Best Free MP3 Tag Editor

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Last updated by Jojo Yee on 25. November 2020 - 11:59

 

Introduction

MP3 has become the most common audio format for playback, storage and transfer of music. If we need to playback MP3 files with their tag information shown correctly, or to organize a large collection of MP3 files based on their tag information, a good MP3 tag editor will be helpful.

In this category, both standalone tag editors and built-in tag editors are reviewed based on three basic needs which include:

  • Support basic tags, embedded cover arts and lyrics.
  • Rename files using tag information, and edit tags using file names.
  • Lookup online databases and save tags into MP3 files.

 

Best Free MP3 Tag Editor - Standalone

TagScanner  

A Powerful Tool to Organize Your Music Collection with Tags

Our Rating: 
5
License: Free
Support basic and extended tags, complete with Music Renamer and Tag Processor. Preview tags and cover arts from online database before saving.
Does not support viewing and editing synced lyrics.
Read full review...

Mp3tag  

A powerful and easy-to-use tool to edit tags of MP3 files in a simple and clean design

Our Rating: 
5
License: Free
Simple and clean design, show up existing tags with add and delete functions, customizable front panel, import and export tags, create playlists, online database lookups.
Does not support viewing and editing synced lyrics; lyrics column can be added in front panel with a multi-line option, but restricted to 6 lines and not extensible.
Read full review...

Kid3  

Supports editing all tags in MP3 files across multiple platforms

Our Rating: 
4
License: Free (Open source)
Edit all tags, support unsynced and synced lyrics, generate tags from files or vice versa, import tags from databases, browse cover arts and lyrics from online resources, drag and drop cover art to a file, export tags, etc.
Lacking a column view of tags for multiple files in a folder.
Read full review...

MusicBrainz Picard  

A cross-platform music tagger using audio fingerprints to identify track information

Our Rating: 
4
License: Free (Open source)
Runs on multi platforms, identify track info by matching digital thumbprint with MusicBrainz database, show up existing tags with add and delete functions.
Cover arts not allowed to edit except updating from database.
Read full review...

MPTagThat  

A feature rich tag editor offers tag editing, audio playback, ripping, converting and burning music files.

Our Rating: 
4
License: Free (Open source)
Auto tag of lyrics and cover arts from Internet, auto tag from file names, organize and rename files, case conversion, remove tags, execute scripts, etc.
Still under active development and subject to occasional handling errors.
Read full review...

MetatOGGer  

Make music tagging more user-friendly with workspaces

Our Rating: 
3.5
License: Free
Configurable workspaces, tagging from scripts, filename and online database. Search for cover and lyrics, etc.
Supports for one cover art per file, searching tags from Database found not stable.
Read full review...

The GodFather  

A tag editor with a built-in library to organise MP3 files based on tag info.

Our Rating: 
3
License: Free
Edit and show up to 4 pictures per album, search lyrics using Google, auto tag via online database.
Less successful search of tag info from Amazon. No Unicode support.
Read full review...

Best Free MP3 Tag Editor - Built-in

MusicBee Built-in Tag Editor  

A built-in music tagger as good as a standalone tag editor.

Our Rating: 
5
License: Free
Auto tag by albums or tracks; look up album arts, lyrics and other tags from the web and save them into files; supports multiple images, unsynced and synced lyrics.
Tag editor must run with the player.
Read full review...

MediaMonkey Built-in Tag Editor  

A music player with a built-in tag editor meeting the basic needs.


Our Rating: 
4
License: Free (Limited features)
A player with a powerful built-in tag editor, user friendly, support basic and detailed tag info, auto tags from online database.
Auto tags from database is less powerful when compared to TagScanner.
Read full review...

AudioShell  

View and edit tag information directly in Windows Explorer.

Our Rating: 
3
License: Free
A Windows Explorer shell extension, adds may columns to show tags in Explorer, editing basic tags, lyrics and album arts are allowed.
No auto tag from online database.
Read full review...

Other Tag Editors

These are other MP3 tag editors which were brought up in comments here or noted from other sources. As they are not rated in this review, I am listing them here with brief descriptions and links to their sites for ease of reference.

