Windows Media Player advanced editing

There is a metadata container spec called ID3 (v1 and v2) that is embedded within the mp3 file. Sometimes players will create metadata in other places for various reasons (container constraints, vendor lock in).

Thanks Robert. I don't understand why a field as basic as 'Year' isn't written to the file. If change it by right clicking - properties the change is written but through WMP the change isn't written to the file, it's like it's stored in a separate datastore and if you move the file the the link to metadata is broken. Weird. These files are not DRM protected or read only.

Maybe there's a better tool than WMP (but I do like it's built in filters and speedy searching (another reason I suspect there's a separate datastore).

Nothing is basic when it comes to metadata. Is that year written, year first published? To be fair to Microsoft, the metadata for music has always been a mess and the existing protocols are not very good. They are kind of like a hack into the original mp3 specs, and have very small limits before they render the mp3 unplayable in some players.

In any case, you apparently know how to do it from Windows Explorer, and can "open containing folder" from WMP to get there quickly, it sucks but works.

Here's a tool that looks like it would be easier than using the default shell options:

http://mp3tag.de/en/

Thanks again Rob - but the metadata options in WMP don't map to what's available via Windows Explorer. But it makes sense if the standards aren't really set. I guess it means I maintain my own metadata separately. Lucky I've got cataloguing genes.