Tagging and Naming MP3s

Welcome to the 'definitive' guide on what and how to lable MP3 music tracks. If you don't think it is definitive let me know why and let's work on it together.

I presume you know what an MP3, a file name and a tag is

Track (File) Names

Most of our music is now on MP3 files. These files have names, and also contain tags which contain information. Quite often you will get MP3s with rubbish names and tags like Track03. Likewise the names can be incorrect, mis-spelt or inconsistent.

Rule One: An MP3 file name should take the format Artist – Song Title

eg Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Now there will be ambiguity (read on), but an MP3's name should readily correlate to the tags (see below), and most importantly,

Consistency

Rule Two: MP3s should be tagged consistently.

Now you and I may disagree about lots of the stuff in this guide, but whatever you do with your MP3's if the system you use is ordered and consistent to yourself, it is so much easier for you and anybody else to use them.

Example: I would choose to spell 10 CC that way, and try to throughout my collection and when using references to them. Now in many official publications, or even technically this could be 10 cc, 10CC, 10cc, 10c.c., 10C.C., 10c.c., 10C.C., Ten CC, Ten cc, TenCC, Tencc, Tenc.c., TenC.C., Tenc.c., TenC.C. Etc etc! ... Whatever one you use, if you don't use the same one throughout your catalogue there is increased scope for random errors when searching, indexing etc.

Once you have seen a few names, complications creep in (Even the same recordings may be labelled differently), so this is an attempt to suggest a consistent method for labelling these things. It is not perfect, just a framework. Given that there is variation in what might be accepted as official, I choose to use the following:

Hierarchy for Information

1. Recorded Media Label
2. Recorded Media Sleeve
3. Wikipedia
4. Chart Stats
5. Guinness Book of British Hit Singles Edition 19 (GBBHS)
6. Other
7. Guess (nb I use a question mark to indicate unsureness)

Spelling

Given the variations, a reasoned judgement may be used to deliver a more logical interpretation that supersedes this hierarchy. All spellings are corrected for the sake of consistency as far as possible. There is much ambiguity, For instance in the GBBHS the makers of Double Barrel are called Dave & Ansil Collins. Chart Stats spell them Dave & Ansel Collins, yet the sleeve says “Dave & Ansell Collins. This is not an unusual occurrence. The label, then the sleeve are the go-to source. Different spellings may have been used 'officially', so technically any can be used. An example song title would be Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree, as written on the sleeve becomes Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree in Chart Stats. Sometimes a spelling may be altered for other reasons. David Guetta & Akon have a song called Sexy Bitch. That's what they sing, that's what it is called, but the cover says Sexy Chick. In this case the cover is ignored, because that is just printed for acceptance purposes. We should not alter the original artistic integrity by altering the initial intent. Use your head occasionally, eg Peter Kay is not credited on Is This The Way To Amarillo because he is not on it, no matter what people say.

Designated tracks; double A sides and EPs

Several hits that have made number one have been part of double A sided singles or E.P.s. For the purposes of tagging only one track is credited with the chart position and run. Other tracks listed are tagged the same way, apart from the track number becomes 00. Genuine double A sides are very few and far between. The only real UK Number One example I can think of is Rivers of Babylon c/w Brown Girl In The Ring, which, not only have firmly cemented themselves in the popular music canon, but actually enjoyed a prolonged chart run after being 'flipped', to become only the second single in the UK to sell 2 million copies. An example where some subjectivity has come into play would be Rod Stewart's Maggie May which for its first fortnight of release was most definitely the B side to Reason To Believe. Excellent though Reason To Believe is, Maggie May has been given that entire chart run, with Reason To Believe only getting an individual 3 week run in the 90's (In the 'States it was a double A side). More commonplace are AA sides where the second track is somewhat more obscure. How many people know the tune to Girls School, the AA side to Mull of Kintyre (The first single to sell 2 million!)? Whatever, one track, normally the 'lead track' (EG Too Much Too Young) is given the chart status. Occasionally the second listed track may be given the status and the lead side 'demoted' (eg Tragedy, IMHO was always more popular than the awesome Heartbeat by Steps, and has therefore been credited as the number one)

Re-releases and remixes

Unusual characters

Most characters are allowed in tags, but colons, slashes and question marks are not allowed in file names so substitute them (in file names) with a hyphen "-" eg, what should be J.A.L.N. Band - Disco Music/I Like it becomes J.A.L.N. Band - Disco Music-I Like it. Another example would be Why? Becomes Why-. N.B. The tags remain with these characters, it is just the MP3 file names that change.

Accents stay eg Beyoncé

A full stop is unavoidable in that the GBBHS lists many acts with the full stops, e.g. A.B.'s and A.D.A.M. featuring Amy. JJ Barrie becomes J.J. Barrie for me, contrary to the GBBHS listing, as any abbreviation should be followed by the stop.

Duplicate tracks

This is all a matter of personal choice, but from a personal perspective I will keep duplicate tracks in separate folders if they fulfill the following criterium. If a track is part of an album, but has been released as a single or is a significant track in its own right I will keep one copy in its album folder and one copy in my singles folder (see 'Album' below). Otherwise I despise duplicate tracks.

How and what to tag

Step One: Get a tag editor. I suppose there are stacks of these available, but I would heartily recommend "Tag Scanner" it is brilliant and free! Go to http://www.xdlab.ru/en/download.htm. I used to use Magnus Brading's free software. I did send him some cash once, and you can do the same, but the banner version is fine. Go to: Magnus Brading's Tag Editor.

Once you have a tag editor, and some MP3s you are in business. I would say that the 'Title' and 'Artist' tags are absolutely vital. The rest are optional, but I will list my preferential use for them. I am interested in the following ones:

The Critical Tags