Compare the top apps for editing information on your music files
If you're having trouble organizing or sorting your music library, or some of your tracks have incorrect or missing song data or artwork - you'll likely want to edit your music tags to rectify these issues.
What is a Tag in your MP3, MP4 and other music files?
‘Tags’ on your music files is a term used to describe the ‘metadata’ of the track. In your MP3 and MP4 files, your music tags will be contained in an ID3 metadata container. This metadata container includes essentially all the information about the music file. This includes the Artist tag which denotes which artist produced the track, as well as the track title, track number, album and genre which lets you know what genre of music the track belongs to.
Why would you want to edit your music tags?
If your music has incorrect or incomplete information, it can make organizing your music library very difficult and cumbersome. You may wish to sort your tracks by date – however, the order of tracks will not be accurate if the date tags on your tracks are wrong or missing!
Most music media players allow you to edit tags to a certain degree, however, you’ll need a tag editor app to efficiently manage large libraries or batches of music files.
Music Tagging apps
We’ve researched and tested the best music tagging software on the market in 2024, to compile a list of the very best ones for you.
For each app, we’ll present some key information like how much it costs, what kind of computer the app can be run on and what music file types you can edit. Then at the end of the article, we’ll directly compare all the apps so you can see their features and pros/cons. This will help you make an informed decision about which app is best for you.
Quick jump to any of the 5 Music Tagging apps reviewed:
Option 1: Music Tag (Recommended)
Our recommended solution comes first - Music Tag. Overall, for the purpose of editing music tags on Windows and Mac, this handy app comes out on top.
It's got everything you need to take full control of your music files and reclaim your library!
- Price: Free (Automatic music tagging in premium upgrade).
- Available for: Windows, Mac.
- File Support: MP3, MP4, AAC, WMA, FLAC.
Overview: Music Tag's biggest pull is how easy it is to use. Many tagging apps can be very complicated and require prior knowledge or some practice to get a hang of - however whether you're a novice or a pro, you can jump straight into Music Tag.
Manual edits are easy - simply drag the music you want to tag into Music Tag, click the field you want to change and enter the information you need.
The best thing, however, is how Music Tag uses some advanced digital fingerprinting magic to identify your songs, even those with no track data! With a click of a button, Music Tag will use its database of more than 35 million tracks to cleverly match your tracks with those in the database to retrieve the missing song information and/or artwork!
Extra features we like are that you can create your own tags, and upload your own artwork, or choose the ones downloaded by Music Tag.
Summary (Music Tag):
✔ Automatic tagging
✔ Manual tagging
✔ Fast & Efficient
✔ Easy to use
Option 2: MP3Tag
Despite the name of the app, MP3Tag (like most other apps in this guide) doesn't only support MP3, but a variety of other file types.
- Price: Free.
- Available for: Windows, Mac.
- File Support: MP3, MP4, AAC, WMA, FLAC, etc.
Overview: MP3Tag is a comprehensive app which offers a whole host of tools for users to edit their music files. As well as the ability to manually edit tags and import tags from online; MP3Tag also offers some cool extras like the ability to create playlists and even rename the music files themselves from the metadata available on the file.
Although more features will be great for more experienced users, it can be very daunting for less experienced users. Further to this, the interface is full of buttons, so it can be difficult to find where to go to accomplish your desired task.
Summary (MP3Tag):
✔ Automatic tagging
✔ Manual tagging
✔ Feature-rich
Option 3: MusicBrainz Picard
- Price: Free.
- Available for: Windows, Mac, Linux.
- File Support: MP3, MP4, AAC, WMA, FLAC, etc.
Overview: MusicBrainz Picard is a great-looking app which is clearly designed to make the tagging process as intuitive as possible for the user. It has all the tools you need to manually tag your music, but it really excels at downloading tags online. There are 3 different options you can use to give you the best chance of locating the right tracks to import tags from: Lookup (using existing metadata on the file), Scan (using the track's digital fingerprint), or look up the track using the MusicBrainz website.
The only drawback I would mention is that the app seems to push the grouping (or 'clustering') of tracks into albums or artists before tagging them. This could be great for some but may put others off as an unnecessary step.
Summary (MusicBrainz Picard):
✔ Excellent automatic tagging
✔ Manual tagging
✔ Intuitive interface
Option 4: TagScanner
- Price: Free.
- Available for: Windows.
- File Support: MP3, MP4, AAC, WMA, FLAC, etc.
Overview: TagScanner is a free app with all the features you could need from a music tagger. You can easily add your tracks to the app and download tag information for them using a selection of online databases. TagScanner also provides cool extra features like a built-in music player, and the ability to create playlists and renaming files based on their tag information.
Where a plethora of tools may be desirable for more experienced users, newer users may find the sheer number of tools presented on the somewhat cluttered interface daunting.
Summary (TagScanner):
✔ Download tags from a choice of databases
✔ Manual tagging
✔ Built-in music player
Option 5: MediaMonkey
- Price: Free (Premium upgrade available).
- Available for: Windows 10, Android.
- File Support: MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC, MPC, APE, WAV
Overview: MediaMonkey is a modern-looking app with a clean interface. It allows you to automatically tag tracks in your music library and organize it by renaming files based on their metadata, downloading album artwork and even importing lyrics. Based on the interface, you could even use MediaMonkey as your chosen media player - however the focus on playing music means that the options to tag music are hidden away in other menus, so tagging seems to be a secondary feature in this app.
You can get basic functionality like playing tracks and manually tagging free, but you'll need to upgrade to the premium version in order to access much of the automatic tagging functionality and other advanced tools.
Summary (MediaMonkey):
✔ Built-in media player
✔ Manual tagging
✔ Download tags automatically with the premium version
A summary of the features of the top music taggers:
Features | Music Tag | MP3Tag | MusicBrainz Picard | TagScanner | MediaMonkey |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
OS support | Windows, Mac | Windows, Mac | Windows, Mac, Linux | Windows | Windows 10, Android |
Manual tag editing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Automatic tag editing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Download album artwork | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Extra features | Built-in Media player | N/A | N/A | Import lyrics, Built-in Media player | Import lyrics, Built-in Media player |
Ease of use | 10/10 | 7/10 | 8/10 | 7/10 | 8/10 |
Scripts and Plugins | N/A | Scripting features | Scripting and Plugins | N/A | Scripting and Plugins |
Online Support | Customer support and online guide | Online guide | Online guide | No support or online guide | Customer support and online guide |
Cost | Free (Premium version $20.00) | PC version Free / Mac version $20 | Free | Free | Free (Premium version $24.95/$49.95) |
Conclusion
As you can see, choosing a music tagger app is very much dependent on your specific needs. In this article, we've had a look at 5 of the best MP3 Tag Editors for Windows and Mac, of which there are loads more. We handpicked these 5 programs to help in your search, and from this investigation, you should have the information you need to choose the right app for you.
Overall, we would recommend Music Tag for people whose goal is to quickly and easily tag their music library without having to tackle a steep learning curve. In contrast, more experienced people who wish to perform more advanced edits to their metadata may prefer an option like MusicBrainz Picard or MediaMonkey.
Whichever app you choose, we wish you luck in tidying up your music library!