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PC Integration WD044-1-1
2/24/2005
6325 Digital Way Indianapolis, IN 46278 317.616.6789 phone 317.616.6790 fax www.escient.com
ID3 Tags and the PC
What is an ID3 Tag?
When MP3s became popular in late 1996, people started wondering if there would be a
solution for the lack of information in audio tracks stored in MP3 format. Basically the problem
was that even most advanced rippers who distributed audio tracks in MP3 format, included the
information about album, track name, etc inside the filename. Since some people then
renamed the files as something else that didn't provide the same quality of information
anymore, ID3 was born.
An ID3 tag is a small piece of information stored physically inside the MP3 file (in the beginning
or in the end of the file, depends on ID3's version). ID3 tags (as the pieces of information that
ID3s contain are called) can contain various information about the MP3, like album name, song
name, artist, original artist, genre, composer, releasing year, additional comment fields, cover
art etc.. Nowadays ID3s are de facto in audio world and they can be added to most of the
audio formats and even to certain video formats in order to provide additional information of
the file. FireBall uses ID3 tags to store information about MP3 and FLAC files which are
recorded or ripped into FireBall.