How do I change the details of a music file?

The details of a music file that can be edited include information like the song title, artist name, album name, genre, year, track number, cover art, and more. This data is stored in a music file’s metadata tags and is displayed when you play the song in a media player or music library. Editing the details allows you to correct any missing or incorrect information so the song is properly categorized and labeled in your collection. Reasons you may want to edit music file details include:

Fixing typos or errors in the tag data
Adding missing info like genre, year, album art, etc.

Standardizing details for compilation albums or songs from multiple artists
Embedding lyrics or other info not originally included
Organizing your music library with consistent, uniform tags

Having accurate and complete metadata helps you easily sort, search, and identify songs. It also provides a better listening experience when accessing your music collection across various devices and apps.

Prerequisites

Before you can edit the details of your digital music files, you need to have a collection of digital music. This means having audio files stored on your computer, external hard drive, or other devices. The most common digital music file formats are MP3, FLAC, AAC, WMA, and OGG. Building a digital music library allows you to listen to your music collection anywhere without needing physical media like CDs or vinyl records.

According to various forums and sites, the size of most people’s digital music collections range from a few gigabytes to several terabytes. For example, one Reddit user reported having 464 MB of Led Zeppelin while another had 178 MB of Nirvana (Source). On Quora, an iTunes engineer stated the average iTunes library contains 7,160 songs (Source). Overall, digital music collectors report having libraries between 600 GB to 1.5 TB of files.

ID3 Tags

ID3 tags are pieces of metadata embedded in MP3 files that describe attributes about the audio file like the song title, artist, album, genre, year, etc. These tags allow media players and music management applications to organize and display useful information about each music file.

The main ID3 tag fields include:

Title – The name of the song

Artist – The primary creator/performer of the song
Album – The album the song belongs to
Genre – The music genre like pop, rock, jazz, etc.

Year – The year the song was released
Track Number – The number representing the song’s position in the album
Cover Art – Album cover image file

ID3 tags were introduced in 1996 and have become the standard for storing metadata in MP3 files. They allow users to easily manage large music libraries and sort/filter based on the embedded information. ID3 tags are supported by all major media players and music applications.

Album Art

Album artwork and cover images are often included as part of the metadata in music files like MP3s. The album art displayed alongside a song in your media player or music library is usually embedded in the file’s ID3 tag. Adding or changing the album art can help identify songs and albums visually and improve the overall music listening experience. According to Alphr, to add album art to an MP3 file in Windows:

1. Right click on the image file you want to use for the album art.

2. Select “Copy” to copy the image.

3. Open Windows Media Player and find the song you want to add album art to.

4. Right click on the song and select “Paste Album Art” to add the copied image as the new album art.

There are also many software options for editing ID3 tags and album art for music files across Windows, Mac, Android, and other platforms. Programs like Mp3tag make it easy to view, add, and edit album art embedded in MP3 and other audio file formats.

Software Options

There are several software tools available for editing the details of music files. Here are some top recommendations:

Mp3tag

Mp3tag https://www.mp3tag.de/en/ is one of the most popular free tools for editing ID3 tags and metadata in music files. It works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Mp3tag allows you to edit tag information like title, artist, album, track number, genre, cover art, etc. It supports a wide range of formats including MP3, MP4, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, and more. Mp3tag can batch edit multiple files at once. It also has advanced features like file renaming, auto-tagging, and syncing tags between files.

Kid3

Kid3 https://kid3.sourceforge.io/ is an open source cross-platform tool for editing tags in MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MPC, MP4/AAC, MP2, Speex, TrueAudio, WavPack, WMA, WAV, AIFF files and more. It provides an easy to use interface for editing common tags like title, artist, album, track number, cover art, etc. Kid3 also enables you to edit more advanced information like lyrics, musician credits, genre, date, BPM, and more. It’s available on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Both Mp3tag and Kid3 are highly capable programs for modifying your music files’ details and metadata.

Using Mp3tag

Mp3tag is a free and open source software used for editing tags in audio files. It has an intuitive interface that allows you to easily view, edit, and add ID3 tags and album art to MP3 files and many other audio file formats.

Some key features of Mp3tag include:

Bulk editing – You can edit tags for multiple files at once.
Auto-tagging – Mp3tag can automatically fetch tags from online databases like MusicBrainz.

Album cover art – You can easily embed album art into your audio files.
Customizable interface – The layout is configurable so you can customize the columns and data you see.
Format conversion – Mp3tag allows you to convert between different audio formats.

ReplayGain – You can analyze audio and adjust volume levels using ReplayGain.

Overall, Mp3tag provides an intuitive and full-featured interface for efficiently managing and editing the metadata of your music library. Its bulk editing capabilities make it easy to fix tags and add album art to large collections of audio files.

Editing Tags

To edit the ID3 tags in an MP3 file using Mp3tag, follow these steps:

Open Mp3tag and click “Add files” or drag and drop the MP3 files you want to edit into the program.
Select a file from the list on the left. The tag details will display on the right.
To edit common tags like title, artist, album, etc., simply type the new info in the corresponding field on the right.

For other advanced tags, click on the “+” icon next to the tag name to expand the options.
When finished editing, click the save icon in the toolbar to save the changes to that file.
Repeat steps 2-4 for each file you want to edit.

Here is a screenshot showing the interface for editing ID3 tags in Mp3tag:

As you can see, it’s easy to edit the common tags on the right panel. You can also edit album art, advanced tags, and more.

Adding Album Art

To add album art to MP3 files using MP3tag, first select the files you want to add art to in the file list. Then right click on the cover art preview section at the bottom of the main window and select “Add Cover…”. This will open a file browser window to select the image file you want to use as the album art.

MP3tag supports common image formats like JPG, PNG, GIF and BMP. Select the desired image file and click “Open”. This will embed the image into the selected MP3 files as album art. The cover art will now be displayed in the preview section for those files ¹.

To add the same album art to multiple files at once, simply select all the desired files first before adding the cover image. The image will be embedded into all selected files in one go. This makes it easy to quickly add album art to entire albums or discographies.

Alternatively, you can right click on an individual file and use “Add cover” from the context menu. This will embed the chosen cover art only into that specific file. So this method allows adding different album art to different files in your library.

Saving Changes

Once you have finished editing the tags and adding album art in Mp3tag, you need to properly save the changes to your music files. Here are the steps:

Go to File > Save.

A window will pop up showing all the files you have changed. Make sure the “Save tag changes made in this program only” option is selected.
Click OK to save the changes.

Saving this way will write the new metadata and album art directly into the music files themselves. Now your files will have the updated info when you open them in any music player or program on your computer.

Some tips for saving smoothly:

Save frequently as you edit to avoid losing work.
Keep the original files backed up in case you need to revert any changes.

If only editing 1 or 2 files, use File > Save selected files to avoid saving unrelated changes.

By properly saving your work in Mp3tag, you can successfully update the key details of your digital music collection with just a few clicks.

Conclusion

In this guide, we walked through the steps for editing the metadata of music files. We discussed the importance of accurate metadata like ID3 tags and album art in helping organize and identify your music library. We covered prerequisites like installing software options such as MP3tag, and then detailed how to use these tools to edit essential tag info like artist, album, genre, year, track number, etc., as well as add album artwork.

Having correct metadata is crucial for searching, sorting, and enjoying your music collection. Editing this data ensures your files will display proper info in media players, playlists, mobile devices, and more. While manually changing metadata can be time-consuming, it’s worth the effort to enrich your overall listening experience and music library organization. Follow this guide to properly edit your music files and make your collection shine.