ID3 tags are information fields contained within the MP3 data that contain information about the MP3 such as who the artist is, what album the track came from, and so on.
Editors allow you to view and edit this information.
[dj@megajukebox]$ id3ed id3ed v1.10 - mpeg layer 3 file information editor Usage: id3ed [-s songname] [-n artist] [-a album] [-y year] [-c comment] [-k tracknum] [-g genre] [-q] [-SNAYCKG] [-l/-L] [-r] [-i] <mp3files> [-v] -q no line interface; only set tags specified on command line. Use twice to suppress all output except errors. -SNAYCKG prompt to edit the specified tags only Other tags can still be set with the -[snaycg] options. -l/-L display list of genres -r remove id3 tag from files -i show current id3 tag only, don't edit -v output program version/license
[dj@megajukebox MyBand]$ id3ed track01.mp3 File track01.mp3: (tag v1.1) songname[max:30]: Our Kick Ass Demo artist[max:30]: Us album[max:30]: White Album year[max:4]: 1999 comment[max:28]: Will be a classic some day! tracknum[max:3]: 1 genre[0-255/name]: 5
If we now want to see the Id info we run id3ed with the -i flag, like so:
[dj@megajukebox MyBand]$ id3ed -i track01.mp3 track01.mp3: (tag v1.1) songname: Our Kick Ass Demo artist: Us album: White Album year: 1999 comment: Will be a classic some day! tracknum: 1 genre: Funk(5)
MP3info works in a similar manner to id3ed, here is a snippet from it's man pages:
SYNOPSIS mp3info [ -option < value > ] filename[s]... DESCRIPTION This is a small tool to get and set MP3 information. OPTIONS -T Do NOT get TAG Info. Use on slowseeking media, since TAG is at the very end of the file. -s <0/1> Print info. Pretty much obsolete, as it always should be on. Defaults 1. -f <format> Format of printed string. See README for details. -F <Formatnumber> Predefined format of printed string. Try it out. -w Write TAG Info. Will write a TAG at the end of the file. -W Wipe TAG Info. Will wipe clean TAG Info. Overrides all other TAG Options, and turns -s off. To both wipe tag and display info, use -W -s 1 -n <name> Set song title. Implies -w. Will go away soon, use -t instead. -t <name> Set song title. Alias for -n. Implies -w. -a <artist> Set name of artist. Implies -w. -l <album> Set album name. Implies -w. -y <year> Sets published year. Implies -w. -c <comment> Sets comment. Implies -w. -g <genre> Set genre number. Implies -w. -G <genrename> Set genre by name. Implies -w.
ID3 uses a code to refer to the genre, here is the code listing [info taken from http://www.id3.org/id3v2-00.txt].
The following genres are defined in ID3v1 0.Blues 1.Classic Rock 2.Country 3.Dance 4.Disco 5.Funk 6.Grunge 7.Hip-Hop 8.Jazz 9.Metal 10.New Age 11.Oldies 12.Other 13.Pop 14.R&B 15.Rap 16.Reggae 17.Rock 18.Techno 19.Industrial 20.Alternative 21.Ska 22.Death Metal 23.Pranks 24.Soundtrack 25.Euro-Techno 26.Ambient 27.Trip-Hop 28.Vocal 29.Jazz+Funk 30.Fusion 31.Trance 32.Classical 33.Instrumental 34.Acid 35.House 36.Game 37.Sound Clip 38.Gospel 39.Noise 40.AlternRock 41.Bass 42.Soul 43.Punk 44.Space 45.Meditative 46.Instrumental Pop 47.Instrumental Rock 48.Ethnic 49.Gothic 50.Darkwave 51.Techno-Industrial 52.Electronic 53.Pop-Folk 54.Eurodance 55.Dream 56.Southern Rock 57.Comedy 58.Cult 59.Gangsta 60.Top 40 61.Christian Rap 62.Pop/Funk 63.Jungle 64.Native American 65.Cabaret 66.New Wave 67.Psychadelic 68.Rave 69.Showtunes 70.Trailer 71.Lo-Fi 72.Tribal 73.Acid Punk 74.Acid Jazz 75.Polka 76.Retro 77.Musical 78.Rock & Roll 79.Hard Rock The following genres are Winamp extensions 80.Folk 81.Folk-Rock 82.National Folk 83.Swing 84.Fast Fusion 85.Bebob 86.Latin 87.Revival 88.Celtic 89.Bluegrass 90.Avantgarde 91.Gothic Rock 92.Progressive Rock 93.Psychedelic Rock 94.Symphonic Rock 95.Slow Rock 96.Big Band 97.Chorus 98.Easy Listening 99.Acoustic 100.Humour 101.Speech 102.Chanson 103.Opera 104.Chamber Music 105.Sonata 106.Symphony 107.Booty Bass 108.Primus 109.Porn Groove 110.Satire 111.Slow Jam 112.Club 113.Tango 114.Samba 115.Folklore 116.Ballad 117.Power Ballad 118.Rhythmic Soul 119.Freestyle 120.Duet 121.Punk Rock 122.Drum Solo 123.A capella 124.Euro-House 125.Dance Hall