ID3 TagRunner: Fair ID3 tagging is fair MP3 management

Why tagging? It would be verbiage to expatiate about the popularity of MP3 since almost every tot knows what it is. Therefore a large MP3 archive on our PC is everyday occurrence. And whoever has already converted some of his CDs to MP3 knows how annoying the naming of the MP3 files is, especially if a number of unnamed MP3 files which has to be tagged are measured in hundreds and thousands.

Without reasonable doubt, a user may leave his unnamed audio files as "Unknown Artist - Untitled" or "Various Artists – Track 1" but it is evident that music lovers and true music connoisseurs would not be satisfied with that.

MP3 tag ID3 TagRunner 1.4 is designed for automatic searching, adding, editing and completing of songs lyrics, album covers and ID3 tags for MP3, WMA or OGG music files.

What is ID3?
Especially for above-mentioned purpose an ID3 tag for the audio format MPEG layer I, II and III (widely known as MP3) was invented. For the first time it was implemented by adding a small chunk of extra data in the end of the MP3 file to carry information about the audio and not just the audio itself with the program "Studio3" by Eric Kemp in 1996.

It was ID3 v.1 which could carry song title, artist and album names, year, comment and genre. Unfortunately, the length of song title, artist and album names were restricted only by 30 characters, which encouraged further development of ID3.

The new ID3 tag is named ID3v.2 that lets you put enriching and relevant information about your audio files within them. It is very flexible and expandable tag due to its structure. It allows you to enter audio information in almost any language and you'll probably never again be in the same situation as when you tried to write a useful comment in the ID3v.1 being limited to 30 characters.

MP3 tag ID3 TagRunner 1.4 in action
I was wondering what a tag editor should be. There are a lot of programs to manage ID3 tags of MP3 files and there are a number of functions they are told to support, but this utility incorporates usability, quickness and easiness.

Right away after launch the program connects to the internet and checks for updates. Hardly released my evaluation copy already downloaded and installed one update so updating support works timely and on-the-fly.

Then a simple window appears. The application proposes to choose MP3 files or folders with MP3 files to find lyrics or album cover for, and edit ID3 Tag.

The button “Tagging Options…” allows you to specify some options concerning automatic web search of tags, lyrics and album covers. You can exclude or include some of them to optimize your search and tagging or simply to save time (by excluding, for example, the album cover search).

Right below the option "Copy Files” enables you to leave the original files as they are and apply search results only to copies of the original music files.

The field “Estimation” shows you and approximate time to complete a current task. Processing a great number of audio files using dialup modem internet connection could take a plenty of time so dsl/cable or other fast connection is preferable.

In the bottom of the window you can see four functional buttons referred to basic program actions: pressing the “Tag Automatically” starts the automatic search, processing and adding of tags, lyrics and album covers. As distinct from “Tag Automatically” you can launch the embedded tag editor to add new or edit existing ID3 tag of audio files by pressing the button “Edit Manually”. And functions of buttons “Quit TagRunner” and “Help” are understandable without details.

Run the process
After you start file processing the The Progress dialog appears. It is very convenient to observe overall progress as it is presented in that window. It divided into five steps:
“Step 1: Read files from disk” shows you the read process and reports if any read problem took place.

“Step 2: Complete the basic tags” indicates the searching of tags in the free web databases, informing the status of processed files and current web server in use.

“Step 3: Add cover picture” and “Step 4: Complete lyrics” correspond to previous with regard to cover pictures or lyrics correspondingly.

“Step 5: Write back tags to files” shows you the write process and reports if any read problem took place. It usually takes just a moment as well as “Step 1: Read files from disk”.

After everything is complete you will be referenced to the final window with results of tag, lyrics and album covers processing where you can edit aforesaid values. Found lyrics, album covers and completed tags are displayed here.

So MP3 tag ID3 TagRunner 1.4 is a powerful and yet easy-to-use tool, optimized for great music archives, to edit, find and complete automatically ID3 tags, lyrics and album covers from more than 10 web sources. In addition the program has a very pleasant interface and it's also intuitive to use. That's important, especially for newer users. I looked at every feature and overall I have to say you've done a beautiful piece of programming. Good stuff.


Related Links:

• Download MP3 tag ID3 TagRunner.
• Go back to category MP3 & Audio to read more reviews and articles.
• Go back to Software Magazine's main page.