ID3

ID3 is the name of the Métadonnées which can be inserted in a file audio such as for example MP3. These metadata make it possible to have information on the contents of the file as the title, the name of the interpreter, or the coming out date.

Versions

ID3 is declined in several versions:

ID3

ID3 (also called ID3v1) is the first version. It was conceived by Eric Kemp in 1996 and became de facto a Standard. The first software managing metadata ID3 is Studio3 , developed by Eric Kemp.

It consists of a space of 128 Octet S placed at the end of the file. The first 3 bytes start with the chain “TAG”, that makes it possible to find the beginning of information by readers MP3. The remainder of the bytes is divided between the various fields of information. The character strings must be coded in ISO 8859-1, only the characters of the Latin alphabet can thus be used.

Musical genres

Different the kind musical is defined by a numerical value from 0 to 79. The software Winamp extended this list up to 147.

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ID3v1.1

ID3v1.1 is an extension of the original version. It was created by Michael Mutschler in 1997. It consists of the addition of a field for the number of the track. The bytes used by this field were taken on the field reserved for the comments. In this manner, the length of 128 bytes for tag ID3 is preserved and remains compatible with the former audio readers.

ID3v2

The limitations of ID3v1, as well in the variety of information as in the face of each label, encouraged several developers to seek a more flexible solution. ID3v2 is thus a version bringing much changes. She added a certain number of fields of information to integrate the words into it and even images. Contrary to version 1, information is placed at the beginning of the file and the size of tags ID3 is variable. ID3v2 supports the characters Unicode.

The ID3v2 labels thus make it possible to store almost any type of information and in particular:

words of the song, even of the Karaoké
the small pocket of the album,
the author,
the type-setter,
the leader,
etc

External bonds

the official site of ID3
Presentation of ID3 and ID3v1.1
Presentation of ID3v2

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