Mp3tag makes it simple to edit batches of MP3 files.
According to a recent New York Times article, 80 percent of people who make New Year's resolutions abandon them before Valentine's Day. But we can all beat the odds, right?
This year, I'm hoping to make some sense of my digital music collection. I'm a big fan of the audio-tracking site Last.fm (my username is "field_day" if you want to friend me), but I'll often get an error when trying to "scrobble" a song because my ID3 information is missing or erroneous.
ID3 is a metadata format within MP3 files that can store a song's title, artist, album, track number, genre, year, and other useful data. And editing that info song by song in iTunes, Winamp, MediaMonkey, or other music players can be a real pain in the butt.
Enter the batch taggers. These software programs make it much easier to edit multiple MP3 files at once. One of the most popular, Mp3tag, was a Featured Freeware selection back in August 2008, and TagScanner is another top-rated and popular freeware option. Among the shareware solutions, TagTuner offers a full 30-day trial and includes one unique and critical feature: the ability to roll back any batch changes.
Will 2009 be the year I finally get my MP3 act together? I certainly hope so. If you have any expert advice on organizing digital music or cleaning up my ID3 tags, tell me about it in the comments.
Digital music is all well and good, but who wants to type in album and artist information for each track? With TagScanner, you don't have to. This efficient and powerful tag editor lets you edit metadata automatically as well as by hand, both for individual files and file batches.
The automatic tagging feature is most impressive. Although it can hit up online databases such as FreeDB, Discogs, and Amazon like many other auto-tagging apps, it can also generate tags from file and folder names--that's something many similar apps can't do. It works in the opposite direction, too, generating file names from tags. The app supports ID3v1, ID3v2, Vorbis comments, APEv2, WindowsMedia, and MP4/iTunes tags.
TagScanner has an elegant and orderly interface, and lets you preview file names before applying changes. The only catch is that you'll need to spend some time learning the program's file- and tag-naming language. However, if you have thousands of music tracks crying out for organization, that's a small price to pay.
I was a bit surprised when I stumbled upon this batch MP3 tag editor. People seemed to love it. Not The Dark Knight love it, but perhaps X-Men 2 love it. In the words of a user, it's "simply indispensable." Turns out, you could do much, much worse than Mp3tag if you're looking for a freeware ID3 tag editor.
It comes with an effective single and batch auto-tagging feature, sourced from FreeDB, Amazon, or Discogs. The lightweight application also sports batch and single edits to effect such changes as case changing, auto-numbering, tag and track name flipping, and user-defined actions. There's playlist support and configuration exporting in six formats including CSV, HTML, and RTF. Support for more than two dozen languages offers the program up for international use, and a Favorite directory makes it easy to return to your music assuming you keep all your tracks in the same root folder.
The interface is a bit too simple, though. It won't be hard for anybody to navigate once you get used to the busy Toolbar and using mouse-over labels to identify button functions, but it certainly could be clarified with bigger buttons, or at least more easily identifiable icons. At worst, the user interface will slow you down, but in no way should it stop you from using this top-flight MP3 tag tweaker.
Mp3tag is a super-sweet and lightweight little app for cleaning up the mess you've made of your ID3 tags. But don't take my word for it: in the words of a user, it's "simply indispensable." Now, I'd disagree with that if I was using a music jukebox like MediaMonkey that supplies its own excellent editor, but for iTunes users--and I used to be one--I'd be hard-pressed to get by without it.
The autotag feature comes from a rarely-wrong pedigree, sourced by FreeDB, Amazon, or discogs. If you don't like the results from one, simply flip to one of the other choices. Besides checking and correcting song tags en masse, the lightweight app recognizes your massive song library in a matter of minutes. It took less than 5 minutes to scan mine, which has more than 8,000 tracks.
Mp3tag allows batch or single edits to effect such changes as case changing, autonumbering, tag and track name flipping, and user-defined actions. There's playlist support and configuration exporting in six formats including CSV, HTML, and RTF. Support for more than two dozen languages offer the program up for international use, and a Favorite directory setting makes it easy to return to your My Music folder, or wherever you store your tracks.
I wasn't enamored with the interface, which was a bit too simplistic and could've been clearer. It's not hard to navigate once you get used to the busy Toolbar and using mouse-over labels to identify button functions, but bigger buttons or at least more easily identifiable icons would make it a smoother ride. At worst, the UI will slow you down, but in no way should it stop you from using this top-flight MP3 tag tweaker.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
I get my music from several places. Over time I've ripped most of the CDs in my collection and have also bought songs on iTunes. Though file sharing is tempting--and fairly popular judging by our Most Popular list--I've only used those applications a couple of times over the years for long lost remixes. I guess I try to stay legal out of respect for the musicians, but this article isn't about the legality of file sharing.
The problem is, when you get your music from a lot of different sources, you end up with strangely tagged tracks and artist information which completely messes up your library. Particularly if you have a large music collection, you'll find duplicates of songs you forgot you had, partial downloads of songs, and songs you had forgotten you even added to your library because they were tagged in such a way they show up at the bottom of your list.
One way to remedy this problem is to go through and switch each of the tags yourself. iTunes lets you switch each tag manually, but you have to go through each song one by one to change the information. Fortunately there's a group of programs which let you batch tag and convert multiple songs so your audio files stay organized. Though it takes some work, when you're finished you'll be able to find everything easily and sort by genre, name, artist, and year, knowing all your songs will show up that fit the criteria selected.
There are free and paid versions of this type of music tagging software, and in this Killer Download I've included a little of both. As always, if you have a better alternative, let us know in the comments.
A tabbed interface makes it easy to get the tagging functions you want.
(Credit: CNET Networks)My Mp3's has a misused apostrophe in its title, but as a free MP3 tagging editor is pretty useful. You'll be able to grab huge chunks of your library and switch all the tag types at once to lighten your load. It offers handy tools to standardize your tagging method and it lets you copy your chosen tagging method to other groups of songs to save time. The included track player was a little buggy during my testing, but most of the features are well designed and work fine.
Exhaustive tagging options in this application make it perfect for the detail-oriented audiophile.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Mp3Tag is a shareware tagging editor ($24.95) which offers a few more features than My Mp3's. Mp3Tag lets you batch tag several audio file formats by filling in the appropriate fields, and offers a few other cool features in its multiwindow interface. Those who like to sing along will appreciate the capability to search the Web for song lyrics to attach to the file. You can also use Mp3Tag to download album art from the Web so all your music will have that nifty picture when it loads up. The included player on this application worked fine in my testing and I liked the amount of info you can edit for each song with My Mp3's.
A skinnable interface and extensive tagging options make this full-featured jukebox a hit.
(Credit: CNET Networks)MediaMonkey Standard is probably our most popular application in this category and for good reason. MediaMonkey can be used as your main jukebox application, complete with custom playlists, album art, an excellent included player, and CD ripping and burning. The tagging system is excellent as well, with the ability to ping Amazon for album art and tagging conventions with the click of a button. A left navigation window lets you sort by any tags you've assigned which makes playlists from a specific era or genre a snap. After your songs are properly tagged, you can drag and drop conventions to other artists to get your preferred layout. It even supports syncing with your iPod. A gold version of MediaMonkey ($19.95) adds options to automatically tag new music as you add it, autofile conversion, autoplaylists, and more.
If you have a big library of music which is getting out of control, try standardizing your tags with one of these programs. Once your music is fully organized you'll be happy with how easy it is to find your favorite songs. For more on MP3 tagging, check out this post by our very own Seth Rosenblatt.
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