Free MP3 Tag editors, online tag database

I've always used folders to organize and browse my music files, but unfortunately just about every mp3 player, and the xbox 360 decided it would be cool to oranize them by tag information! Well that's just great, except when using players or my 360 to listen to music I am stuck listening to playlist I've already made, or the very few albums that have correct mp3 tag information for.

I need to edit all my mp3 files tag information, but there are so many programs out there that allow you to do this, that I don't know which ones would be the best. And to make matters worse, most of my music is japanese anime soundtracks, so the databases that contain tag information on these are going to be either lacking, or they aren't consistent in the way the information is stored in the db. And even worse some of them are in hiragana, and I can't read that to save my life How many different tag databases are there anyway? And can any tag editor access any of them?

I'm pretty much looking for suggestions for what I can do, because at this point I don't know what would be easiest and best. If possible I don't want to have to edit them all manually, but if I do, I would especially be thankful for a program that makes manual editing easier.

I personally use itunes to organize/tag/name all of my music. I just set the default format to mp3 and to consolidate the library. Then I just drag and drop songs onto the itunes window and it puts them in the right folders with the right names and the right tags. Also, it makes it pretty easy to manually edit the tags. Then you don't have to use itunes to actually play the musics, you can use your player of choice (foobar2000 for me).

I have been using Tag&Rename for jeez several years now. It is not free (30 bucks I think) but it is 1) pretty complete and 2) still very straight forward despite all the complexities. Also has several useful "shorthands" for global/multiple tagging, creating tags from formatted filenames etc and handles just about any tag known to man and it was definitely money well spent.

UBERCOOL said:

I personally use itunes to organize/tag/name all of my music. I just set the default format to mp3 and to consolidate the library. Then I just drag and drop songs onto the itunes window and it puts them in the right folders with the right names and the right tags. Also, it makes it pretty easy to manually edit the tags. Then you don't have to use itunes to actually play the musics, you can use your player of choice (foobar2000 for me).

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I've tried itunes and when I have to manually edit tags it becomes quite a pain. And it doesn't get any tag info from the one database that it checks.

AtomicMonkey said:

I have been using Tag&Rename for jeez several years now. It is not free (30 bucks I think) but it is 1) pretty complete and 2) still very straight forward despite all the complexities. Also has several useful "shorthands" for global/multiple tagging, creating tags from formatted filenames etc and handles just about any tag known to man and it was definitely money well spent.

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Tag & Rename? Do you happen to know of any free tag that rivals this software? I just want to make sure, because a lot of times free software is just as good as, if not better then software that serves the same purpose but you have to pay for. I just don't want to spend 30 bucks if there is a better one out there that is free.

There could be others, the probably are others, like I said I have been using TR for like 7 years and it does everything that I ever needed (and I'm very anal about libraries, categories attributes etc. It is also being updated continuously so they keep up with new stuff. Like I said, not free but IMHO, well worth the price.

DBPoweramp has an MP3 tag editor along with a ton of other capabilities. MP3 Ripping license is only $10, and this small and efficient program does variable bit rate ripping and conversions of every type. Runs on every OS, including 64-bit. Highly recommended.

hafa said:

DBPoweramp has an MP3 tag editor along with a ton of other capabilities. MP3 Ripping license is only $10, and this small and efficient program does variable bit rate ripping and conversions of every type. Runs on every OS, including 64-bit. Highly recommended.

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Do you know if their tag editor has tools for editing tag information on multiple MP3s? I actually use that program for converting audio files, but I've never used the tag editor in it because it looks like it isnt' very usefull for what I need, but I really dont' know. Maybe I'll play with it some more.

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

I only use this one period.

Vista allows you to tag files in file properties. It is sweet.

MP3 Tag Studio works wonderfully. Allows mass re-naming/tag editing and can get tag info from the path & filename. It's also free. My collection used to be categorized like: Genre/Artist/Album/Song.mp3, it can read all that info and put it into the IPv1 or v3 tag and rename is however you choose at the same time. Very easy to use.

soundfx4 said:

Do you know if their tag editor has tools for editing tag information on multiple MP3s? I actually use that program for converting audio files, but I've never used the tag editor in it because it looks like it isnt' very usefull for what I need, but I really dont' know. Maybe I'll play with it some more.

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DB poweramp's tag editor allows for bulk re-naming. I've used it for categorizing very large collections with excellent success. Simply select all the files you wish to edit and then right click for the context menu to edit tags.

I prefer to use T&R(Tag and Rename). Though any one that has batching and user set variables will do. The main reason I like T&R is the hotkeys. Plus it is super simple to navigate while using it.

For example in my favorite tag program. I first start the tag naming. I selct the target files.

I get the name and information from the file. Sometimes I will use the online dB feature, but very rare.

%1 - %6 - %2
(outputs to - <Artist> - <Track #> - <Title>.mp3)

Then I start the actual tags. I like to have my tags capped for every first letter. I set the year, genre and all the jazz too. It is pretty much as I see fit here. Though I usually get great rusults with the first part. This helps fill in the missing things the online dB missed. I hardly ever use the lyrics feature. If I can set the year here. I found this is the spot. The albmum info is done here also. I can just insert a year album variable in the above mask. Even a Bitrate if I so desire.

Then the proccess of renaming the actual file name. I set my file names up so it is simple and clean. Plus it makes it easier in folders. Each album has it's own folder, so I do not need complex file names.

%1 - %2

(outputs to - <Artist> - <Title>.mp3)


Most every tag editor should offer these basic functions. If it does not, pass on it. After this part, it is how you like the layout. Some offer folder creation on the fly and playlist generation too. I do not use the dB connection often, but I can see it bieng very handy for some.

I've already been working with mp3tag to see how well it works, and I think I may have used that one before. I'm gonna try T&R, DB Poweramp, and MP3 tag studio. I'm thinking that they will all pretty much be the same, but the biggest problem I've been having with mp3tag is that it won't let me search the online database via search queries. It only lets me search via the file names, and while that works on most of my OSTs, it didn't find anything on some. Plus, I know there are more online databases then freedb, because itunes uses a different online db.

I'll try out the other programs you all suggested on the rest of my mp3 collection and see which one I like best. Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

T&R uses two dB for the tags. One is the FreedB and the other is I think Amazon. It allows you to input values you want also.

One program I found is alright, but I didn't like. Is Musicmatch Jukebox. It's ability to tag is actually pretty dang good. It costs to use it me thinks. I have played with it, even though I perfer not to use it. The tagging was rather sweet. that was a longwhile ago. It may not be as good now. If they did not mess up the tagging, it may work for you.

If everything else fails. Least you have another to waste some time finding an app that suites you.