  • Mp3nity, a tag editor with a built-in player supports for editing various tag fields including lyrics and pictures, mass tag editing, renaming, etc. Finding album art and lyrics online and other advanced features are restricted to the paid premium version. Tags in unicode encountered errors when tested.
  • MP3 Book Helper allows file renaming and tags editing by variables or regular expressions. Pictures and lyrics are to be viewed on separate windows with a search linked to Allmusic or Google on a browser. A lyrics search directs you to a Google search page related to the selected file, but a search on freedb database for tag info gets fewer matches than other short listed tag editors.
  • ID3-TagIT supports quite a number of tag info, including lyrics and multiple pictures for album arts. It also supports freedb database but experiences a low rate of getting a successful match and occasionally subjects to 'unhandled exception' errors. Lyrics are shown without line breaks for some MP3 files.
  • EasyTag is a cross-platform tag editor for ID3 tags of different audio files, using a GTK+ interface. No support for Lyrics tag is noted.
  • Mp3 Tag Tools is a small program allowing you to edit basic tags and lyrics, embed multiple images of album arts into MP3 files, but with regret, it does not support fixing of tags from online databases, one of the basic needs in this review.
  • Jaangle (formerly Teen Spirit) is a music player and organizer with a built-in tagger. Its Google Lyrics is powerful in automatically searching the lyrics, but writing them to the file is still buggy as it will white-out the album art in the file as checked from other tag editors. Besides, other tag editing features are not better than MediaMonkey.
  • Zortam Mp3 Media Studio is a multi-purpose MP3 organizer with a built-in tag editor. It allows editing tags including lyrics and multiple pictures, and provides online updating of tags via Amazon. However, unlimited online access to Zortam Music Database for lyrics and cover arts, together with some other basic editing features, are only available to the commercial Pro version.
  • Abyssmedia ID3 Tag Editor, offers features for editing very basic tags without lyrics and art covers. No online lookups for tags info are supported.
  • The Crab searches your music data sources from Amazon or Discogs based on music albums only. You can edit basic tags and art cover, but not lyrics and other tags.

 

Related Products and Links

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Editor

This category is maintained by volunteer editor Jojo Yee. Registered members can contact the editor with comments or suggestions by clicking here. You can visit the Google+ profile page of Jojo Yee here.

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Comments

Strange to see you did not mention taghycardia (https://taghycardia.info), a free automated mp3 tag fixer app. As for me, when it comes to getting cover art for a batch of mp3 albums at once, or removing the embedding images, this one is really the easiest.

Hi,
I guess that many of these softwares are good for a Normal tagging. But what about Private tagging?
For further discussion, see...
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/best-free-music-players-and-organizers.htm#comment-125555

You stated for Kid3 in your review.
"There is no portable version of this product available."

Please be informed that Kid3 now has a portable version 3.0.1 available for download.

For Portable Tag Editor Check Out --> http://sourceforge.net/projects/idteid3tagedito/.It's Open Source Tag Editor which supports tagging and Playback of FLAC,APE,ID3V1.x/2.x,WAV CHUNKS,WMA,MP4 ATOMS,LYRICS,VORBIS Tags.

Thanks ricohflex for the info. It has now been updated.

Thanks very much for the helpful guide! I'd really like to know which of these makes it easiest to type in track titles--I really don't want to be reaching back and forth to the mouse, right-clicking to edit, etc, while I enter lots of track titles. Do you have any info on this? Thanks!

Thanks for your kind words Konnichiwa_1. Both TagScanner and Mp3tag support the column view which allows you to edit track titles consecutively without the need to reach back and forth to the mouse. In Mp3tag, after editing the title of the first track, pressing the Enter key brings you to the title of the next track ready for typing in. In TagScanner, pressing the Tab key instead of the Enter key serves the same purpose. Hope this helps.

Thanks a bunch for the feedback. I used MP3tag quite easily.

I like the TagScanner though it has not such clean windows explorer interface like Mp3Tag but has many features in easy to use form.

Thanks for advice and your review.