Cleaning up your MP3 tags

[ricts]

OK.

I'll move on. It doesn't make any sense to me. I realize it's me.

Thanks

[Anachostic]

Don't worry about feeling over your head. This tutorial assumes you have some technical understanding of MP3 files. Here's a few quick statements that hopefully will make it clear.

MP3 files contain the data that becomes your music.
MP3 files also contain data about the music data. This information is in what is termed an ID3 tag.
ID3 tags have fields. Things like artist, song name, etc. They are precisely named.
ID3 tags are embedded in MP3 files.
Zune, iPod, and other media players use the ID3 tag to display information about the song being played.
MP3Tag allows you edit the ID3 tag within the MP3 file.
MP3Tag does not care if you use that MP3 file in Zune, Windows Media player, or iTunes. It only deals with editing the MP3 file.
When you change the values of the ID3 tags in MP3Tag, the change is written immediately to the MP3 file.
The next time you load the MP3 in another program, you will see the change you made.

Some other points:
When you change the columns in MP3Tag, they will be remembered next time you open the program. (That might be what you mean by settings).
An ID3 tag may have zero, one, or more fields in it. If the field does not already exist, you can add a new one. It does not matter in what order you add them.

If you have any other questions, just ask. Don't give up. You'll get familiar with it eventually.

[ricts]

Thank you for the kind words, Anachostic. That is the kind of response that I was grasping for... heh.

I believe that I understand most of that info. I was trying to understand the concept of the program, and what it would do for me. I'm afraid that I was hoping for more than it is designed to do. I was confused about how (or if) it would search the web for information on a specific file (or files) and then correct the information as needed. I believe that is to much to expect, now that I've attempted to use this program (and MediaMonkey as well, with similar results.)

If I understand things correctly now, I simply need to set the columns (?) into a specific format (song,artisit, album, etc) and manually go in and change every file in my collection, as needed. Am I correct? No pie in the sky magical "fix" method to correct all of these things? I thought not.

Thanks again for your encouragement. I'm not sure how much of this I plan on tackling. I spent the greater part of 4 hours on Sunday trying to get MediaMonkey to change tags, and I didn't even finish the "A"s. Then I go back into them, and find that half of them didn't hold the album art that I thought I had associated to each file. MediaMonkey was more intuitive for me at the time, and I wasn't getting anywhere here, or using the tutorial or help files. Maybe I'll try again, using this knowledge, and see if I can make MP3Tag work for me. I still have a HUGE Unknown Artist group on my Zune, and I want to be able to play those songs, somehow...

Again, my thanks, Anachostic. I appreciate your seeing my issue.

[Chri(Z)tian]

Sounds like a easy program, will try it out. Because once my mom realized that her credit card keeps getting charged for my zune pass and cancel's it. I'll be busy getting some illegal music, that'll need to be fixed. And this program will be the answer. But for now zune pass, and easy downloading.

[Anachostic]

Originally Posted by ricts

If I understand things correctly now, I simply need to set the columns (?) into a specific format (song,artisit, album, etc) and manually go in and change every file in my collection, as needed. Am I correct? No pie in the sky magical "fix" method to correct all of these things? I thought not.

If you have hundreds or thousands of MP3s with NO ID3 information, I can imagine you feel pretty crappy. Most all ripping programs will populate the ID3 information when they rip the CD. It's very rare to find MP3s online that don't have something in the ID3 tag.

If you ripped your own CDs, I'd rip them again using the Zune software. You might be able to have Zune find the album using the "Find Album Information" in the Zune software (I don't know where it is in the 2.0 version). Someone earlier mentioned a web site that can identify and populate ID3 tags. That might be a step forward for you.

[mikey]

i downloaded the new mp3tag 2.39 and have tried editing my tags and its either not saving or not working. for example, i dragged all my rock mp3s into it and selected all of them and changed the genre on the left to say rock. then when i click the mp3 to play it still says the genre it used to be. however, when i get back into mp3tag it says the genre is rock for that mp3. whats the deal? any help on this would be great as i would like to edit all my mp3 tags for artist, album title, song title. thanks in advance

[ricts]

I have hundreds of mp3's, as you guessed. (Actually, over 2300. Probably more, if I sort better.) Most of them have some tag info, but not always in the same format. Most of them don't have any album art associated with them. (Far from the most important issue!)

