Do you think mp3 tags (ID3-V1 or ID3-V2 or NONE) are necessary when ripping cd's to mp3 files?

What actual purpose do they serve if the file name already provides all the info (track number - artist - song name) ?

these NONE tags that you speak of must be a new tagging standard.
useful comments like encoder used, album, infos or background, etc.
furthermore, tags may be useful if the actual filenames can't be too long (truncation in programs that do not support long pathnames) thus the info on the song have to go somewhere else.

Many digital audio players use ID3 tags to display on-screen information about the song. The Rio Karma and the iPod are two examples here. If you use something like this, you definitely want ID3 tags.

-Phil

thanks! I did not know that. I'm about to back up all my cds for my mp3player and was curious about this. I use CDex for ripping btw.

File name is clearly one of the worst ways to keep information. This is not only because filesystems have restrictions on the filename strings (length has to be less than a specified size, limit on what characters can be used, even stringer restrictions if you want to burn the files onto a CD) but also because you can't expect to hold all the related information about a track in one string. Consider a classical piece where composer, orchestra, movement all play an important role. Actually I believe the single file ripping with embedded cuesheet is the way to go (especially for lossless).

It might be the way for lossless but if you use mp3 (or another lossy format) and intend to play it on some mobile device it will be painful.

I don't think they are necessary but I use them for my own preferability.



Well, I don't think that the filename provides all the info. You can add to the filename the year, the bitrate, the album etc but you're gonna have a railroad-filename which is difficult to read. Add all these info at the tags and have a short filename. So simple.

For those with digital audio OCD mp3 and other audio tags are 100% necessary. They are extremely useful for things like media librarys, expecially when your audio collection is in the 1000's and for organizing the all important ALL playlist on the fly

No.

I voted no. I put the album name, year and bitrate/Qsetting in the folder name, and i use filename like above: tracknumber artist - trackname. I don't need more info and i can find my songs easily. I just let foobar show the filename in the playlist.

The only exeption would be the use of my DAP, then the songname tags IS kinda nice.

Apart from that, tags are just a pain in the butt IMHO.

Wow! I'm shocked... I expected all "yes"s...

They are absolutely necessary!

Filenames will invariably change. What happens when you write them to CD and they are truncated to 31(+-) characters? You'll lose the song info.

There is no standard file naming structure. Should it be "Artist - Album - Title.mp3" or "Album_Artist_Tracknumber_Title.mp3" or maybe just "Tracknumber Title.mp3"? Why play a guessing game with the filename when the tags are already labled 'Artist', 'Album', etc.?

Sorting by tags is very handy. Wanna listen to all your songs by one artist (even songs from VA albums)? Just sort by Artist. Wanna listen to your albums the same way as they came off the CD? Just sort by Album + Tracknumber. This would be nearly imposible without tags.

They're super easy, most CD rippers will add the tags automatically for you (if you are online). It would be more work to leave the tags out.

And, as stated above; they hold much more info than would be practical using only filenames.


And, while on the subject, I keep my files in folders named "Artist - Album" and the files are "## Title.mp3" ##=tracknumber. BUT since most of my files are tagged, I can rename my files to fit any format I choose.


My suggestion: tag your files now, it's a PAIN IN THE ASS to tag them later, you're better safe than sorry.

I don't vote, b/c I don't think they're strictly necessary - but then, most things in life aren't. If you'd phrased the poll, "do you find mp3 tags useful and helpful" then I'd have certainly voted yes. Especially now that I use APE tags in foobar - much quicker and more flexible than ID3v2, and carry much more information than ID3v1. (For compatibility with programs that don't read APE tags - so that's most programs - I also tag my files in ID3v1 using foobar's masstagger.)

Edit: Another purpose that tags serve, beyond those already discussed, is to contain relevant info in the file itself. I usually don't put all the relevant information in the file name itself, although most of it is in the directory structure. I use
Artist/Year--AlbumTitle/Artist--Tracknumber--SongTitle.mp3
So the actual filename doesn't contain Album or Year. And if I email a file to a friend (or I receive a file from a friend via email) I'd like it to have all relevant information.

Necessary: no.

Preferred: yes.

All my files contain, at a minimum:
Trackname
Artist
Album
Year
Tracknum
TotalTracks
Genre
Encoder (LAME, iTunes, etc.)
Grouping (iTunes compatible - if part of a named song group)
AlbumArt (if available)
URL (usually to the artist's webpage, or Amazon if it's easier)
Composer (if available)
Disc number (if a multi-disc set)
Total discs (if a multi-disc set)
Comment (usually an album review from AMG, but varies)
Track Artist (if a multi-artist album)
Compilation Flag (iTunes compatible flag - if a soundtrack or other compilation)

And so on. Usually there are some other fields I use too, but that's the ones that come to mind immediately. The point of having all that metadata is to make building smart playlists (in iTunes) or dynamic playlists (in musikCube) much easier.

When I first started doing this sort of tagging, I had to tag 3000 files all at once. Took me a couple weeks. Real PITA. Adding this level of tagging as I rip albums is not nearly as difficult. I highly recommend tagging everything you have as soon as you can, and then just tagging new things as you rip them. In the long run, it's worth it.

The poll question is not specific enough.

Necessary for what? To encode a file? To play back a file? To categorize and manage files? A resounding "no" to all three.

Necessary to use certain specific software applications with the files? Definitely.

When you use an absolute like "necessary" (as opposed to "useful", "desirable", "convenient", and the like) you need to get very specific as to what is meant by the question.

Regards,
Madrigal

I voted yes, however a vote of Yes and No would have been my ideal choice.

Yes for:
Data CD's/DVD's, portable players, dvd players, jukebox.
If a device can display the tag then it's a good thing to use versus showing something so basic with a total lack of information such as the filename.

Yes and No for:
Hard Disks.
A filenaming scheme can be used that gives basic info like:
Artist - Year - Album - Track Number - Track Title

The problem is when not using a tag (ID3v1 or ID3v2 tags as a standard) valuable information isn't available like:
- Ripper ("EAC Secure Mode")
- Encoder (LAME #.##)
- Quality (APS)

My entire library is fully tagged, including cover art for most albums. iTunes and Dougs applescripts make it pretty much effortless so it's really never been something I've spent time on. With almost 14000 tracks to boot I would find tags necessary, which is what I voted.

Yeah, I guess I am just confused as to why you wouldn't use tags. The only thing I can think of is if you are not connected to the internet on the computer you are doing the ripping on. Otherwise it can just be filled in automatically and you don't even have to worry about it.

-Phil

Digital music needs that info as long as you have more than a few hundred of tracks, tags will help you quite a bit if you ever decide to use a library system, that is why PC's are such a nice way to manage music.. and of course listen to it.

For me, they are a necessity. They can contain oh-so-much more than filenames, since they are not limited to 255 characters and can contain special characters (/ \ | : * ? " < >).

[EDIT] Not limited to 255 characters if you're using ID3v2, I should have specified.

I can't live without perfectly tagged audio files.

The optimal would be Artist - Album - Tracknumber - Title. But that would make the file names too long.

Tracknumber Title has no problems with name lenght and is good when searching for specific albums in explorer(etc). Requires everything to be sorted into folders (Artist/Album/).

I use Artist - Title to make it easier to search for specific files in xplorer. All my mp3s have v1 tags so I have no trouble sorting them by album/tracknumber in Winamp.