Tubidy – Having thousands of MP3 songs on your device is the best thing. You can listen to your favorite song anytime you want it without worrying about an internet connection. However, organizing those thousand files could be a little bit challenging. For that reason, we have this guide for Mastering MP3 Metadata Tagging: Organize Your Music Library.
You are going to learn about MP3 metadata. How to use it for organizing your music library? Let’s start.
What is Metadata?
First of all, you must know what metadata is. In short, metadata is a series of data that contain information that explains other data. Another data here means a file, which could be an image, text, video, audio, or other type of file.
The information in metadata varies depending on the type of file. In this case, we take an example of metadata of audio or MP3 song files. The MP3 metadata will contain information that explains that audio file. It includes the length of the audio, the artist that makes that audio, the device used to record that audio, the copyright owner, and many more.
The credibility of metadata is often used as a proofing tool to find the ownership of data or files. You can see the history of a file from its metadata, that’s how important metadata is. Then, what about MP3 metadata and organizing your music library?
MP3 Metadata
The metadata in the MP3 song file is also known as ID3 tags. The ID3 tags store a lot of information about that MP3 file, such as artist name, album, genre, released year, and even comments. MP3 player or music app can read this tag and display it when you play that song. On the other hand, the music player also uses this tag to organize the MP3 file you have on your device.
Interestingly, you also can add additional ID3 information. It helps you create information tags according to your organizing needs. This function also plays a big role in the usage of MP3 in education. You can find more in our article, The Role of MP3 in Educational Settings: Enhancing Learning.
To add another metadata input to your MP3 file, you can use an MP3 player. Most of them have a feature to edit and add metadata or ID3 tags in an MP3 file. However, if you want to work on the ID3 tag in a more detailed manner, you might have to use software or an app designed for metadata editing. That gives you more control and freedom to create tags, which work well with your need to organize your music library.
ID3v1 and ID3v2
MP3 files have two types of metadata. They are the ID3v1, the original version of MP3 metadata and the ID3v2, the latest version of ID3 tags. These two types of metadata offer different capabilities.
The ID3v1 is the original metadata with limitations. You can only add information up to 32 characters. However, ID3v2 has no limitation.
This part is an essential part of Mastering MP3 Metadata Tagging: Organize Your Music Library. It shows you the amount of information you can put into your MP3 file. Then, you can use it to adjust how it will be organized in your music library.
Best MP3 Metadata to Choose
Which one should you choose? The obvious answer would be the ID3v2. There are three reasons to choose this version for your MP3 metadata tagging needs.
- It has no limit to storing any information. It means you can store not only text, but also images, lyrics, and many more. So, when you play it using a music player, it can show that information, which enhances your music experience.
- The ID3v2 metadata stores its information at the beginning of the MP3 file. That allows you to see all the information when you start playing the file. It is also the best option for streaming or podcasting. Therefore, the listener can find out about the song information when they play it and not after they listen to or download it.
- The ID3v2 metadata is more flexible than the ID3v1. It uses an open-ended design, which means you can add more information in the future.
The only downside of ID3v2 metadata is compatibility with the old MP3 player. Many old MP3 players don’t recognize the information stored in ID3v2 metadata. The player only recognizes the original or ID3v1.
However, we believe that won’t give you any problem. All devices we have and are using today have the latest MP3 app. The newest MP3 player is also already developed and has a better ability to read the metadata. Therefore, you can use version 2 to get more information in your MP3 files.
Final Words
That concludes our guide about Mastering MP3 Metadata Tagging: Organize Your Music Library. Use the metadata and add information to your MP3 files. That will make the music library organizing process much easier and faster.