1. Id3 Tag Editor Freeware
2. Id3 Tag Automatic

ITunes on the other hand behaves properly, and sticks to Unicode. I found a very simple (and free!) program entitled Unicode Rewriter that can batch convert MP3s' ID3 tags to Unicode. This application is a huge time saver, since the other option is to retype the information manually - if you have it to begin with.

• I want to query a database, like gracenote, with a Mac OSX app to obtain missing tag info, that was stored by iTunes, but is now lost due to the corruption of the partition map on my HD. After reading tons of posts about lost tag info for wav files, I understand that a wav file can't store all the tag info in the wav file itself.
• ITunes on the other hand behaves properly, and sticks to Unicode. I found a very simple (and free!) program entitled Unicode Rewriter that can batch convert MP3s' ID3 tags to Unicode. This application is a huge time saver, since the other option is to retype the information manually.
• Mp3tag writes ID3v2 tags in Unicode format (UTF-16) by default now, but there are still some programs, portables or car radios which have problems with ID3v2 tags stored in Unicode format (though this is specified within the ID3v2 standard). To use Mp3tag with these programs.

Description

id3 mass tagger is a tool for manipulating id3 and id3v2 tags in multiple files. It can generate tag fields from the filename and other variables, and/or rename files, using an intuitive syntax. id3 currently supports old-style ID3v1 tags, Lyrics3v2, as well as the more complex ID3v2 format. This means its use is limited to audio files which use these formats, i.e. MP3.

Examples

Add a simple tag to a file.

List tag info contained in file (short-form and detailed)

Sets genre to “Psychedelic Rock” in all mp3’s

Update tag fields similar to this;

id3 -a “TAFKAT” -n “01” -t “My Song” “01. my_song.mp3”
id3 -a “TAFKAT” -n “02” -t “Untitled” “02. untitled.mp3”

Shorthand notation for the above, using the -m option.

Rename file to a standard “Artist - Title” format.

Process multiple directories at once.

Copy the ID3v2 album artist field (as used by Foobar2000), if any, to the field used by iTunes

Removes all ID3v1 and Lyrics3 tags from all mp3’s

Copy ID3v2 tag (if any) to ID3v1 tag in all files.

Swap artist and title fields in all mp3’s.

Copy ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags of source.mp3 to dest.mp3

As above, but only replaces the non-standard or blank fields in dest.mp3 by data from source.mp3.

Removes embedded images, binary blobs, and padding from all mp3’s.

As above, but works recursively on all mp3’s in the Music folder

Generate a playlist, using the best possible text

Advanced rename. Saves previous filename in the comment field, and renames files without proper tags to;

Unknown - Untitled (01).mp3
Unknown - Untitled (02).mp3
… etc

Fore more information, consult the documentation.

Limitations

ID3v2.4 at the start of a file can be read, but will be converted to the universally recognized ID3v2.3 when written. This may actually be a feature ratherthan a limitation; e.g. running id3 -2u is a quick way to convert tags to a form your portable player may recognize.

On Windows, support for non-ASCII characters (e.g. Russian or Korean characters) is dependent on your system language settings. A Unicode version is on the TODO list.

Getting it

id3 mass tagger may also be a available on your system by default:

Arch Linux: pacman -S id3

FreeBSD: pkg install id3mtag

You can also find release notes, tarballs, and binaries here.

Developer notes

Like many small projects, this started as something hacked together to scratch a need. Besides its obvious purpose, this has also become an exercise in writing a fully portable program, trying out C++ features on various compilers, etc.

If you like this program, you can help by trying to build and test it on an uncommon system, or becoming a package maintainer for some Linux distribution. Please contact me if you do so.

Copyright

© Marc Schoolderman 2003-2017. All rights reserved.

Id3 Tag Editor Freeware

This program may be used freely, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.

For the actual licensing conditions you should read the file COPYING, which should be accompanying the files you receive.

Id3 Tag Automatic

These files are distributed in the hope that they will be useful,but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty ofMERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See theaccompanying file COPYING for more details.