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ID3v1.X
Supported File Formats: MP3, MP3Pro, MPC (MusePack)

ID3 version one is the oldest standards from the beginning days of MP3. It is a set 128-byte tag at the end of a media file. The format supports 30 character entries for title, artist, album, and comment. It also includes a four character year filed along with a genre entry. In ID3v1.1 a track number entry is supported by using the last two character spaces in the comment field. ID3v1 is pretty much universally supported by all MP3 and audio players, including most hardware players. ID3v1 also can be edited in most players.

Editors
- ID3-TagIt
A top quality freeware tagger that supports ID3v1 and ID3v2

- Mp3-Renatager
A freeware basic tagger program that supports ID3v1 and Lyrics3.

- MPTagger
A freeware tagger that can name from tags and tag from names. Supports ID3v1 and v2.

- Helium2
The most powerful ID3 tagger around. Supports everything and ID3v1, v2, and Lyrics3. A shareware product that has different versions and costs.

- Tag
A filename to tag generator supporting ID3v1.1, Lyrics3 v2.0 and APE v1.0. Oggs are supported if VorbisComment is found in the path.

Technical Information
ID3 Made Easy @ ID3.org
ID3v2 formal standard documentation
ID3v2 Implementations



ID3v2
Supported File Formats: MP3, MP3Pro, AAC

ID3v2.X was supposed to be the next generation of ID3 tags. It improves on ID3v1 by putting the tag at the beginning of the file for streaming and ID3v1 backwards compatibility. Also, ID3v2.X has no set length on the characters in a field and a total maximum size of 256 megabytes. Binary data, such as photos, are also supported in ID3v2. ID3v2 also supports more fields then ID3v1, too many to list here, with more being added. Unicode support is also included, though not supported by some older players.

As nice as it seems ID3v2 has not been all to well received. First, many developers complain that the standard it hard to implement or understand. On the users end not many programs fully support ID3v2, or only have partial ID3v2 support. Also, some people using all in one programs (like Music Match Jukebox) tend to import album graphics and lyrics into the ID3v2 tag making the file unnecessarily large with entries that the average person would never use or know is there. There is also five revisions of the v2 standard (2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4). Depending on the age of your player newer IDev2 tags could not work in some players with earlier implementations.

Editors
- ID3-TagIt
A top quality freeware tagger that supports ID3v1 and ID3v2

- MPTagger
A freeware tagger that can name from tags and tag from names. Supports ID3v1 and v2.

- Helium2
The most powerful ID3 tagger around. Supports everything and ID3v1, v2, and Lyrics3. A shareware product that has different versions and costs.

- Tag&Rename
Shareware. Supports ID3v1, v2, and Lyrics3

- MP3 Tag Tools
Free ID3v1 and ID3v2 multi-function tagger. Highly recommended.


Lyrics3 2.X
Supported File Formats: MP3, MP3Pro

Lyrics3 is the rarely used add-on to ID3v1. It is rarely used, but some players do support reading it and may files still have Lyrics3 tags. In short Lyrics3 was an additional tag to store lyrics within a MP3 file. But it also supported tag entries longer then 30 characters before Id3v2 existed. The problem is that some MP3 player support reading Lyrics3 extended tag information, but you cannot edit it, like in Winamp. Therefore a external Lyrics3 editor is required. This explains some of the mysterious tags that will not disappear in some MP3 files.

Editors
- Mp3-Renatager
A freeware basic tagger program that supports ID3v1 and Lyrics3.

- Helium2
The most powerful ID3 tagger around. Supports everything and ID3v1, v2, and Lyrics3. A shareware product that has different versions and costs.

- Tag
A filename to tag generator supporting ID3v1.1, Lyrics3 v2.0 and APE v1.0. Oggs are supported if VorbisComment is found in the path.

Technical Information
Lyrics3 Made Easy
Lyrics3 2.00 Specification



Vorbis Comment
Supported File Formats: OGG (Ogg Vorbis)

The Vorbis Comment (also referred to as the Ogg Tag) is the way that Ogg Vorbis files tag information. The format supports basic and user-defined fields. Each field has a nearly unlimited length (2^32-1 bytes, no tag will ever be that long) along with a nearly unlimited number of fields (once again limited to 2^32-1 fields). The format also supports multiple entries of the same tag field, so you can have multiple ARTIST tags if the track has multiple artists. Some players cannot handle multiple tag entries, while other are designed to work perfectly with them.

Editors
- vorbiscomment
A basic command line utility for editing Vorbis Comments supplied in the Vorbis Tools package. Recommended for advanced users and front end usage.

- WinVorbis / Vorbix
Windows Multi-file Vorbis Comment Editor/Ogg Encoder. A graphical front-end for vorbiscomment.exe (see above entry). Supports copping tags to entire ripped CDs. Supports up to six user defined tags, with the ability to maintain non-standard tags. Also supports tagging based on file names and paths. Supports both Windows (WinVorbis) and Linux (Vorbix) platforms. Freeware.

- Tag
A filename to tag generator supporting ID3v1.1, Lyrics3 v2.0 and APE v1.0. Oggs are supported if VorbisComment is found in the path.

- tOGGer
A mass tagger GUI for Windows. Supports tag from name and name form tag, along with individual editing. Freeware.

- Audio Players
Many players that support Ogg Vorbis also support editing tags. Winamp 2.80 has a nice tag editor built into the Ogg Vorbis input plug-in.

Technical Information
Ogg Vorbis comment field specification
Ogg Vorbis Comment Field Recommendations



APEv1
Supported File Formats: MPC, Monkey's Audio

The APE format is the tagging format used by Monkey's Audio lossless audio format, and now used in the MusePack format. It supports the basic Title, Artist, Album and other fields like ID3v1. It supports unlimited tag entry length. Currently there is some lack in tagger support, though many players now support APE editing in the MusePack or Monkey's Audio input plug-ins.

Editors
- Tag
A filename to tag generator supporting ID3v1.1, Lyrics3 v2.0 and APE v1.0. Oggs are supported if VorbisComment is found in the path.

Technical Information
Monley's Audio Development Information



APEv2
Supported File Formats: MPC, WavPack, Monkey's Audio, OptimFROG, MP3 (via in_mpg123).

APEv2 is is the updated tagging format originally developed for MPC audio files, and is now also used in Monkey's Audio, WavPack and OptimFROG. It is comparable in functionality to Vorbis comment. One difference is that instead of multiple versions of the same tag it will use multiple entries in one tag.

The main difference between id3v2 and APEv2 is that APEv2 tags can be stored at the beginning or the end of the file, usually they're put at the end to speed up tag editing.


Editors
None

Technical Information
APEv2 specification


Recommended good all-round editors
MP3Tag
Supports: ID3v1/2, aac, vorbis comments, APEv2, flac, mpc, wma, wavpack

Tag & Rename
Supports: ID3v1/2, APEv1/2, wma, ogg/flac vorbis comments, m4a, mpc, and more.

The GodFather
Supports: mp3, ogg, mpc, ape, flac, etc.

MusicBrainz
www.musicbrainz.org

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