case, the initial ID3 specification suffered limitations, not least of which were restricted field lengths (only 30 characters) and limited support for international languages.
In 1998 ID3v2 was released, addressing these and other issues with the original specification. However, the ID3v2 specification now defined the addition of metadata to the beginning of an MP3 file rather than the end, as previously, to facilitate increasingly popular streaming media.
Which Version of ID3 Tags?
Whilst ID3v1 tags are technically the safest option of ID3 Tag to use for compatibility with older equipment, they are also more limited in their capabilities. As ID3v2 tags have been around for almost 10 years now, there are probably very few MP3 players or systems that aren’t capable of supporting them, and as such, should be the version to adopt.
Tag Data
The latest version of the ID3v2 specification defines over 80 data fields, although invariably only a subset of these are ever used. The most common metadata fields added to MP3 files are:
- Title – The track title
- Artist – The artist that recorded the track
- Album – Which album the track belongs to (if applicable
- Track – The track number from the album (if applicable)
- Year – The year that the track was published
- Genre – The type of track, e.g. speech, rock, pop
- Comment – Additional notes about the track
- Copyright – Copyright notice by the copyright holder
- Album Art – Thumbnail of the album art or artist
In addition to these common fields, other data can be included such as: web addresses, composer, conductor, orchestra…
Usage
Tag data embedded within MP3 files is used by your playback system (MP3 player or your computer’s media player) to display useful information about the track being played.
While it’s nice to see information about the currently playing track on your MP3 player, the tag data is much more beneficial when it comes to searching for tracks, enabling you to search by artist, genre, year etc..
Editing Tag Data
While a lot of track data may already be included in your downloaded MP3 files, or may get added automatically by your ripping software when you rip a track from a CD, this data can be easily edited or added to if you wish.
By using a tag editor, you can add new track data to MP3s, or edit existing tags within your MP3 files. Some CD ripping software may include limited tag editing options, although dedicated tag editors tend to offer much more sophisticated editing capabilities.
If you’d like to try editing the ID3 tags of your MP3 files, some popular examples of ID3 tag editing software are:
Thanks for this. Very useful!
Very useful – what I’d like to know is how / who actually adds this info to the file – and how come it’s so inaccurate sometimes (Chieftains as Reggae!!) Is it an automated process or does some jobsworth have to encode it manually?
I’m afraid I don’t know who adds this information to the files, I suspect it varies, but at some point in the chain, someone will have to add this information manually.
After this, certain programs such as Mp3tag can extract the song information from databases like http://www.freedb.org, although they may get it wrong in the automation process sometimes and try extracting the wrong information.
You can always edit the tag information yourself with a tag editor if you really feel the need.
I really liked the article but I didn’t like the taggers. I recommend MusicBee or TagScanner.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-mp3-tag-editor.htm
Hi Francisco, Glad you liked the article and thanks for suggesting some alternatives, these can always be a personal choice and one size doesn’t necessarily fit all 🙂
I agree with southofnonorth regarding the problems we find with the tag data in many mp3 files, especially those from online sources that have been ripped using many different pieces of software offering the end user a variety of options to edit, relocate and/or combine tag data. While the existing tag data is a good place to begin, you can usually research details online and refine the data exponentially. I have used MP3TAG and spent many, many hours cleaning and refining the tag data in my collection of music files from a wide variety of sources that began with my own collection of about 450 cd’s. I’ve communicated a number of times with Florian and he has helped and advised me with his software when I experienced problems running on Windows 8.1. Turns out that when I run it on a Windows XP machine, the problems go away and I love using MP3TAG regularly.
I use MP3TAG on a Windows 7 machine and have never had any issues with it. I find it an incredibly useful utility.
I have mp3 files with their respective artwork added but somehow I cannot make itunes show this artwork in my library. Should I still add all artwork manually from different files? I am hoping I can somehow show itunes where to look into the mp3 file to retrieve the artwork part. I just don’t know how to…
Wish I could help, but unfortunately I have no experience of itunes. Anyone else got any suggestions?
how can you covert a mp3 to a id3?
You can’t actually convert an MP3 to ID3 as an MP3 is an audio file and ID3 are just extra information bits WITHIN the MP3 file. If you want to add ID3 information to an existing MP3 file, then you will need to use an ID3 tag editor like those mentioned above to work on your MP3 file.
Hello sir I am Arvind bhargawa from Rajathan in India . How can i tell you that how much am i happy today .
It is very useful for us
Thanks for great support .
Your’s loving student
A:r:d:x:(Arvind)
Hey there, I got a problem!
I am composing songs for hobby, I added an Album Art to them.
Now the Problem: If I send the Song to a friend, the Album Cover of another Album instead of mine shows up in his Player!
Can you help?
Hi, MP3s can actually have multiple album images embedded in them, although most playback software will only display one image, which sounds like what you could be experiencing. I’ve got another 2 posts on the subject, which may help you out:
https://www.richardfarrar.com/embedding-album-art-in-mp3-files/
https://www.richardfarrar.com/alternative-id3-tags-for-adding-artwork-to-mp3-files/
How come some pictures of front cover of the tag are displayed in my MP3 player and some are not even when confirmed the file is tagged?
Hi Ken,
That’s a very good question, but unfortunately not easy to answer. Does the artwork appear if you play the file in a different device? Not all players handle artwork in the same way, plus different tags can sometimes be used for adding album artwork. I explain a little more about these sort of problems in another article of mine: Alternative ID3 Tags for Adding Artwork to MP3 Files
Hi folks
Where does tag data come from? How come some tracks end up wrongly tagged?
1) someone has to rip the music in the first place. I use CDEX. It attempts to look up the CD in an online database, such as freedb or musicbrainz, and that’s based on the # of tracks and the track lengths. So sometimes it finds nothing; I have to trpe in track data (which I can upload to freedb afterwards). Sometimes a wrong CD because the lengths are similar – usually it gives a choice and you have to be pretty dumb to pick the wrong one!. Sometimes the track info is wrong because of some lemming who typed the wrong stuff and uploaded it. All of which can end you with the wrong info in your tags.
2) when you play your track, your player may ignore your album art, and it may go and look up an internet version instead – and that might be different.
3) maybe you have got album art, track art, composer art, performer art embedded in your tracks. No saying which image your chosen player will display!
Very well put, thanks for your input to the thread Derek.
Hi . A????? trying to build my mp3 player , so how can ???? access the meta data with java
Java or Javascript?
thank you. its very useful
You’re welcome, I’m glad you found it helpful.
As a podcaster, how does one get the individual track tags to show as each track is played?
We have been tagging the mp3 for upload with the tags as you have described elsewhere, but all that gives you is the name of the show etc. We want to display the name/artist of the track being played as it is played. Is that possible?
For example, on Mixcloud for instance, they allow you to time-stamp the uploaded podcast so that the displayed track list automatically scrolls to the current track being played – be it a music track or spoken word. We would like something such as Windows Media Player to display the current track being heard, rather than just the general podcast name, producer, etc.
Hi, An interesting question, but unfortunately I think the problem resides with the playback devices and not your files. You could potentially put a vast array of different ID3 tags in your MP3 files, but very few players (if any) would display them all by default.
You might be able to change the default of some players so that they display more tags, but on other people’s systems this will be beyond your control. It may be worth experimenting with different tags and different players to see if you can find some commonality. Otherwise I’m not sure what else you can do.
Nicely explained, thanks…
Thanks, very much.