Tagging Music Files: The Whys and Wherefores
Time to pick up where I left off before the holidays… So, you’ve downloaded yourself a free ripper, decided on a format, and now you’re wondering how to go about adding those pesky file tags you keep hearing about. But wait, what are they and why are they needed? Simply put, tags (as they relate to music files) are extra bits of meta data that get added to music files so that playback or cataloging software can identify and display pertinent information about the file: artist, title, album, track number, genre, etc. Say your music file is a piece of candy — tags do not alter the taste of the candy, they just provide the packaging. Without the packaging, your brain (or your computer) has no idea what’s inside the wrapper. Nobody wants to pop an Eminem in their mouth thinking it’s an Ice Cube, do they?
Bad metaphors aside, tagging is absolutely critical for maintaining a tidy and smoothly running digital music archive. Not every music format includes tags, so make sure you choose one that does. MP3s have the most robust tagging support. If you go lossless, FLAC support tags, to a certain extent.
The best rippers rip and tag in one step. Programs like iTunes and Windows Media Player can do both and for most people, they will suffice. Problems can arise, however, when you don’t like the choices those programs have made. Sometimes a tagger is inconsistent: one album gets tagged by “Medeski, Martin, and Wood” and the next one is tagged by “Medeski Martin & Wood.” When you go to sort your music, those albums are not listed as by the same artist. It’s not always easy to figure out how to change the tags they have added and once you have, some apps (like iTunes) have a nasty habit of changing them back without your permission (* see below). That is why I recommend a dedicated tagging program. I use Tag & Rename — it has great features, is easy to use, and only costs $29.95. But if you want something free, go with Mp3tag, which offers 90% of the functionality of Tag & Rename. Despite its name, Mp3tag can handle a plethora of formats.
That’s probably enough about tags for now, but one last tip: one of the most important tags is often the least consistently implemented: and that’s the genre tag. Many tagging programs come with their own subset of genre tags and they don’t all match. The result is a scattered mish-mash of genres, so that (for example) when you go to make a cool mix of all your World Music artists, you have to search through multiple genres like World, World Beat, Latin, International, and Mongol Throat Singing. So just like you should choose a single file format, you should also create a set number of genres (the fewer the better) and consistently stick to them. Otherwise, you loose the very utility that tags were created to provide.
( * You can prevent this from happening by tagging the files properly and then changing their setting to “Read Only,” which prevents any further changes. In Windows you can do that by selecting the files in question, right-click, properties, and check the “Read Only” box. Just remember that you’ll need to uncheck it if you ever want to make any further changes yourself. )
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 9:59 am and is filed under Handy Little Apps, Tech Checks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
