Metadata for audio files

[DigPeter]

I am just getting round to cataloguing my audio files. 

The metadata panel has a preset MP3 panel.  This shows several versions of ID3.  Are these suitable for formats other than MP3?

Presumably ID3 V2.4 is the most up to date, which would be suitable for a recently purchased audio player?

There is a large number of tags, some of which I do not understand.  My files are predominantly classical and the information I am interested in are:
- Composer
- Work, which could consist  several parts, e.g:
---  movements
---  songs
- Each work would have individual performer/artists/orchestras (bands) .

Advise on which tags to use and anything else relevant would be appreciated.

[DigPeter]

I note that the tags in the MP3 panel are all locked.  My audio files are mostly ripped from CDs and do not have any metadata.  Can I unlock the tags so that data can be entered?

[Mario]

ExifTool does not support writing MP3 data, it can just read it. This is why the fields in the metadata panel are read-only.
There is a ton of MP3 variants around. I recommend you use a software specialized in MP3 files to manipulate MP3 data. Or just use XMP data instead.

[DigPeter]

ExifTool does not support writing MP3 data, it can just read it. This is why the fields in the metadata panel are read-only.
There is a ton of MP3 variants around. I recommend you use a software specialized in MP3 files to manipulate MP3 data. Or just use XMP data instead.

Thanks.
The player seems to display Artist, Album, Song, which presumably it reads from ID3 data.  So I do not think that it would pick up XMP tags.  It looks as though I will have to find a a MP3 writer.

[Mario]

There is a mountain of free MP3 software. Not that there is a big mess with different versions of MP3 tags, some overlap some use different names for the same thing. Try to find a widely used standard software. Nothing exotic.

[DigPeter]

There is a mountain of free MP3 software. Not that there is a big mess with different versions of MP3 tags, some overlap some use different names for the same thing. Try to find a widely used standard software. Nothing exotic.

Thanks - it would have to handle other audio files such as .wav

[Mario]

IMatch is better at managing MP3 and other audio files than any audio software I know. This includes using the embedded metadata, e.g. for data driven categories like the sample MP3 artist/album categories included in IMatch.

It's only the updating ID3 data that IMatch cannot do due to a lack in support from ExifTool. .WAV has no metadata.
If you want a cross-format MP3, OGG, WAV etc. metadata, use XMP.

[DigPeter]

If you want a cross-format MP3, OGG, WAV etc. metadata, use XMP.

Are there any tags particularly relevant to audio files?  I have looked, but nothing jumps out.

[BanjoTom]

I've had pretty good luck (so far!) in editing the audio metadata fields (which are locked in IMatch) using a program called MP3TAG. . .

[DigPeter]

Thanks Tom - I will look at that.

[Mario]

Are there any tags particularly relevant to audio files?  I have looked, but nothing jumps out.

The whole ID3 tag family, for MP3 metadata.

[thrinn]

While my big mp3 tagging days are over, I have also used MP3TAG. I recall it to be reliable and very flexible. Supports different audio file formats, different ID3 standards and is still under active development. One of the better tag editors, in my opinion.

[DigPeter]

Are there any tags particularly relevant to audio files?  I have looked, but nothing jumps out.

The whole ID3 tag family, for MP3 metadata.

Sorry Mario - Are there any <b>XMP</b> tags particularly relevant to audio files?  I have looked, but nothing that is writable jumps out.

[Mario]

No. But title, description, keywords etc. are universal.
For dedicated info like year, group, artist, lyrics etc. you have to use ID3 tags, which exist only in MP3 files.

[DigPeter]

Thanks - I have discovered that XMP tags do not display on play back media, so I have to convert all my audio files to MP3 and use a MP3 tag editor to write ID3 tags.