Last update : August 25,2013
ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself.
There are two unrelated versions of ID3: ID3v1 and ID3v2. They are de facto standards, because no standardization body was involved in its creation nor has given it a formal approval status.
A tag editor is used to read or write ID3 metadata. Many media players, including the standard players iTunes and Windows Media Player, provide tagging features.
The most common fields displayed in a DLNA renderer are the following :
- Artist Name
- Album Name
- Title
- Genre
- Year
- Comments
- Length
- Picture of the artist or album (high resolution panoramic pictures, for example 640×480 pixels, are best suited)
Sometimes the track number is also shown. Less usual are the Album Artist, the Composer or the Disc Number.
Widely used tag editors are Mp3tag (current version 2.57 released on July 6, 2013, created by Florian Heidenreich) and Easytag (current version 2.1.8 released on February 10, 2013, created by Jerôme Couderc).
The ID3 standard is very flexible with regards to the type and number of images that can be embedded in a MP3 single file (21 types are specified : icons, leaflets, cover art, artist, composer, conductor, location, …). In practice only one picture is used and displayed by the player. More informations about embedding album art in MP3 files are available at the weblog of Richard Farrar.
Informations about metadata editors for image files are available in the following post.