Music Metadata Management

File based audio playback will only be comfortable if all files contain appropriate metadata. Just a file name in an album-named folder doesn’t cut it. You at least need to use some of the 100 metadata fields to find your way around your music. Now how do you manage that.

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[DavidEsp]

Really helpful, not only regarding the tools, but also in describing some of my main uncertainties - and others I hadn't considered/experienced - over which of these fields get used in practice, and what kinds of values they typically get populated with, especially with regard to consistency: all vital to automation (based on metadata systems that (I assume) were initially created primarily for consumption by the (more flexible) human user-type).

[DavidM]

Thank you Hans. I've always used mp3tag but will explore the others you suggest.

[colmmcguinness]

SongKong Lite is a preview mode only. You need the licence to affect the metadata changes permanently

[ShellstaTube]

MusicBrainz Picard has been helpful for me.

[lactobacillusprime]

Very interesting topic. The bane of file based audio playback.

[bigbruvanit]

Sincere thanks Extremely relevant 11-6-2020 🙏

[jamesstruble]

Thank you. Your info is always helpful

[pdm]

I use AIMP all the time. It has an integrated audio converter metadata editor and a music player best choice if you ask me. It's free by the way. You should check it out I highly recommend it .

[Crossfire]

I am using Tag&Rename, which I love.
However, the program hasn't been updated since 2018 and it's not High-DPI compatible (it looks bad on 4K displays).

[christoflaceulle]

Thank you so much for all the information you share! I have a question concerning the separation of multiple artists on one album or track. F.e. If there is a singer with a pianist i'd like to mention them both being also separately indexed. I use the singer as the album artist and the singer, + pianist as track artists. It would be great if the pianist shows up in the artists overview. I started exploring Emby Media Server..

[sakabatou]

I suggest that you meant to use the term “consistent” rather than “consequent”

[redradoa]

Thank you for your review. Do you find an improvement using Roon after having used these programs?

[perfectlinens]

What about making changes to an iTunes library by editing its xml file, simply using Excel? Easy as it’s a spreadsheet and can be bulk edited

[colmmcguinness]

Greatly appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I downloaded SongKong Lite which is free. It seems to do the job. Is there a benefit in buying the licence?

[moto-rambler]

Thanks for this review — very timely. Have you tried bliss? It adds metadata to .wav files.

[jorgeandresvergara]

Cheers Hanz. Do you have some recommendations for music cataloguing software that can handle classical music? Roon does a great work with audio files but does not cover the physical media.

[sethwilliamson]

If you had to pick just one tagging application (Jaikoz, SongKong, Yate, Picard...) which would it be?

[steveassante]

It's seems absolutely hilarious to myself (trying to use the correct English) that anyone would assume that an Audio Server would actually work without having the file's metadata ! .


"Smart Devices" can't really be so "Smart" without the specific type of information they need to tell them it's "Beethoven or Pink Floyd" & not the "Mickey Mouse Club" that it's trying to play !

[jamesstruble]

How do you get the appropriate metadata on dsd files?