What Is Music Metadata?
Music metadata is also referred to as ID3 tags, which are the containers that hold metadata information. These tags hold data such as a song’s title, artist, the album it came from, track number, genres, songwriter credits, and more. Metadata is at work whenever you search for a song on services like Spotify or Pandora, when a recommended song pops up for you, or when a record label pays an artist royalties, to name a few examples.
View and Change Music Metadata in iTunes and Apple Music
The music metadata in iTunes should be correct. If you notice an incorrect album title or other error, or if you’re copying CDs into iTunes and want to add metadata, here’s how to view and edit the metadata. If you have an iTunes library and a Mac with macOS Catalina (10.15) or later, view your iTunes media library in the Apple Music app. With older macOS versions or Windows computers, use iTunes.
View and Change Metadata From Other Sources
If your music library consists of songs obtained from sources other than iTunes or Apple Music, particularly unofficial sources, you won’t have the metadata and artwork you may want. Metadata also may have been lost when you transferred music between file formats. Adding metadata to these types of music files makes the files easier to organize and filter. To do this, use an MP3 tag editor or an editor that covers multiple file formats, including FLAC, OGG, M4A, WMA, and WAV. Popular choices include MusicBrainz Picard, MP3Tag, TigoTago, MusicTag, and Kid3, which also converts music files into other formats.