The way I understand it, to make the Zune sort these things properly, all the mp3's should be tagged in the same format. As I noted before, there is a very large group of songs that the Zune didn't recognize when I first sync'd up. They are all grouped together on the Zune under Unknown Artist, in the Zune software. All of those songs appear with their artists inthe Zune software, but won't sync to the Zune. Obviously the tags are bad.

I don't know how to fix those specific songs, other than to write them all down (there are 285 of them!) so I decided to try and just do the whole library. Bad idea. At least until I know how to use the program better, I suppose.

I just wanna make the thing work. If I didn't have those "Unknown Artist" issues, I probably wouldn't get too worked up about it.

It all boils down to my getting the format right, and "re-doing" the suspicious ones, at least to start.

This Zune is a whole lotta work. If I hadn't gotten so far into it (and the brown Zunes weren't so cheap!), I woulda chosen the iPod. Still, now that I'm in this fix, I'm gonna make it work. Thanks again for all the helpful suggestions.

[Anachostic]

Originally Posted by ricts

This Zune is a whole lotta work. If I hadn't gotten so far into it (and the brown Zunes weren't so cheap!), I woulda chosen the iPod.

Regardless of the player you chose, your MP3s would have the same problem and you'd still be doing this. You'd just be looking for help in a different forum. You're in better company here.

Originally Posted by mikey

i dragged all my rock mp3s into it and selected all of them and changed the genre on the left to say rock. then when i click the mp3 to play it still says the genre it used to be. however, when i get back into mp3tag it says the genre is rock for that mp3.

When you add MP3s to the Zune collection, it records a copy of the ID3 tag at the time in its own database. That allows it to sort and filter faster. Notice how slow browsing the Zune is through the software. That's because it has to read every file to get the ID3 information.

When you edit the ID3 outside of the Zune software, you need to remove and re-add the MP3 to your collection. Highlight the songs and delete them (Delete key on keyboard or right-click>Delete). Make you you choose the right option to leave them on your computer.

[ricts]

I know that the company certainly is better here!

My son never seems to have any problems with his iPod, which is where that statement comes from. There are several reasons for that, and I realize the difference.

I'll get it, eventually. Thanks again.

[ar53n]

Thanks !
I have alot of songs that are only liste in my song list because there's no artist !
I'll fix this tomorrow !

[AquaToad]

thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!

edit: from pon.

[Nathaniel]

this help ssoooooo much

[onate]

This is a very helpful tutorial, but a few of the screenshots are no longer appearing (I guess they were hosted on imageshack). I'm especially interested in the ones that show how to set up the Band/Album Artist tags in MP3Tag. Could someone possibly repost those?

I'm currently having a problem with some songs that show up under the correct Artist and Album in the Zune software, but when I transfer them to the Zune device they show up under Unknown Album, and they don't appear at all on the Artist list. I suppose this is because the Zune device using different tags than the Zune software. Is there any metadata that remains stored on the Zune after the songs have been deleted?

By the way, I found there is another extended tag that can affect the ordering of songs in the Zune software, which is the Disc # (for multi-disc sets). If this is set for some tracks but not for others, it can affect the sorting.

[BobtheWalrus]

Originally Posted by Dizzy

Excellent Tutorial. Artist and Album Artist have always been a pain. Unless you're listening to a soundtrack, 90% of the time they'll be one in the same.

That's a lie

If it's a soundtrack with more than one artist,

It will either split itself up, or go under the artist, Soundtrack

[Darth Camel]

Originally Posted by ricts

I know that the company certainly is better here!

My son never seems to have any problems with his iPod, which is where that statement comes from. There are several reasons for that, and I realize the difference.

I'll get it, eventually. Thanks again.

The MP3 tags will be incorrect/incomplete irregardless of the MP3 player. Your son doesn't have problems with this because:
He doesn't care about having a neat and organized music collection
OR
Already does to his satisfaction

[carolinegrout]

Under the Convert menu, I created two Actions:

1 named Band = Artist
Format value "BAND": %artist%

1 named Album Artist = Artist
Format value "ALBUM ARTIST": %artist%

When I rip/download new music, I tag the artist and albums and all, then I run these two actions. This takes care of everything.

[Desert_NoiZ]

Holy CRAP!! Thank the lord this software exists and most of all thank you for pointing it out, it has made my upgrade to 2.5 almost non-regrettable........almost.

[Anachostic]

Updated with fresh pictures at: http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/tut...rsion-2-a.html